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carfixer
05-01-2004, 08:03 PM
It was an interesting night at the track Friday night.

Mel (bootlegger) calls me to say his friend is heading to the test-n-tune at the Immokalee 1/8 mile track to try out the new motor in his '69 Mustang. Instead of taking his '04 MM, he's riding in the truck with him to help him with the 'stang. I convinced my family and a couple of friends to head over to track. I figured I'd have the only MM there that night.

When we get there, we get a number on the my MM and driver wristbands for me and my wife. Mel greets us and says there's another Marauder here and he's running NOS! Got to talking to him and he's never heard of us, we fixed that. I'm sure he will chime in soon. Turns out he's got 3.73 gears, tuner and a 125 HP shot of NOS. He was running 9.2's at 82 MPH with lots of traction problems. My car was running 9.5's at 76 MPH (I like 1/4 better). Says he's run high 13's in Bradenton. Was cool to meet a new Marauder owner and tell them about us.

Here's the interesting part. I ran the car 5 times with a best reaction time (R/T) of .671 on a .500 tree. My wife, who drag raced for the first time about a month ago, kicked my butt on reaction time and everyone else's. She made 7 runs. Here are her RT's:
.549
.412 (red light)
.533
.721
.607
.525
.531
The red light is the only R/T race she lost all night, and she raced some of the big dogs. She is certainly a natural. If we run brackets, I'm letting her drive! It's becoming a family event which is really cool. I encourage everyone to get their significant other get involved. We had a great time.

Another cool thing, the announcers announced the car and driver before every run (we had to put an "A" after our car # so they could announce my wife's name). When our DTR MM came up, he complimented the car by saying "man, that's a nice car. I'd love to have one of those". It was the only car he complimented all night. Real cool.

BillyGman
05-01-2004, 08:21 PM
Nice to gear you had a great time at the track. I know it can be addictive. Maybe it's a good thing that there isn't a dragstrip in my home state. So I only go about twice per year. I've met guys there who are from out of state who say that they race there every week!! They must go through some serious $$$$.

MapleLeafMerc
05-01-2004, 10:52 PM
carfixer, your sig says 14.29 and you mentioned 9.5's, I'm confused!

RCSignals
05-02-2004, 01:30 AM
carfixer, your sig says 14.29 and you mentioned 9.5's, I'm confused!
9.5 @ 1/8 mile track, 14.29@ 1/4 mile track ?

of course his wife's times will be better ;)

Smokie
05-02-2004, 05:40 AM
carfixer, your sig says 14.29 and you mentioned 9.5's, I'm confused!
First congratulations Paula on your excellent and consistent reaction times !!!!! Javier.

Maple in regards to Carfixer's best 1/4 mile of 14.29. I was there, he ran it against me. His 1/8 mile on that run was about 9.2 @ about 78 mph.

About the 9.5's at the 1/8, maybe they had traction issues or were experimenting with launch technique. I assure you Carfixers car can run consistent 14.4's all day long without breaking into a sweat.:up:

BillyGman
05-02-2004, 07:21 AM
You guys have to remember that your 1/8 mile times will always be a considerable amount more than half of your 1/4 mile times. For instance, the last time that i took my car to the track (before it was S/Ced) I ran consistent 13.5's, and my 1/8 mile times were 8.6's. That's due to the fact that when you pass the 1/8 mile mark (that is the halfway point in your quartermile pass) your car is already traveling at 70 to 80 MPH which is a whole lot faster than it will be for the first 60 feet off the starting line.

So your 1/4 mile ET will always be a lot less than double that of the 1/8 mile ET since the second half of the 1/4 mile run will be faster than the first half because you're not beginning that second half from a standstill like you are for the first half.

carfixer
05-02-2004, 08:02 AM
First congratulations Paula on your excellent and consistent reaction times !!!!! Javier.

Maple in regards to Carfixer's best 1/4 mile of 14.29. I was there, he ran it against me. His 1/8 mile on that run was about 9.2 @ about 78 mph.

About the 9.5's at the 1/8, maybe they had traction issues or were experimenting with launch technique. I assure you Carfixers car can run consistent 14.4's all day long without breaking into a sweat.:up:

Javier, Paula thanks you for the nice words :burnout:. She's looking forward to the next Bradenton event to hang out with you guys.

Traction was a bit of an issue. This is a bit of a rinky-dink track. I raced against a couple of ATV's, that's right, 4-wheelers! Also, it was about 80 degrees and very muggy. It was raining on the way to the track but no rain there. So all those make for less than perfect conditions. Regardless, we had a great time.

Billy, the local 1/8th mile track is about 35 miles away but the 1/4 mile track is 110 miles from home. I am not a big fan of 1/8th mile racing, so I suppose it is a good thing the 1/4 mile track is so far away or I would be there every week!