Kinda long (oops), but read it anyway. 
Friday night I went out and met up with some friends, luck would have it that the notoriously quick Lightning I've been wanting to run was out there wanting to run someone. His best run at the strip was a 12.3 I believe, damn fast truck. He had his ET streets on the back, so no complete AWD raping for me.
I was running 22 psi on pump gas (93). My mods are in my profile. Unfortunately, I haven't got around to installing my ACT 2600 and Fidanza flywheel yet, so I'm still running the STOCK clutch that has about 150 launches on it, so needless to say, I can't launch as good as I would. I try to launch at lower RPM's and dump it a little faster so it won't go up in smoke.
We lined up the first time and my dumbass decided to try using anti-lag (DSMlink) off the line, and it was popping so loud I couldn't hear him honk, so I let off, heard a honk, got back into it, then he took off. DOH! Of course I bogged, then it was all over.
The second time I decided to just use the two-step, and all was well. We took off on the third honk, I got a decent launch (kinda bogged though) and of course he just lit em up. I was pretty far ahead when I hit third, then my car started bucking and popping and not wanting to accelerate much, I kept into it but not as much, through the rest of third and beginning of fourth, and I still held him off until my turbo timer said 12.5 seconds for the 1/4 mile. (Consistently measures .2 sec fast so say 12.7), at like 100 mph.
He wanted to go again, and figuring it was just unusually bad knock the last time (it was), I said okay. I bogged a little more this time, he hooked good, I only put about 3/4 car on him on that launch. I hit second, popping starts again so I let off. We got back to the parking lot, I checked the DSMlink log, 9.9 degrees of knock retard (about 30 counts). I hear a shitty vacuum sound coming from my engine bay. Hmm, pop the hood and found that a wastegate hose popped off. I hadn't zip tied it before. That night was done.
Fast forward to Saturday. Eagerly awaiting a good rematch, I ziptied all the WG hoses, pulled out my sub, rear seats, tools, hatch cover, and misc. crap, went to Walmart and bought a 5 gallon gas can, filled it up with Sunoco 110 then dumped it into my tank of about 2 gallons of 93, and turned up the boost to 23 psi Got some tuning done before the night came, and it was running better than EVER. They weren't joking when they said race gas is DSM crack. 20.5 degrees of timing at 7500 rpm, calculated 11:1 AFR, 23 psi, and the normal .4-.7 degrees of knock retard (1-2 counts) that it has no matter what.
Unfortunately, the guy with the Lightning got stuck at work that night. Maybe next time. Not wanting to waste $18 in race gas, I was looking for another fast car to race. My friend knows several domestic guys that hang out at this one spot, so we go there. After BSing for a while, a 2001 bolt-on T/A (ram air, lid, headers, catback, stall converter in the auto, suspension work to hook, drag radials, gutted rear interior, battery relocation to the trunk, among the little things he probably didn't mention) wants to race my friend's '97 GSX (about 250 awhp now I think). This T/A ran a 12.5 the day before, in the very same trim. My friend says "Okay, then you can line up with him." (me). We agree, and we're off, along with a 2000+ Camaro SS convertible following. GSX and T/A line up, they go, GSX jumps ahead, then the T/A pulled back and passed him pretty good.
Now we line up. I'm still using the two step, now set at 5250 (stock clutch remember?). I still let out the clutch too fast, so I bog, he spins, but I had him off the line pretty good anyway. Second gear comes up, where is it? DOH! I missed it twice, as he is FLYING past me, before finally finding it and spooling again, then he quits pulling away. Now he's about 2 cars ahead, I hit third, less than 1 car ahead, fourth gear, I think I past him at about 100, and I let off around 115 with him about 3/4 of a car behind. Not too bad for missing second twice I think.
We stopped again, everyone is telling me that my clutch STINKS (yep, it's slipping, lol), and I can tell that he's not happy about the race, hehe. His brother was there and told me he's building a '90 GSX, and said that he (the T/A owner) said that an import will never beat him.
He said "I spun off the line real bad", so I said "I bogged, then missed second twice, so we're even". (hehe) He was cool about it, I could just tell he wasn't happy.
Now the convertible SS owner says "I want a crack at the Talon". He told me he's ran a 12.3 in his SS (LS6 cam, drag radials, other minor bolt on's, but not much more). I'm cool with that so we go line up. I tried to slip the clutch a tiny bit more so I won't bog, and the revs just jump to the 7750 limiter like it's in neutral. Usually it'll grab in second, so I tried, again, jumps to the limiter like it's in neutral. I just let off and eased into the parking lot then said "Yep, my clutch is done." Everyone behind said that a horrible cloud of clutch-smoke spewed from my car, and was burning their eyes, hehe. Well I guess it's time to install that ACT 2600 and flywheel now, huh?
Friday night I went out and met up with some friends, luck would have it that the notoriously quick Lightning I've been wanting to run was out there wanting to run someone.
His best run at the strip was a 12.3 I believe, damn fast truck. He had his ET streets on the back, so no complete AWD raping for me. I was running 22 psi on pump gas (93). My mods are in my profile. Unfortunately, I haven't got around to installing my ACT 2600 and Fidanza flywheel yet, so I'm still running the STOCK clutch that has about 150 launches on it, so needless to say, I can't launch as good as I would.
I try to launch at lower RPM's and dump it a little faster so it won't go up in smoke.We lined up the first time and my dumbass decided to try using anti-lag (DSMlink) off the line, and it was popping so loud I couldn't hear him honk, so I let off, heard a honk, got back into it, then he took off. DOH! Of course I bogged, then it was all over.
The second time I decided to just use the two-step, and all was well. We took off on the third honk, I got a decent launch (kinda bogged though) and of course he just lit em up. I was pretty far ahead when I hit third, then my car started bucking and popping and not wanting to accelerate much, I kept into it but not as much, through the rest of third and beginning of fourth, and I still held him off until my turbo timer said 12.5 seconds for the 1/4 mile. (Consistently measures .2 sec fast so say 12.7), at like 100 mph.
He wanted to go again, and figuring it was just unusually bad knock the last time (it was), I said okay. I bogged a little more this time, he hooked good, I only put about 3/4 car on him on that launch. I hit second, popping starts again so I let off. We got back to the parking lot, I checked the DSMlink log, 9.9 degrees of knock retard (about 30 counts).
I hear a shitty vacuum sound coming from my engine bay. Hmm, pop the hood and found that a wastegate hose popped off. I hadn't zip tied it before. That night was done.Fast forward to Saturday. Eagerly awaiting a good rematch, I ziptied all the WG hoses, pulled out my sub, rear seats, tools, hatch cover, and misc. crap, went to Walmart and bought a 5 gallon gas can, filled it up with Sunoco 110 then dumped it into my tank of about 2 gallons of 93, and turned up the boost to 23 psi
Got some tuning done before the night came, and it was running better than EVER. They weren't joking when they said race gas is DSM crack. 20.5 degrees of timing at 7500 rpm, calculated 11:1 AFR, 23 psi, and the normal .4-.7 degrees of knock retard (1-2 counts) that it has no matter what. Unfortunately, the guy with the Lightning got stuck at work that night.
Maybe next time. Not wanting to waste $18 in race gas, I was looking for another fast car to race. My friend knows several domestic guys that hang out at this one spot, so we go there. After BSing for a while, a 2001 bolt-on T/A (ram air, lid, headers, catback, stall converter in the auto, suspension work to hook, drag radials, gutted rear interior, battery relocation to the trunk, among the little things he probably didn't mention) wants to race my friend's '97 GSX (about 250 awhp now I think). This T/A ran a 12.5 the day before, in the very same trim. My friend says "Okay, then you can line up with him." (me). We agree, and we're off, along with a 2000+ Camaro SS convertible following. GSX and T/A line up, they go, GSX jumps ahead, then the T/A pulled back and passed him pretty good. Now we line up. I'm still using the two step, now set at 5250 (stock clutch remember?). I still let out the clutch too fast, so I bog, he spins, but I had him off the line pretty good anyway. Second gear comes up, where is it? DOH! I missed it twice, as he is FLYING past me, before finally finding it and spooling again, then he quits pulling away. Now he's about 2 cars ahead, I hit third, less than 1 car ahead, fourth gear, I think I past him at about 100, and I let off around 115 with him about 3/4 of a car behind.
Not too bad for missing second twice I think. We stopped again, everyone is telling me that my clutch STINKS (yep, it's slipping, lol), and I can tell that he's not happy about the race, hehe. His brother was there and told me he's building a '90 GSX, and said that he (the T/A owner) said that an import will never beat him.
He said "I spun off the line real bad", so I said "I bogged, then missed second twice, so we're even". (hehe) He was cool about it, I could just tell he wasn't happy.
Now the convertible SS owner says "I want a crack at the Talon". He told me he's ran a 12.3 in his SS (LS6 cam, drag radials, other minor bolt on's, but not much more). I'm cool with that so we go line up. I tried to slip the clutch a tiny bit more so I won't bog, and the revs just jump to the 7750 limiter like it's in neutral. Usually it'll grab in second, so I tried, again, jumps to the limiter like it's in neutral.
I just let off and eased into the parking lot then said "Yep, my clutch is done." Everyone behind said that a horrible cloud of clutch-smoke spewed from my car, and was burning their eyes, hehe. Well I guess it's time to install that ACT 2600 and flywheel now, huh? 
