After owning the L for a year, I FINALLY made my first trip to the drag strip (I know, I know, way too long). Builtfordfast and I made the trip to St. Thomas Dragway. Anyway, my best run was 14.104 @ 98.43 mph. Not the 13's I had hoped for. The ambient temperature was around 88, and humidity was over 80%. The only engine mod I have is the K&N panel filter, which I don't imagine makes any difference.

This was the first time I had ever raced (at the strip anyway ). I had a total of 10 runs. Reaction times varied from a low of .56 sec. to a high of .94 (Asleep at the wheel), but most were in the .6 range.

My 60' times sucked. I just could not get traction, no matter how I experimented with the launch. All were between 2.0xx to 2.1xx. I was on the stock F1's. 50psi in the front and 28 in the rear.

Every one of my 10 runs were between 14.1xx 14.2xx.

The best part was that there was a Dakota 5.9 club there. There were approximately 30 of them. All were in the 15- 16 second range, with the exception of two that were blown with laptops mounted inside. Those two were running 13.8 and 13.3 respectively. The Dodge boys gave us a lot of respect, and I must admit, I saw some really nice trucks. The nicest being the 'Dakuda'- a regular cab 5.9 with AAR 'Cuda stripes down the side.

I must admit, that I have never been particularly interested in modding the truck, and in fact was beginning to lose interest in the L itself. Not anymore. I can't wait to mod and race on a more regular basis- like every weekend. What a blast.

Given the track conditions, were my times decent? How much of an improvement would I see on a low humidity 70 degree day? How much of an improvement would I see with Nitto drag radials or slicks? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Builtfordfast had some excellent runs. I'm sure he'll post as well!

 

redlightspecial, those runs are pretty typical for that temp. I have been at the track twice in the past 3 weeks, and both times the temp was between 88 and 93 degrees and my times were almost identical to yours, including the 60'. I made a run in March of this year when the temp was cooler (think it was 60-70) and I ran a 13.8 @ 102, and that was my very first time to the track. Mt truck is stock except for a MagnaFlow muffler and K&N. I hope to see mid-13s when the weather get cooler.

 

I was hoping the Bullitt GT fuel door would have been good for another 1/10!

 

I forgot to mention... on my last run last Friday, I iced the upper intake for about an hour. I launched the truck the same as I did on the previous run (14.1 ET) but spun all the way through 1st and into 2nd. I let off the gas in 2nd, paused, and then nailed it again. It downshifted back to first and took off like a bat out of hell. Needless to say my 60' time sucked bad, but I caught the IROC-Z that I was racing and ended up running a 14.6 @ 100! I think if I had got a good launch I would have been in the 13s. I was going to try it again, but it started pouring rain

 

I iced the intake for the last two runs. They were made at the hottest time of the day, but were the two quickest. The ice definitely helped. I lost to a modded '86 IROC. He had slicks. I got him out of the hole and had him until mid track. He ran a 13.8. I think I'm going to start looking for some slicks!

 

IMHO, a set of M/T ET Streets(or something comparable) and 16 or 15" wheels is as important as our chips are. In fact, both the tires and the chip brings everything togeather, 1/4 mile-wise.

Dan

 

I've made a deal on a set of 16 x 10 M/T street slicks mounted on ARE Baja wheels. Should have them tomorrow. I'm going to do some more baseline runs this weekend with them, and after that LET THE MODDING BEGIN!!

 

Almost forgot another funny story. There was a young kid there with an '01 regular cab 5.9 Dakota. He was a bit of a geek, but a good guy. It appeared that he was separated from the herd, because he wasn't hanging out with the rest of the Dodge Boys.

Anyway, he wanted to race Buildfordfast in the worst way. When Dave went to make a run, the kid immediately ran to his truck fired it up and headed for the strip. In his eagerness, he forgot about the helmet, lawn chair and toolbox parked in front of his truck. Yup, he ran them over. Took him about 5 minutes to pull it all out from under the truck. The rest of the Dakota boys laughed out loud and pointed. Being a nice guy, I gave him a hand and saved the laughing for later.