It’s been a while since I posted last, so I thought I would give an update on my progress since last time. Since buying the car 2 years ago now, I have now made a total of 20 or so passes in it, most of them this year. The fastest thing I drove before was a 10.0 second door car, so moving up to a 7 second car took me some time. Last year, high gear only runs netted 8 teens.
After last year, I decided to add a longer wheelie bar to the car (old one was maybe two feet long) and to connect the electric shifter to the rpm activated switch on the ignition box.
This year I spent a lot of time figuring out how to keep dirt and junk out of my nozzles. The tank, when made originally, had holes drilled for the fittings, which were then welded on. The holes weren’t deburred so well and the aluminum shards broke off little by little, and found their way to the nozzles.
I met up earlier in the year with a guy who runs a local club of nostalgia racers, and he invited me to join them for a Labor Day race at Union Grove, so the pressure was on to get my stuff sorted out. The Saturday race was my first time out with everything in order (fuel tank clean, bypass jet close to correct). This was also the first time with someone in the other lane. The first run was 7.78, using low gear, leaving off idle. The car really doesn’t like the leaving off idle stuff, but I was still getting used to the low gear launches. All weekend the car was in the high 7’s, got a lot of compliments and met some really neat people. It was around 90 deg all weekend with really high humidity, but other than sweating a lot it was a great experience.
The winter projects include a new fuel tank, better jack and jack stands to use at the track, and a starter that allow me to put the diaper on so that it doesn’t drag on the ground so much. Next year I’ll be using the transbrake, and playing around with the high speed lean out that I have not used so far.
Driving the dragster is the most fun I’ve had. Ever. I really wished I’d done it years ago, but never trusted my driving abilities, never had enough money, blah blah blah. The dragster is a dream to drive, goes straight and is easy to handle when you lose traction. And it was less expensive to get into this one than it was to build the door car I have.
Tony
