Our "Centex Cool Cars" group has changed its name to "Wacky Racers". Has something to do with unnamed members hitting upwards of 200+ mph on a closed course. The one that has hit 200+ is a 2006 Ford GT. (For those that do not know, this has nothing to do with a Mustang GT. See the third car in line about 10 seconds into this video) <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6QAgR42Viss" frameborder="0"></iframe> My Challenger hit 174 and the Shelby GT500 is supposed to hit 200+. I have not tested its limits yet. At 662 hp, it is about 60 hp higher than the GT but does not have the frontal aerodynamics of the GT. Here is a picture of the "Black Helicopter" group parked in the garage of the Oasis restaurant in Austin at one of our dinners. From left to right: 1998 Viper, 2014 GT500, 2014 Mustang GT, my 2014 GT500, and a 2012 Mustang GTCS. One black 2012 GT500 was missing from this event.
Forgot to mention the reason for bringing up the "Wacky Racers" name. Each member of the club has taken on the name of someone in a movie, TV show, or cartoon related to racing. The guy with the Viper above has chosen Ricky Bobby, of Talladega Nights fame. The guy in the GTCS (also the owner of the Ford GT) has chosen Dick Dastardly from the animated cartoon Wacky Races. I have chosen my favorite character from my favorite Car related movie: My name is Franco Bertollini. Italian race driver Franco Bertollini frequently detours to seduce beautiful women – as well as some stunts and driving sequences in the 1976 film Gumball Rally. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pujtw4-S2js" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I have a patient who has a 2009 Challenger RT and he's just finishing up doing something to the engine to boost the HP. But he's been to the track you've gone to in Sealy, but he likes taking it to Beeville to a longer track.
Tom, That is one of my favorite movie lines of all time... My wife would tell you I use it far too frequently! 8)
Terry, Sealy is the 1/4 mile strip that hosts the Moparfest in October. I will be going but my car is not invited. I will be Cindy's "crew chief". 8) We will have Cindy's SRT there. The RT is a 5.7 Hemi. Without going internal, it is pretty limited but still a fun ride. Cam and tune will get it close to a bone atock SRT Challenger. I have a lot to learn in the Ford world. This is the first one I have owned since 1985.
Scott, Cindy doesn't like it either because she is usually behinda me. 8) Now that I have a 193 hp advantage over her, I do not see that trend changing in her favor!
People with full control don't drift at all! :roll: Did fine tune my driving technique yesterday. There is a saying that sometimes you must slow down to speed up. The Shelby was turning a best of 12.707 seconds at 115.7 mph last weekend. The major issue with not being able to best that time was getting squirrelly at 1st to 2nd shift and again at 2nd to 3rd shift. I was shfting at 6500 rpm which took me down to ~4000 rpm in the next gear. 4400 rpm is the max torque rpm for this vehicle. This Saturday I began by working on the launch... too high rpm and it broke loose. Too low and it bogged. Found the happy medium and trimmed my time to 12.462 at 117.8 mph. Then I began lowering my shift point. I lowered it 300 rpm each pass until I found the point that in did not require lifting the throttle to keep it straight. I now shift at 5600 rpm which takes me to ~3100 in the next gear, lower in the torque curve. It does get very "twitchy" between 3900 and 4800 rpm though. With this shift point and never lifting the throttle due to tire spin, the Shelby trips the lights at 11.811 seconds 125.6 mph. That is as quick as it will get with the tires that came on it: Eagle F1 Supercar P285/35ZR20 in the rear and P265/40ZR19 on the front. Until I put more rubber to the pavement in the rear, this is as good as it gets. Not sure that it would get any better with different tires... maybe with a lighter driver!
... oh, there was another 2014 Shelby there. He insisted on shifting at redline... 7000 rpm with a best time of 13.423... 0.11 seconds slower than Cindy's average 13.31 times and Cindy is 192 horses down to the Shelby's 662. I could not convince him to follow the success pattern I was enjoying. His final pass of the night (2 hours before we left) was a 17.988 sec 1/4 mile. His 1st to 2nd shift found him 90 degrees in the wrong direction. Lucky for him there was nobody in the other lane. He never hit anything but you would have had a hard time seeing any daylight between his car and the guard rail. He came back to the pit area loaded up and left. The general opinion? He was going to have a hard time making any more passes with a load of crap in his drawers. :wink:
Spoken like a true blue hair. Control, thy name is drifter: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/LuDN2bCIyus" frameborder="0"></iframe> Yep, no control here, either: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/20XsaHpRQC8" frameborder="0"></iframe> :roll:
Hey Kes, if I am given 20 takes, I can do a lot of things out of control as well. Watch that 9 minute video (which I have seen before) and count the tire marks already present when he makes his successful run in that scene. Drifting is the mastering of out of control driving. I prefer to be in control. When I was younger, (make whatever blue hair reference you wish) I liked doing things with reckless disregard for consequences. I'm older now and driving control is important to me.
I couldn't hang in for 9 minutes, I was too worried about what they did with all the people of San Francisco? Where did they hide them?
Every track I've raced at, not just the 1/4 mile strips, have track patches on them. Those don't exclusively indicate a mistake was made, especially when all of them are in the line. Driving outside of your level of skill is out of control. Drifting by a hack is out of control. Racing by a hack is out of control. Those are both driving "with reckless disregard for consequences". The consequences at 130 mph on a strip are a lot more severe than drifting at 35 mph. Who's in control? If drifting is "out of control" then your illusion of control at 9/10 on a track is laughable. Everyone that races knows the edge on which they balance, especially at 9/10. There is a slight margin, but anything, from the guy in front of you leaking fluid to cutting a tire can instantly remove whatever control you thought you had. At that point, it's all about energy and luck. Bustin' your chops old man. It was meant to refer to a whole lot of things at once, from the dichotomy of you and Cindy so obviously enjoying fast and potentially dangerous sports in your gorgeous cars vs. your disdain for drifting, to our relative generational gaps in perception of those same two subjects. Nothing but respect and love here man. Okay, disagreement, too, but still, respect and love. 8)
Understood... I guess I should think back on how the older generation viewed my 70's Rock N Roll and think about how I view the young Kids' Hip Hop. Probably a good analogy for my view of racing vs my view of drifting