Last night was my first time at New England Dragway. I was the only Viper there, and it was both embarassing and satisfying. For my first time out, I was hoping to make a 2 seconds 60 foot time and an ET of 13 seconds. My RT/10 was supposed to do 12.6 @ 113 back some 25,000 miles ago when it was new. I added a Corsa Catback, RT High Flows and smooth intake tubes to compensate for the age, but...
First pass was against a Neon. I didn't feel too threatened until I was watching his taillights get smaller. I spun my tires for a few seconds and made a 2.85 second 60' time. Yuck! As if that wasn't bad enough, I then proceeded to completely miss 2nd gear right in front of the stands! I beat the Neon, but just barely with an ET of 14.928 and a trap speed of 103. Like I said, very embarassing.
I got back in line, all upset at myself, and of course everyone and their brother was asking how I ran. I realized that I hadn't let any air out of the tires, so I set the rears to 25 pounds from the 32 they had been set to, hoping that this would fix my woes. When I finally got up to the staging area, the people in charge had moved a GT-something up beside me so that it would be a 'fair fight'. The car was an orange-yellow color with lots of lights, wings, flares, tire, wheels, exhaust, etc. Just what I needed (sarcasm). I tried not to spin too much, but the other guy was already out in front by a few car lengths in no time. I concentrated on getting the revs up to 5000 before shifting. I concentrated on making each shift a good one. I was playing catch-up and I realized it would be a close finish, that's for sure!
My final time was 12.91 @ 111.51. I had beaten my personal target of 13 seconds, so I felt good about that. I had also hit my 2.0 second target for the 60 foot time, so another good thing. Finally, I realized that 'the other guy' had run a 13.147, so one last good thing had occurred.
All in all, loads of fun. I'm sure this time sounds like crap to many of you out there, but for my first time out, I rode home feeling pretty d&mn good. Now, I just need to work on my reaction time, my traction, my shifting, my trap speed, etc., etc., etc.