A day at the races (or the nightmare at Famoso)

[SoCal Rebell]

Myself, Venom Lover (with his snake) and about a dozen Corvettes went up to Bakersfield for some drag racing. Got up at 4:30am met up at 6am for the 130 mile drive to Famoso. We arrive at 7:30 am for the advertised 8am opening and 9am race start. Gates did not open until 9am, racing did not start until 11:45 and I did not get to race Venom until 2:12pm, we only got ONE run that's it, we could of gotten another if we hung around until 5pm, NOT. Anyway to our race, Venom Lover informs me the day before he put in 3:55 gears well there went my supposed advantage off the line which I was counting on to offset his 35 more hp, so here are the #s sorry I can't post the ticket:

Venom SoCal
Lover Rebell
R/T .729 .766
60' 1.953 1.826
330 5.241 5.141
1/8 7.947 7.982
MPH 93.07 90.38
1000 10.242 10.349
1/4 12.137 12.349
MPH 119.72 115.90

I lost the one race we got to run, had we had a couple of more runs I am sure I would of taken him as in the above race my hand slipped off the shifter going into third so I coasted a little, but no excuses kudos to Venom Lover he beat me the one pass we got but this is not over, next time I'll wear a glove.

My sympathies to Venom he was so pissed about only one run he went the next day to Carlsbad where he turned a terrific 12.06 and on his next run sheared of his half shaft, bet ya I can take him now.

 

[Kid97GTS]

I thought Venom was actually running half shafts that are advertised as "unbreakable." What's the scoop?

 

[Ulysses]

I have heard a lot of bad stuff about the condition of the drag strip at Carlsbad. Just out of curiosity, how did you find the track conditions, Venom?

 

[Steve Ferguson]

Great times! But you both forgot you were drag racing with those 7+ R/T's. Watch the tree not each other. Remember that "Driving Miss Daisy (style)" is for the street, not the track.

What kind of rubber were you guys running?

 

[Venom Lover]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kid97GTS:
I thought Venom was actually running half shafts that are advertised as "unbreakable." What's the scoop?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was running after-market half shafts; I won't say which ones. Perhaps this particular half shaft had some individual anomaly. In any case, the U-joint on the differential side sheared completely in half.

 

[Venom Lover]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Y2KGTS:

LMK what you (or anybody else) thinks about the half shaft issue with higher horsepower. I am NOT running slicks, but worry about breaking these. Of course, being notoriously cheap, I don't want to spend the money on upgraded half shafts unless I absolutely have to. I am putting around 435 HP and 480 TQ to the rear wheels. I was surprised to see that Venom Lover sheared his, as I don't think he was running slicks or any monster mods (nitrous, etc.). Makes me a bit nervous...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know how much of a half-shaft issue there usually is when you run on street tires and are putting out 480 ft-lbs to the rear wheels, but I can tell you my incident occurred on street tires (with 490 ft-lbs to the wheels). I do have the Purner slick/skinny set-up, and I had done probably a dozen or so runs on ET streets at previous events with the after-market half shafts, so maybe the U-joint was compromised at that time. But when it finally went, I was on street tires!

You can do what you want, and I agree it seems hard to justify a priori investing non-trivial money in something that doesn't decrease ET or increase trap speed, but I can tell you it's a pretty crappy experience when you blow a half shaft and it smashes around in there, potentially damaging a lot of other stuff like your exhaust, differential, etc.

 

[Venom Lover]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ulysses:
I have heard a lot of bad stuff about the condition of the drag strip at Carlsbad. Just out of curiosity, how did you find the track conditions, Venom?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The track is usually pretty poorly prepped, but they do prep it well for the Outlaw bracket racing series, which they run once a month. My best 60' time yesterday at Carlsbad was 1.92 sec on street tires, which you can see is slightly better than my one run at Famoso on Saturday. So, it's not bad. Just don't expect a lot of amenities. For example, my tow off the track was done by a POS Volvo, and they deposited me right next to the lanes, not even back to my pit!

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[Venom Lover]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steve Ferguson:

What kind of rubber were you guys running?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We were both running street tires; Pilot Sports in Ron's case, MXX3's in my case. Anybody have any evidence to show that one is superior to the other for drag racing?

The fact that MXX3's have a 140 wear rating, vs. 220 for Pilot Sports, would tend to indicate that MXX3's should be superior. But Pilot Sports have a softer side wall and lower void ratio, so I don't know....Anyone have any results to show one vs. the other?

I know ET streets are the best, since I knocked 0.6 sec off my ET just by putting on ET streets, but now with solid 11's, I'll be banned from Carlsbad on slicks until I get a roll cage!

 

[9 seconds]

For those who broke their aftermarket half shafts: When did it break? While launching or shifting to second gear? Did you have wheel hop? I'm in the process of getting mine replaced. I had wheel hop on the prior run and my outer joint let go when I hit second gear. The shafts were twisted along the splines (both pieces so they were hard to seperate). Also the U-joints had grease fittings and they were not supposed to.

Didn't you hate hearing that grinding sound as they pulled you out of the way? I had to pull the wheel off to get the half shaft and lower A arm out of a bind so I could pull it up on the trailer!

 

[Tom Welch]

Gentlemen,

Mr. Venomlover was running my BTR Halfshafts when the U-Joint failed. I am awaiting their return and will be honoring our Lifetime warranty. We of course will continue striving to improve our products through testing and review of parts that have failed to maintain serviceability.

Unfortunately in racing, breakage happens. I am proud to be able to offer the ONLY bonified you break it, we replace it(or in some cases offer a refund)guarantee. We have over 200 sets of these shafts in operation today with only 3 shafts needing repair including the ones in this thread.

What other part on your car has a lifetime warranty? What other racing part of any kind has a lifetime warranty?

Thanks again for the opportunity to serve all of the viper community.

Tom
Http://btrviper.com

 

[9 seconds]

What racing part has a warranty period!? Give Tom a call if you have any half-shaft or other Viper questions. He has vast racing experience and will spend the time to answer all of your questions. He taught me some tricks on launching and the 1-2 shift.

Stock tired cars with wheel hop will break something else if not the half-shaft u-joints. Thats why I wondered how others broke theirs.

Keep up the good work Tom and I'll be calling soon for more Viper goodies.

 

[Y2K5SRT]

Ron -

Not bad for one pass! I kinda figured there was a missed gear or something in there somewhere - the trap speed seemed a little low from my novice perspective. I know what you mean about frustrating when you have to wait forever to make a pass. I lucked out yesterday when they opened up, as everybody was switching tires and doing other prep work. I got in four runs in less than forty minutes. I suspect that by that afternoon that you would be lucky to get in a run in less than an hour and a half.

LMK what you (or anybody else) thinks about the half shaft issue with higher horsepower. I am NOT running slicks, but worry about breaking these. Of course, being notoriously cheap, I don't want to spend the money on upgraded half shafts unless I absolutely have to. I am putting around 435 HP and 480 TQ to the rear wheels. I was surprised to see that Venom Lover sheared his, as I don't think he was running slicks or any monster mods (nitrous, etc.). Makes me a bit nervous...

Be sure to let us know how your next runs go!

Chris

 

[SoCal Rebell]

Venom Lover my offer stands to go to Carlsbad and tow your snake home, let me know.

Regarding the tires I would have to think the Pilots have an edge over the MXXXs as evidenced by our 60 ft. times. Our cars are pretty much identical in mods (now that you put in 3:55 gears) although you put 35 more hp peak to the ground, you turned a 1.95 to my 1.82 I don't think I'm "that" better a driver then you (until I miss 3rd that is).