Hot Rod Drag Week 2020

[falk]

I'm planning on running Hot Rod drag week this year, and I want to do it in a S550 with a modified Aluminator 5.2 as the basic formula... which means I'm getting another S550 that will be heavily modified. I'm trying to figure out what class to run. I know I won't win, that's not the goal, I just want to finish. If you were to take this on, what would your formula be? Unlimited is out of the question. I'm thinking pro-street. Not sure If I want to enter the power-adder class, but I am shooting for the 9s. Anyone else running drag week?

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[poncho@home]

following

 

[offroadkarter]

I ran drag week last year in the street machine eliminator class in my 2004 Marauder

Take a look at the rules for each class and decide where you want to enter. If you're shooting for 9's you can forget about street machine eliminator then. I think you'd qualify fine for small block power adder.

Here are a couple of lessons I'll pass off from my experiences and my mistakes.

For one, get some time in to do shake down runs well before the event, if you're slapping a car together in under a year with the goal of driving it 1000 miles between 5 race days, you will overlook a few things or need to go back and correct some things. It'll also help to learn how to drive the car on the track. Day zero drag week was my very first time driving my car on a track, with slicks, and the 6spd conversion. I bogged the car so hard on my first launch I almost stalled it.

Two, set a plan, and some goals, and expect most of it to go right out the window. I had planned to run bottom 12's to high 11's depending on weather (it was in the 60's in PA where I lived, it was 80's + in VA/MD/SNJ). Instead I had super high IAT's from an air locked intercooler system, backed by a setup I never once ran on the track, let alone in any temps above 55 degrees, and managed to crack one 12.9 on my very last day when the temps dropped back to the 70's.

Three, figure out any critical components you may need that might not be found easily at a dealer or parts store. If you watch the roadkill episode of Finnegan and Tony Angelo doing drag week, Finnegan packed a spare ECU just in case and ended up needing it after they bricked the ECU in the car on night one. I ended up bringing my Xcal4 + a laptop so I could do datalogging as well.

I'd also suggest overbuilding your car to give yourself the best chance of not breaking at the track or on the road and putting yourself in a position where you could be out of the race. Some people dropped out on day zero, the registration/test and tune day due to mechanical failure. I did a whole rear end swap with a fresh rear end running a brand new diff, 31 spline axles, wilwood brakes, all new billet control arms and a watts link. This was about 3 weeks before the event, the night before drag week I was replacing the windshield.

It's a lot of fun but its a lot of work, and I certainly did not have it as bad as a lot of people. My worst issue was my clutch cable binding up at times which my co-driver and I fixed the night before MIR at my grandmothers house (she lives 10min from MIR, no hotel needed). I honestly had a lot of phone on the road trips in a small convoy with friends just seeing the country side, passing other drag week racers, seeing all the cars at the check points and so on. I plan on doing it again in a few years once my car is making enough power to get me slowed down for not having a cage.

 

[falk]

following

I ran drag week last year in the street machine eliminator class in my 2004 Marauder

Take a look at the rules for each class and decide where you want to enter. If you're shooting for 9's you can forget about street machine eliminator then. I think you'd qualify fine for small block power adder.

Here are a couple of lessons I'll pass off from my experiences and my mistakes.

For one, get some time in to do shake down runs well before the event, if you're slapping a car together in under a year with the goal of driving it 1000 miles between 5 race days, you will overlook a few things or need to go back and correct some things. It'll also help to learn how to drive the car on the track. Day zero drag week was my very first time driving my car on a track, with slicks, and the 6spd conversion. I bogged the car so hard on my first launch I almost stalled it.

Two, set a plan, and some goals, and expect most of it to go right out the window. I had planned to run bottom 12's to high 11's depending on weather (it was in the 60's in PA where I lived, it was 80's + in VA/MD/SNJ). Instead I had super high IAT's from an air locked intercooler system, backed by a setup I never once ran on the track, let alone in any temps above 55 degrees, and managed to crack one 12.9 on my very last day when the temps dropped back to the 70's.

Three, figure out any critical components you may need that might not be found easily at a dealer or parts store. If you watch the roadkill episode of Finnegan and Tony Angelo doing drag week, Finnegan packed a spare ECU just in case and ended up needing it after they bricked the ECU in the car on night one. I ended up bringing my Xcal4 + a laptop so I could do datalogging as well.

I'd also suggest overbuilding your car to give yourself the best chance of not breaking at the track or on the road and putting yourself in a position where you could be out of the race. Some people dropped out on day zero, the registration/test and tune day due to mechanical failure. I did a whole rear end swap with a fresh rear end running a brand new diff, 31 spline axles, wilwood brakes, all new billet control arms and a watts link. This was about 3 weeks before the event, the night before drag week I was replacing the windshield.

It's a lot of fun but its a lot of work, and I certainly did not have it as bad as a lot of people. My worst issue was my clutch cable binding up at times which my co-driver and I fixed the night before MIR at my grandmothers house (she lives 10min from MIR, no hotel needed). I honestly had a lot of phone on the road trips in a small convoy with friends just seeing the country side, passing other drag week racers, seeing all the cars at the check points and so on. I plan on doing it again in a few years once my car is making enough power to get me slowed down for not having a cage.

Thanks a ton for the advice... Yep, I saw Finnegan and Tony swap the ECU. I need to do a better job reading the rules, and specifically

I ran drag week last year in the street machine eliminator class in my 2004 Marauder

Take a look at the rules for each class and decide where you want to enter. If you're shooting for 9's you can forget about street machine eliminator then. I think you'd qualify fine for small block power adder.

Here are a couple of lessons I'll pass off from my experiences and my mistakes.

For one, get some time in to do shake down runs well before the event, if you're slapping a car together in under a year with the goal of driving it 1000 miles between 5 race days, you will overlook a few things or need to go back and correct some things. It'll also help to learn how to drive the car on the track. Day zero drag week was my very first time driving my car on a track, with slicks, and the 6spd conversion. I bogged the car so hard on my first launch I almost stalled it.

Two, set a plan, and some goals, and expect most of it to go right out the window. I had planned to run bottom 12's to high 11's depending on weather (it was in the 60's in PA where I lived, it was 80's + in VA/MD/SNJ). Instead I had super high IAT's from an air locked intercooler system, backed by a setup I never once ran on the track, let alone in any temps above 55 degrees, and managed to crack one 12.9 on my very last day when the temps dropped back to the 70's.

Three, figure out any critical components you may need that might not be found easily at a dealer or parts store. If you watch the roadkill episode of Finnegan and Tony Angelo doing drag week, Finnegan packed a spare ECU just in case and ended up needing it after they bricked the ECU in the car on night one. I ended up bringing my Xcal4 + a laptop so I could do datalogging as well.

I'd also suggest overbuilding your car to give yourself the best chance of not breaking at the track or on the road and putting yourself in a position where you could be out of the race. Some people dropped out on day zero, the registration/test and tune day due to mechanical failure. I did a whole rear end swap with a fresh rear end running a brand new diff, 31 spline axles, wilwood brakes, all new billet control arms and a watts link. This was about 3 weeks before the event, the night before drag week I was replacing the windshield.

It's a lot of fun but its a lot of work, and I certainly did not have it as bad as a lot of people. My worst issue was my clutch cable binding up at times which my co-driver and I fixed the night before MIR at my grandmothers house (she lives 10min from MIR, no hotel needed). I honestly had a lot of phone on the road trips in a small convoy with friends just seeing the country side, passing other drag week racers, seeing all the cars at the check points and so on. I plan on doing it again in a few years once my car is making enough power to get me slowed down for not having a cage.

Thanks a ton for the advice! Which version of the mod motor were you running? I know the 3 valve motors quite well, and I'm a Mercury fanatic! Yes, I did see Finnegan and Tony swap out that Dominator ECU on Blasphemi- blew it up with over-voltage on a jump pack. If I had the cash, I'd put a Sonny's engine in the rig, but I'd have to get a second mortgage to do so. This is going to be fun! I'd encourage you to run this year! I've never built a car with such a finite amount of time, but I'm looking forward to it! If I fail, I'll still be there with my s550 and a pair of Hoosiers!

 

[offroadkarter]

Thanks a ton for the advice... Yep, I saw Finnegan and Tony swap the ECU. I need to do a better job reading the rules, and specifically


Thanks a ton for the advice! Which version of the mod motor were you running? I know the 3 valve motors quite well, and I'm a Mercury fanatic! Yes, I did see Finnegan and Tony swap out that Dominator ECU on Blasphemi- blew it up with over-voltage on a jump pack. If I had the cash, I'd put a Sonny's engine in the rig, but I'd have to get a second mortgage to do so. This is going to be fun! I'd encourage you to run this year! I've never built a car with such a finite amount of time, but I'm looking forward to it! If I fail, I'll still be there with my s550 and a pair of Hoosiers!

I still have the original 95k mile 4v in my car, it made 440rwhp and 406tq which is about the safe limit of both my internals and my fuel system. I just bought a parts car with a 60k mile MMR 5.0 aluminum block stroker that I'm going to build up with a VMP Gen 3 TVS most likely. Looking for 600+ on pump and 700+ on E85. We'll see what happens, up til recently I was committed to putting a KB 2.2 on the car just for nostalgia.

 

[QWKSLVR]

I’ll be running SME for the fun of it. My goal is to average 10.50’s for the week.

 

[DavidHuff]

I'm planning on running Hot Rod drag week this year, and I want to do it in a S550 with a modified Aluminator 5.2 as the basic formula... which means I'm getting another S550 that will be heavily modified. I'm trying to figure out what class to run. I know I won't win, that's not the goal, I just want to finish. If you were to take this on, what would your formula be? Unlimited is out of the question. I'm thinking pro-street. Not sure If I want to enter the power-adder class, but I am shooting for the 9s. Anyone else running drag week?

Buy my 2017 Mustang Gt in the Classified Section, it would make you a great car for the tour!

 

[QWKSLVR]

Anybody here able to get a spot? I’m on the waitlist.

 

[Doc69]

Anybody here able to get a spot? I’m on the waitlist.

Where do they hold this event?
Regards
Doc

 

[QWKSLVR]

Where do they hold this event?
Regards
Doc

This year it starts/ends in Martin MI at US131 Motorsports Park.
Last yea I believe it was Virgina

https://www.hotrod.com/events/drag-week/

 

[Clarksfield]

Anybody here able to get a spot? I’m on the waitlist.

I got in, i'll be running my 15 GT with a whipple.
i'm signed up for the Super Street Small Block Power Adder

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