Chad82GT
03-28-2005, 04:16 PM
The Hawaii Fastest Street Car Shootout was this past weekend, and man was it a blast! Several thousand fans showed up (for us that's big) as well as 100 or so cars. It was windy and in the 60s all night, which is cold for Hawaii... and the track was showing it by being extra slippery from 100’ to about 800’. The heavy hitters of the night were 2 turbo SBC-powered Buicks, one GN and one T-Type… but they had the most problems hooking up.
The GN was built by the owner of Behind Bars as his own personal ride before selling it to a guy here locally. It is one clean, bad mofo. He had hell hooking up and barely managed to qualify in the #7 spot of the Quick-8.
My 1st pass of the night was a slip sliding, on and off 10.5 @ 128. The alternator belt didn’t care for all that on and off the throttle and decided to depart. Luckily it was in 1 piece and still dangling on the water pump so I managed to bump the motor over and draw it back on while on the return road. Once in the pits I tightened it up about an inch, guess it had stretched a bit.
2nd qualifying I managed to skate my way down a complete pass to the tune of 10.2 @ 130 which put me at, get this… #1 qualifier! LMAO. This was going to be a race of who could hook on a slippery track more than anything else.
3rd qualifying run was similar to the 2nd but a bit straighter and got me a 10.1, still #1 qualifier. I managed to look at the boost gauge and it held steady at 10 psi… WTF??? The belt was the same one I used the week before and “looked” OK, but I decided to change it anyway.
1st round of eliminations put me up against a juiced LS1 Camaro that just so happens to frequent the same local msg board I do, and we’d been talking smack for months. I go in and do the courtesy stage thing, and that mofo goes right in and stages… sheesh! No sooner do I get the Stage beam lit, my finger on the ‘brake button and start to move my foot to the gas when BAM, the .500 Pro Tree drops! We’re talking less than 1 second from when I stage to the tree dropping. Needless to say I cut a crappy light and the Camaro is gone. Miraculously I caught him by ½ track and flew by for the win. Come to find out the wire to his WOT switch came loose! It would have been a close race; I really dodged the bullet on that one.
2nd round (semis) put me up against the aforementioned GN. He had just run a 9.7 in the 1st round so I knew I had to let it all hang out on the tree. I nailed a .590 on a .500 pro tree and got the jump to the 60’ by over a tenth. It was all me to ½ track and then he started gaining… and gaining… and gaining. At ¾ track I glanced at the boost gauge and saw 10# (WTF!?!?!?!?). Right about then, his multi-stage boost controller kicked in to “KILL” mode and he flew past me at about the 1st MPH beam. He took the win with a 9.8 @ 145 to my 10.0 @ 130. This was the most exciting race of my life! Door-to-door with a sweet ride like that was a thrill beyond words. I had the pedal mashed to the floor and my ass was out of the seat trying to mash it more as I yelled to myself “GO BABY GO!!!” LOL.
The GN went on to meet his buddy with the t-type in the finals and easily took the win. I ended up with 3rd place which payed $150. I figured it out and that actually covered my fuel, belts and run card, and dinner... woot! Free racing!!! :D
My MPH had been down by 5 all night, no doubt due to the reduced boost. Can’t wait to pitch that POS next w/e :D
The GN was built by the owner of Behind Bars as his own personal ride before selling it to a guy here locally. It is one clean, bad mofo. He had hell hooking up and barely managed to qualify in the #7 spot of the Quick-8.
My 1st pass of the night was a slip sliding, on and off 10.5 @ 128. The alternator belt didn’t care for all that on and off the throttle and decided to depart. Luckily it was in 1 piece and still dangling on the water pump so I managed to bump the motor over and draw it back on while on the return road. Once in the pits I tightened it up about an inch, guess it had stretched a bit.
2nd qualifying I managed to skate my way down a complete pass to the tune of 10.2 @ 130 which put me at, get this… #1 qualifier! LMAO. This was going to be a race of who could hook on a slippery track more than anything else.
3rd qualifying run was similar to the 2nd but a bit straighter and got me a 10.1, still #1 qualifier. I managed to look at the boost gauge and it held steady at 10 psi… WTF??? The belt was the same one I used the week before and “looked” OK, but I decided to change it anyway.
1st round of eliminations put me up against a juiced LS1 Camaro that just so happens to frequent the same local msg board I do, and we’d been talking smack for months. I go in and do the courtesy stage thing, and that mofo goes right in and stages… sheesh! No sooner do I get the Stage beam lit, my finger on the ‘brake button and start to move my foot to the gas when BAM, the .500 Pro Tree drops! We’re talking less than 1 second from when I stage to the tree dropping. Needless to say I cut a crappy light and the Camaro is gone. Miraculously I caught him by ½ track and flew by for the win. Come to find out the wire to his WOT switch came loose! It would have been a close race; I really dodged the bullet on that one.
2nd round (semis) put me up against the aforementioned GN. He had just run a 9.7 in the 1st round so I knew I had to let it all hang out on the tree. I nailed a .590 on a .500 pro tree and got the jump to the 60’ by over a tenth. It was all me to ½ track and then he started gaining… and gaining… and gaining. At ¾ track I glanced at the boost gauge and saw 10# (WTF!?!?!?!?). Right about then, his multi-stage boost controller kicked in to “KILL” mode and he flew past me at about the 1st MPH beam. He took the win with a 9.8 @ 145 to my 10.0 @ 130. This was the most exciting race of my life! Door-to-door with a sweet ride like that was a thrill beyond words. I had the pedal mashed to the floor and my ass was out of the seat trying to mash it more as I yelled to myself “GO BABY GO!!!” LOL.
The GN went on to meet his buddy with the t-type in the finals and easily took the win. I ended up with 3rd place which payed $150. I figured it out and that actually covered my fuel, belts and run card, and dinner... woot! Free racing!!! :D
My MPH had been down by 5 all night, no doubt due to the reduced boost. Can’t wait to pitch that POS next w/e :D