Well, THAT was interesting...
Yesterday I indulged a whim and took the Lemans to St Thomas Dragway, a rather retro-feeling drag strip that we consider our home track. The Ontario Pontiac Club was having a club race day and I thought I'd see how the enormous old boat would do against a bunch of FWD screamers.
Well, not unsurprisingly the old girl got her big steel butt kicked. After all, these guys were running as much if not more power, in cars that weighed a LOT less. (The big surprise was watching a 2005 GTO run heads-up against a 1970 GTO with a modified 455 - I had no idea those things were so fast!) I was getting pretty consistant 17-flat times at 82 mph, though in my last race I ran 16.81 on a 16.95 dial-in and broke out. How that happened I have no idea. Maybe watching that 11-second Firebird hammering up from behind me made me push that li'l bit harder on the gas pedal, eh?
Thing is...
I've been a gearhead since I was old enough to know the difference between model years, and that's close to a half-century ago. But... this was the first time I've ever competed in a drag race. I've run road courses, pro rally, rallycross, autocross, but this was the first time I've ever gone fast on a track that didn't have a 90 degree corner at one end of it. And it's addicting. Apart from the technical challenge of cutting the perfect light there's not a lot of skill involved - not at those speeds, anyway - but the simple purity of going fast in a straight line, in a car you built with your own two paws, has a lot to recommend it. It's an experience I am looking forward to repeating. In moderation. After all, I still have a paintball habit to support.
When my g/f finishes editing the video she shot of me I'll post a link. The launches weren't much but I did get the slicks (I borrowed them off her Bel Air) nice and smoky...
Well, not unsurprisingly the old girl got her big steel butt kicked. After all, these guys were running as much if not more power, in cars that weighed a LOT less. (The big surprise was watching a 2005 GTO run heads-up against a 1970 GTO with a modified 455 - I had no idea those things were so fast!) I was getting pretty consistant 17-flat times at 82 mph, though in my last race I ran 16.81 on a 16.95 dial-in and broke out. How that happened I have no idea. Maybe watching that 11-second Firebird hammering up from behind me made me push that li'l bit harder on the gas pedal, eh?
Thing is...
I've been a gearhead since I was old enough to know the difference between model years, and that's close to a half-century ago. But... this was the first time I've ever competed in a drag race. I've run road courses, pro rally, rallycross, autocross, but this was the first time I've ever gone fast on a track that didn't have a 90 degree corner at one end of it. And it's addicting. Apart from the technical challenge of cutting the perfect light there's not a lot of skill involved - not at those speeds, anyway - but the simple purity of going fast in a straight line, in a car you built with your own two paws, has a lot to recommend it. It's an experience I am looking forward to repeating. In moderation. After all, I still have a paintball habit to support.
When my g/f finishes editing the video she shot of me I'll post a link. The launches weren't much but I did get the slicks (I borrowed them off her Bel Air) nice and smoky...