Opening weekend at Bandimere (my home track) and my friend invited me out to do some runs. My mods are: H&R springs, a Eurotoys 2.5-3 lb. pulley, and smoked side markers . I weighed in at 4180 lbs. with myself in the car, half a tank of fuel and full street trim with my spare tire and all. Track conditions for my best pass (I ran 6 times) are as follows: 72 degrees, 17% humidity, 30.12 inches of barometric pressure, and of course 5814 feet above sea level. You can use the following site to estimate sea level times:
DA Calculator - Density Altitude Calculator - DragTimes.com

Anyways, I did 6 runs and here is the best one for my car #322 in the right lane:


That run was against a highly modified Neon SRT-4. If you think your car is fast, hit up Bandimere and it will somber your mood. For reference, there were a few new body Mustang 5.0s there and the best run for a stock one was 13.97. I beat a Cayenne Turbo S as it ran a 14.785, a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 ran 14.7s all day, a modded Magnum SRT-8 ran 14.25 for its best run, and a G8 GXP on slicks (unknown mods) couldn't beat a 14.2. I talked to another person there who had previously ran a stock STR at Bandimere, and he was putting in 14.8s at best. Overall, I'm pretty happy, this would be a low 13 second car a mile down in altitude. If the track had stayed open till after the sun went down, I think it would've cooled enough for me to hit 13s. Anyways, high flow cats, x-pipe and intake are up soon!

 

Nice Quartz! Agree...If you're STR can wheeze to low 14's a mile high, I'm sure the intake, hi-flow cats, and x-pipe will knock more than a second off a mile down. Very exciting.

 

Nice! I am glad I don't live at high altitudes!!

 

Just curious, did you ice down the block between runs or deflate the tires?

Yikes to the high alts...The lowest place on earth is the Dead Sea in Jordan, it's so low that it's difficult to get a sunburn there...We need to build a dragstrip there, maybe I'd be the first STR into the 6s! lol

 

But then even a Prius would be doing 10s!

 

I'd do 4's on foot....

 

I just let it sit between runs with the hood open. Most first two runs were 90 minutes apart, the next one was 75 minutes, and the last few were about an hour apart, so the temp gauge was just starting to creep below the middle as I was getting ready to run. I do have a low temp thermostat. The tires I left at full inflation ~40 psi, they don't really break loose at all, especially on the strip where it is extra grippy. I'm really hoping to approach a 13.5 or 13.6 with the cats, x-pipe and intake, but it might be a little too wishful without going to shorter gears or getting some runs after sun down.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

 

You can do that runnin thru south central L.A. at night....

 

LOL! 10-4 that Jay. Amazingly, last night I briefly watched that Sean Penn-Robert Duvall LA cop movie...Hey Holmes.

 

Although there is a flip side to running at high altitude...forced induction cars don't seem to lose quite as much power as the naturally aspirated ones do. Therefore, I have no problem pulling away from cars that some of you at sea level dwellers struggle to keep up with .

 

Under boost it finally gets enough air to work
The others are left gasping LOL

 

Went back tonight, got a 13.9 @ 101.4. Looks like the intake and exhaust work shaved about .15 seconds off my time and got me an extra 2.5 mph. Another member was there (I forget his name) with a stock XFR with the 5.0 and I believe he went 12.99, so I was within a second which makes me feel pretty good. The DA calculator puts the corrects for sea level for me right around a 13.0 so I think that's a pretty good time.

 

13.99 is a nice low time for a high altitude run. I bet you'll shave off more as you "get the hang of it" launching the STR.

 

Yeah it was officially a 13.921, but as the track got cool and I waited around for them to clean up the messes from cars that grenaded halfway down the track my grip got less and I didn't have the gumption to utilize the water box to warm up the tires before hand. I was getting 2.0s and 2.1s in the 60' so the launches weren't too bad. After going out twice I am realizing that without a dyno tune and shorter gears I'm going to be stuck in this time bracket. Shifting into 4th right before I cross the line really hurts my times.

 

Can you please tell us how you did your best launches? I trust you were obviously in sport mode. Did you decide to disengage the traction control? Did you use auto or the j-gate? How did you launch to reduce wheel spin (i.e., did you start light footed then slammed the throttle when you were moving or did you just give it everything she had off the line)?

 

Maybe put J-Gate into 3 to stop that?

 

Sport mode, traction control off. I've tried it with the J-gate and 5 and D. I haven't noticed any real difference except that its harder to time the 2-3 shift using the J-gate since the computer likes to shift it before redline so I usually just leave it in 5 or D. I have almost brand new tires, so grip isn't much of an issue (also due to the altitude) off the line. My best run was when I was power braking up to around 1200 rpm and then flooring it as soon as the light turned; but I didn't notice any more wheel spin during that launch as when I would power brake it to 2000 rpm or off idle. They would spin for maybe a second or so (maybe less) each time. Next time I will try the burnout box to get a little more heat in them and try to get a sub-2.0 60' time. I will attribute the grip to being at a prepped track mixed with new tires and power loss due to altitude.

I tried that once, it just hits the limiter and my time isn't any better. The best way to combat this IMO is to change the gearing to something shorter, say a 3.15 or 3.46 rear instead of the factory 2.81. Also, converting to a limited slip at the same time wouldn't hurt.

 

[quote=QuartzSTypeR;533264] Next time I will try the burnout box to get a little more heat in them and try to get a sub-2.0 60' time.
[quote]

Don't use the burnout box on street tires. All you will do is leave water down the track (everyone will hate you) and waste tire thread.
The best way to do it on street tires is to do a quick simple "clean the tires off" burnout w/o water.

 

I will give a try next go around (won't be for a while as we are seeing record high temps right now).

 

As covered in other threads, an LSD can be fitted but is not cheap!