First time at the drags! Did a lot better than I thought I would (w/ Vids)

[DoomsdayFAN]

Went to the strip last night. It was my first time ever going there and racing during an official event. Up till that point, I never thought I'd do as well as I did. I figured I'd be somewhere in the 17s, but I was pleasantly surprised to find my car exceeded my expectations. Not to mention I was the only Focus there, so I felt good representing our brand! The only mods currently on my car are the ones listed in my sig, plus a gutted trunk.


My first official drag race ever. I went into this race thinking I was going to get killed (and apparently so did the woman sitting behind my friend & GF who were recording. She kept talking shit about my car and how it was an embarrassment to even be there. Her reaction once the light hit green was priceless though!)

YouTube Video

This was a bit later in the night. I finally got matched up with someone more in my league. The cool thing about this vid is that it actually captures the sound of my car perfectly. I also broke trantion three times, which I was pretty proud of considering my car is only an ATX 2.0 with only a few bolt on mods.

YouTube Video

This was my final race of the night. I managed to run into one of my co-workers there. She was racing her big Dodge RAM with a few bolt ons herself. It was fun!

YouTube Video

Overall though, it was a cool night. I can't wait to do it again next time. Only then, hopefully I'll have my header and tune installed. But overall, my car was averaging 16.4s all night. That's a LOT better than I predicted it was going to do.

One other thing I noticed... off the line, my car seemed to pull nicely, but once it shifted into about 3rd, it started to pull less and less and that's when the races I lost (such as the first vid) the guys next to me started pulling away. So hopefully my header & tune will fix this and I'll be able to pull hard all the way through the RPM range and not lose power when it shifts into the higher gears.

[Sponsor]

[mikebontoft]

nice man! I ought to come down to sea level to see (lol) what my car can do. Good numbers though in my opinion. how did that v8 compare? didn't look too far off.

[DoomsdayFAN]

The Yellow V8 did a 14.7 @ 100mph compared to my 16.4 @ 82mph.

He got to 60mph in 9.7 whereas I did it in 10.5sec.

My reaction time was slower as I got off a little late (was my very first time dragging) at 0.45 while his was 0.24.

I actually beat him to 60 feet though. I got there in 2.4 while he did it in 2.6


But yeah, if my power hadn't dropped off once it got into the higher gears, I probably could have taken him. We'll see if the header and tune can help with that much.

[matmatician]

Dude! You held your own against that camaro! Not gonna lie, I thought he was gonna smoke you! He definitely had some exhaust work done on it. Hard to tell what else listening to it through my phone lol. Way to represent man!! I'm gonna have all the same mods as you more or less when my car is out of the shop, so I kinda know what to expect now!

[fordblue]

That was cool!.Impressive off the line man!

[bespurcell]

Very nice. Gotta love the consistency of an auto. I was wishing I had one after my first night. You should use a small shot of nitrous. It would really help you at the end when you start feeling power dropping off to hit it.

[DoomsdayFAN]

Even if I got NOS, the strip doesn't allow it during "Street Legal" nights (the night once every 3 weeks or so that all casual street cars are allow to race). If I were to run with NOS, I'd have to race on a different night against much more powerful cars running NOS.

I think my only goal from here on out is to get my Header/Flex/Tune installed, then maybe get my other two engine torque mounts replaced with stiffer race ones, and then maybe get a set of lighter wheels. Maybe sometime down the road I'll consider cams & valve springs. Only problem there is that I need someone to help me get those on.

[Roushturboedzx3]

Originally Posted by DoomsdayFAN

Even if I got NOS, the strip doesn't allow it during "Street Legal" nights (the night once every 3 weeks or so that all casual street cars are allow to race). If I were to run with NOS, I'd have to race on a different night against much more powerful cars running NOS.

I think my only goal from here on out is to get my Header/Flex/Tune installed, then maybe get my other two engine torque mounts replaced with stiffer race ones, and then maybe get a set of lighter wheels. Maybe sometime down the road I'll consider cams & valve springs. Only problem there is that I need someone to help me get those on.

Who says that have to know about your spraying? you don't need to purge it at the line. and you can hide the bottle.

[SMITHBOY76908]

Originally Posted by Roushturboedzx3

Who says that have to know about your spraying? you don't need to purge it at the line. and you can hide the bottle.

I wouldn't even try to attempt that, especially if it's a NHRA track. If you hide it and they do find it, banishment for life. NHRA tracks are really strict about nitrous. Even a 14 or 15 second car with spray has to have a SFI 3.2A/1 jacket and a helmet at minimum. If they catch you with it and you aren't wearing that, see ya.

Bullwinklesauce (can't remember how to spell his username so I had some fun ) doesn't have that issue at Bradenton since it's an IHRA track.

As for the consistent 16.4s, all I have to say is bracket race right meow!!!

Those times are pretty good for a 2.0L auto. My best bone stock to include stock air filter and stock exhaust was a 16.62. I went straight turbo from bone stock so I never ran it with a cold air.

[DoomsdayFAN]

Yeah, my track is an Official NHRA track.

Originally Posted by SMITHBOY76908

Those times are pretty good for a 2.0L auto. My best bone stock to include stock air filter and stock exhaust was a 16.62. I went straight turbo from bone stock so I never ran it with a cold air.

Was that with a 2.3L? Honestly, that's kind of discouraging to me because although I have no idea what my car would run fully stock, a 0.2 second increase in time from 16.6 to 16.4 with a CAI/TB/Exhaust seems kinda weak. But my car was pretty damn slow stock, so I'm guessing I would have done somewhere in the 17s.

When you were running 16.6 bone stock, did you gut your trunk?


Anyone think taking out my dash mat and all four floor mats (probably 10lbs total give or take) would benefit me at all next time? I figure every pound counts, so I might as well give it a shot.