Winter Test & Tune

My last two trips to the drag strip have been on less than ideal days. The session at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway had a DA of 4569′ which really killed my times. The previous session at the Sacramento Raceway was better, with a DA of 1247′, but when I heard that the DA today was going to be below sea level (a negative DA) I just couldn’t pass it up! After the Toys 4 Tots cruise I headed to the Raceway and joined-up with two other people who were running.

I had not planned on running when I filled-up with gas the other day, so I had half a tank of fuel when I reached the track… way more than I’d like. I lowered the rear tire pressure to 29psi (similar to where I left off at the last Test & Tune), but left all the stuff in my trunk (full size spare, jack, bags/camera, etc.). After going through tech I headed to the line for my first run.

I spun the rear tires to clean them off and quickly staged… the other car staged really quickly, so I tried not to lag. I launched from idle when the third yellow light illuminated (my RT was a nice 0.247s) and proceeded down the track very smoothly. I crossed the line in 3rd gear (Drive mode) and was really pleased with the way the first run had gone. I had reason to be impressed, as I ran a 13.44s @ 106.4mph (DA -172′)… which is a new personal best!

I emptied out all the stuff from my trunk and spent the rest of the day battling traction issues. I had several runs (in both lanes) where I just couldn’t launch without getting nasty wheel hop as I went into the power. I was typically able to get-out and back-on to salvage a 14-second run, but that wasn’t what I wanted. On the last run I was even breaking-loose as I was shifting from 1st to 2nd! Because of this I was unable to better the time from my first run… looks like I’ll need to spend some more time learning how to launch!

I had hoped to get into the 13.3’s (what I’d estimated I could run with a nice DA), but I was content with bettering my personal best. If I would have been able to hook-up, I’m sure I would have put down a better time. I think the next time I come to the track I will be sporting an upgraded suspension, a set of drag radials, and more than likely a nice power-adder.

Toys 4 Tots Cruise

The NorCal GOATs joined together with several Northern California Corvette clubs to be part of a Toys 4 Tots cruise to benefit a few local charities. Groups gathered around the Bay Area and headed up to Sacramento for the cruise… I joined-in with the group of Vettes leaving from the Dublin Hooters (along with a couple other GTOs). It was rough waking-up at 5:15am, but the cruise was for a good cause!

The Vette guys seem like a good bunch of guys (and gals). The cruise up to Sacramento went quite quickly (catching-up with the faster driving Vettes really made the trip go fast). Unfortunately, the cruise route wasn’t the most exciting… but hanging out with a bunch of other car guys is always fun.

There were ~130 Vettes at the meet and quite a cash few donations were made. I picked-up a dicast Corvette for the Toys 4 Tots (I thought it was fitting), and I wasn’t the only one. I probably should have brought a ‘girls toy’ so that things were not so unbalanced, but I knew I’d rather have the dicast!

It was really great to see all the GTOs come together with the Vettes to do something charitable. It just shows how great all the club members are… we are about more than just having fun with our cars!