Life is Great with a 6.0-liter V8
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  • Wednesday Night Drags

    Posted on March 30th, 2011 tcorzett No comments

    Infineon Raceway has weekly bracket racing events on Wednesday nights. The weather in California has been rainy for the past two weeks, so there were quite a few people who took advantage of the nice weather. Temperatures were up to 80 degrees, which didn’t help the DA, but made for a enjoyable evening. Unfortunately there was a 10mph head wind most of the night. I know I didn’t setup my car for drag racing, but I have been curious to see what it can do in the 1/4-Mile.

    I headed to the track alone, but met-up with another G8 owner and a couple of his buddies. Having never raced at Infineon I was a little out of my element (I’m normally behind a camera at the racetrack). I figured things out fairly quickly and staged-up for my first pass.

    This was the first time to the track after the extensive modifications had been performed. Specifically the supercharger and the rear end/suspension bits. Unfortunately, tires (drag radials) were not on my upgrade list… So, with the low-end torque from the Maggie, the 3.45 gears, and the stock tires, I knew traction was going to be a big concern.

    For the first run I decided to just let the car do its thing (didn’t even air down the tires). I left the transmission in ‘Drive’ and left the Traction Control enabled. I launched at idle and the car pulled-out the best run of the night… A 12.98 @ 108.09 mph.

    In the subsequent runs I tried launching from 1st without Traction Control, launching in 2nd at idle, and finally launching in 2nd at 1100rpms. I was able to get 60′ times in the 2.0x second range, but there was quite a bit of wheel spin whenever I jumped into the throttle off the line.

    It seems all the rear-end bits did their job… As despite having traction issues, I never once developed any wheel-hop (which was killing me before).

    While the times weren’t what I was hoping for, I was really happy to test out the car and try a couple of launching ideas I’ve been thinking about. I think any future trips down the strip are going to require a different set of tires!