RACING IS ADDICTIVE

Flashback Friday

As I stated in a recent blog post, its amazing how much horsepower it takes to go faster.  I'm not talking about elapsed time here, I'm referring to top speeds.  These have been easily demonstrated in my half mile events.  I've tried running the half mile stock, with a stage 2 91 octane tune, with stage 2 E85 tune and with a hybrid turbo E85 setup.  Let me explain.

As I stated in the last blog post I was running in the 136-137 mile per hour range for stock tune.  The car was completely stock, stock intake, stock wheels, no additional hardware upgrades, completely stock.  Then with a stage 2 tune on pump gas, 91 octane junk fuel that is available in California, it ran a 143 top speed.  

Related: Shift Sector

Then stage 2 tune E85 fuel I ran a 159.xxx mile per hour time.  Now that is substantially more speed than the stage 2 pump gas file.  I think it might be in part how the E85 makes power on the top end, keeps the Intake Air Temperatures cooler etc.  There is no other way I can describe why it increased the speed that much more.  Stage 2 pump fuel adds around 70 horsepower and the E85 tune added another close to 70 horsepower.  I've included that video further down on this page.  Both of these stage 2 runs were done with intercooler, and downpipes upgrades but still stock intake and stock wheels.

Finally last month at the Omega Motorsports Gila Bend No Fly Zone event I ran the car with a hybrid turbo from Pure Turbos.  The tune is still being worked on by Custom Code but it was putting down approximately 650 horsepower to the wheels with the setup I had.  I'm running a turbo inlet from APR and intake tube but still a stock airbox with a K&N air filter and a large hole cut in it to make more air flow.  You can see what I mean by the pictures below.  With the Pure Turbos hybrid turbo it ran a best time of 169.93, adding a little over 10 miles per hour.

So getting back to my point, it takes a lot more horsepower to get any extra speed.  Aerodynamics and many other factors play a big part of that.  With a stock car of around 350 wheel horsepower it ran a 136-137 mph top speed.  Approximately 420 wheel horsepower equaled 143 and then 485 horsepower but on E85 tune ran a 159.  With another 165 wheel horsepower it only added another 10 mph.  That is amazing.  I'm sure the aerodynamics at that speed make a huge impact on how much more speed can be added on.  I'd love to know the details and will need to do more research.

This weekend I run again at a Shift S3ctor event.  I have a tiny bit more power, 660 wheel horsepower a slightly different intake setup and light wheels.  We'll see how it does.  Stay tuned for the next feature.

Related: Speed is addictive

Thanks for watching and remember to always Strive to Arrive!