Since 300 miles of shakedown runs didn`t have anything breaking , falling off, or catching fire, I thought it would be nice to make a few 1/4 mile passes at our local dragstrip. First thing I did was weigh the car at the tracks scale, it was about 200 pounds heavier than I had hoped for, 3975 bs with me in it, and 3/4 tank of gas. I drove the car to the track, other than removing the air filter, it was as I drove it there, 3.50 gears, full exhaust, normal BF Goodrich radials. On the street, the car spins the tires, with no sign of wheelhop, but with the sticky starting line, it wheelhopped quite violently, to the point I had to lift off the throttle to stop the hop, and ease back on the gas. The RPMs came up painfully slowly, and the finish line took a long to to reach. The timeslip showed an embarrassing slow 2.64 60 foot time, caused by the hopping and lifting, it took 15.1 seconds to hit the 1/4 mile mark, at only 92 MPH, so I checked the vacuum secondaries on my Holley 780, and the secondary diaphragm was extremely stiff, thus the secondarys did not open, so it was a 2 barrel pass. Luckily I had a spare carb with me, so I swapped the working secondary assembly onto the 780, and tried another run. Weak, but much better, no wheehop, but a fair bit of tire spinning, granny shifting at 5000 RPM, resulted in a 14.3ET at just under 95 MPH. A definite improvement, but still well off the mid 13s at over 100 MPH I was expecting. The next pass was 1rst round of eliminations, in the stickshift class I normally race my low 10 second Fairmont in. Most of the cars are race only cars on slicks , the majority run in the 8,9,&10 second range, and run open headers. So trying to concentrate in a slow, quiet street car, on street tires, with a open exhaust car revving 6 or 7,000 RPM in the other lane is rather distracting. I redlited,the car wheelhopped again, ran a 14.5 ET at 94 MPH, so I was done for the day, and for Sunday I raced my Fairmont. Even though the car was heavier and much slower than I was hoping for, it was fun to run it through the gears, and at least I have a baseline, and plans for improvement for the next time out. The car did receive a lot of compliments, and a number of people telling me about the 57,8,or 9 Fords they, a family member, or neighbor owned many years ago.Overall a fun weekend. I will try to post a shot of the car on the track later (after my wife gets home, I am not very computer savvy!)
Caltracs and M/T streets would certainly get your 60 ft. lower. Probably in the upper 13's anyway. It was nice weather for the races for sure.
You had fun and the car didn't break; sounds like a win win to me. :003:
Two attaboys. Now I have a target.
Terry
:canada:
Here's a shot by Robert Fedyk.
I'm surprised the slapper bars didn't do a better job with the wheel hop. Maybe try clamping the front leaves together. Car looks great!!
Thanks, Jody, wish I could take it to Beaver Springs this year, hopefully 2021 will be a better year. As for the traction bars, I will see if I can get some taller snubbers. With the new leaf springs, there is about an inch of gap between the snubber and the spring. Funny, on the street, or even the tracks return road, it will light up the tires with no trace of wheelhop, but I guess the glue on the starting line is too much for those skinny 2" wide leaf springs. Maybe I will throw the slicks on for the next race, although I was really hoping to have another center section with 4.11s or 4.30s in for the slicks.
Still looks like you had fun! I'm a sucker for the '59's profile. Beautiful sleeper.