My mustang on El Mirage again

[Daniel Buck]

From my latest trip to El Mirage! This time a very curious thing happened, while on our lunch break alot of clouds and wind rolled in. When we got back out onto the middle of the lake bed it was completely voide of dust! It was very very smooth and had a shine to it that made it look like the lake bed was wet (shine, not a Mirage), you can see the shine the last two photos. It looked like it was wet, it was very surreal!

Even though my Mustang's throttle wouldn't open more than about 1/3 the way (computer issues, doh!), I was still able to hit 140 mph in about 1 mile :D The new (light weight aluminum) driveshaft doesn't seem to vibrate much at all at high speeds, something I was hoping for! And the new transmission (manual instead of auto) seems to be doing pretty good, though a little hard to push it into 5th gear at high speeds for some reason. Next time I'll have a shallower gear in the rear (3.55 instead of 4.10) and a throttle that opens all the way, I should get pretty fast then :D

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[Bill Jurasz]

The first, and the last two, are really good!

[Dave Verna]

that first one is really cool!

[Chad Burdette]

i really like the last two, needs some tire shine though LOL

[Andrew Thompson]

The last two are my favorites as well :).

[Jake Miller]

again I don't like you. do you have a room for rent?

[Derric Slocum]

i hate seeing your car so dirty, but im sure it was worth it. no dust sure does give an interesting effect, it almost looks like a giant slab of concrete.

[E. John Thawley III]

Last one's my fav.

Just curious, why are you going up on gearing? Blower just giving too much torque for your tires? What did the blower do to your MPG? Did you measure before/after?

[Daniel Buck]

i hate seeing your car so dirty, but im sure it was worth it. no dust sure does give an interesting effect, it almost looks like a giant slab of concrete.
Heh, yea it's worth it! Last time we went, our programmer was with us, and he did some (rough) calculations and found out that there is about 2/3rds the traction that there is on a normal asphalt road. Not bad for dirt! It's super smooth in the middle of the lake, and very hard packed :) But even the G35 Sedan would loose traction going into 3rd gear after being shifted hard with traction control turned off.



Just curious, why are you going up on gearing? Blower just giving too much torque for your tires? What did the blower do to your MPG? Did you measure before/after?
Yes, the car has a good amount of torque, even though I can only open the throttle 1/3 the way right now, I can still pull a 180 in the middle of the street :D The 4.10's are just to much I think, so I'm stepping back down to 3.55's. I don't drag race, so the 4.10's are probably overkill.

The blower actually didn't do a huge change to the MPG, I lossed maybe 2mpg in-town, and maybe 1mpg on the freeway. It's got a bypass valve that opens up when the throttle is not being mashed, so the blower is not constantly huffing and puffing 100% if I'm just cruising, or not using the throttle much. It looks like an old school roots blower, but it's actually more efficient. The 4.10's probably did the MPG worse than the blower, 1-2mpg in-town, and another 2mpg freeway (at 80mph). Right now I average about 15mpg in-town (and LA 'freeway', stop and go), and on the open road I get about 22-24mpg cruising at about 80mph (3000rpm), all on regular 91 octane and 10lbs of boost. Before anything was done to the car, I got 18-19mpg in-town, and about 27 on the open freeway doing 80-85 with an automatic transmission (I now have a manual). and only 1/3 as much fun :D

After I get the throttle issue sorted out, and a few other little things, wheels, tires, and brakes are next. Ever with the 3.55's I imagine I'm going to want alot more rubber on the back. I'll keep the same (or similar) style wheels, just upped to 18" diameter, and 10" wide in the rear so I can run 295 tires. Don't know what I'll do for brakes just yet.

[Dave Verna]

all the torque of a blower motor you dont need the mechanical advantage of the 4.10's - in fact it might even be quicker -

[Daniel Buck]

all the torque of a blower motor you dont need the mechanical advantage of the 4.10's - in fact it might even be quicker -
agreed. If I were drag racing and had slicks and a way to actually catch traction, the 4.10's would probably be awesome! But I don't :o

[Dave Verna]

thats not always the case -

There is a local duster running a paxton and he is now running 3.55's - he swapped 3 or 4 times and keeps getting faster.

with the 3.55's he runs 8.80's @ 153 mph - he was out of steam with the 4.10's he started off with but the blower just keeps on pushin'!

[Daniel Buck]

seems like a paxton would like the upper RPMs, that's a centrifugal/impeller blower right? I think the whipple I have likes the mid RPMs. I make my peek power at the redline, but my torque plateaus through the mid RPMs. In either case, I get an instant full boost at full throttle with any RPM :D I think I'll like the 3.55's, I've had my fun with the 4.10's, but I'm ready to switch back down again. They were more fun with the automatic transmission I think.

8.8 @ 153, nice! I'd love to see some photos of the car, do you have any?

[Dave Verna]

Sure do...
This was at the 8.50 index race in march - the chute is for anything over 150 mph
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb115/djvcuda/atco%2010-17/DSC_7609_f.jpg