[Robert Swartz]

After a couple days reflection. I'm more and more convinced, this car will be hard pressed to make the I/PS index(es). Don't take me wrong, I've got the car and for the most part, I have no real money in it. For right now, I'm going to do the simple and free stuff to try and improve it, see if we make any "real" gains.

One concern I had, we hadn't weighed the car. I took care of that Monday evening. I was a little stunned but not unsurprised. Weighed with approximately 3/8 tank of gas, still has full interior, including mats, spare and jack, pretty much as you'd buy a car off the lot. It weighs 2900 lbs. Using racer math, 16.00 x 155 + 170 = 2650. So, I would need to lose 400lbs from that car to make weight. Which as my thinking concludes, enough weight needs to be removed to compensate for a driver. For right now, this is a street car that I do need to sell, so, I don't really want to gut it.

Owen, yes it is an automatic. As I stated, I don't have a tach in, at present. We're just leaving it in Drive and letting it shift itself. If we decide to keep it for awhile, that's something I'll do, put in a tach and gages. Being able to control the shift points would give me some control over the car. A temp gage would be nice as well, knowing the engine temperature is a wonderful aid.

Billy, all of your suggestions were conversation points on Sunday. The IHRA rules require you to run a full exhaust. Something we discussed is the catalytic converter, I'm certain that is choking this car badly. We also discussed the belt. We mainly thought about the AC, wonder if there's a delete for that? The PS is a good idea, am sure theres a minute amount of HP to be realised there. And I was already looking at the tire situation before I committed to running the car last weekend. I've got to ask, were you referring to using Drag Radials or just trying to find some smaller street tires? Just for conversation sake, Nitto had the smallest set of drag radials. Common sense, a shorter tire will increase the gear ratio, a wider tire will be harder to pull. Regarding the timing, at present, making any changes is beyond my present capabilities, don't have all the right tools.

Mark, using my baseline information. 1/8 mile best is 11.53, converting that to a 1/4, puts us in the 18 second range. I'm over 2 seconds off the 1/8 mile index of 9.45. The 1/4 mile index is 14.55, being in the 18's, I definitely have my work cut out for me.

Unfortunately, at the current time, I don't have the time for an aggressive racing schedule. So, Like I said at the start. I'm going to try and do some of the simple and free stuff that can be accomplished in my spare time. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks I can take it back to the track and see if we make any gains.

Thanks for the input and replys.