Recovering From the Texas Mile

"Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight" (gizmoq)
10/30/2014 at 13:13 • Filed to: None

With 1100 miles to get there, very little sleep from Thursday thru Sunday and another 1100 miles home, I think I'm almost recovered from my trip. Figured I better post up some pic and vids because "pics or it didn't happen."

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Well that was an exciting weekend. Raced a bunch. Had some fun. Learned a lot. Still wanting more...

I won't hold you in suspense about the final results. 165.6MPH was the speed of my first run... and my best. The winds came up Friday afternoon - a direct headwind, and the weather was unusually HOT. Over 90% of those of us able to run first thing Friday morning, none could top our individual speeds for that run.

Conditions were great Friday morning and they sucked the rest of the weekend.

I made 10 passes down the runway. Five at over 160MPH. The first run on Saturday, I heard something pop so I got out of it and still managed to cross the line at over 150. The next run I forgot to engage "Performance Mode" so the 3/4 and 4/5 shifts were slow and the engine bogged down. My crew chief was so pissed, he told me for the next run "roll into the throttle smooth and fast to keep the tires from spinning, when you hear the shift from 2nd to 3rd, nail your foot to the floor, close your eyes and ears and just hold on!" - I ran 161.2MPH. If that had been the same conditions as Friday morning, it would have been well over 168.

Sunday racers were going home so some of us got to hot-lap. I made 5 passes on Sunday and could have done 2 more, but the track conditions weren't getting any better and I did have to drive 1100 miles to get home so we called it a day by 4PM.

I still had a good time. The people at the Mile: drivers, mechanics, admin, and spectators made this a memorable trip. For the V owners and guests, Bachelor Cadillac and the Texas V Club setup a dining tent serving breakfast and lunch every day just like the Cadillac Corral at Mid-Ohio. I ran into lots of old friends from Texas and other LSR venues and made quite a few new friends. As usual, we raced all day and partied most of the night. I am now an official Texas V Club member. And got another invite to Bonneville. Lots of folks wanted to know about Elwood, even more were cheering me on to try and break 170. My cousin from Houston even came out on Saturday to be my cheerleader.

Of course, every race is a learning experience. Where do I begin?

1. Never run the car through the gears at WOT without engaging Performance mode. Performance mode keeps the tranny pressure maxed out and the revs up through the shifts so the car just keeps pulling like a freight train.

2. The intake and exhaust need to be better matched. First my exhaust was the restriction, now the throttle body is the restriction. The motor breathes well, but to get more horsepower I need to increase the intake charge. I did test runs on Saturday with the exhaust fully open vs slightly closed and the boost level increased 2.2lbs with the exhaust partially closed. I guess I could leave it open and change the pulley, but that's going to require a retune.

3. Street tires cost me at least 3MPH. Since I drove the car down, I didn't bring my racing wheels and tires. My street tires basically had no grip after each morning run. Burnouts didn't help. And the heat of the day just made it worse. Next time, I'll have my tires sent down in advance and change them Thursday night.

4. The plastic push pins holding the front inner fenders can't handle this speed. The CTS-Vs had problems with their plastic undertray and inner fender wells at anything over 160 (four of them were damaged this weekend). Zip ties were the fix they used. I think I'll replace them with nuts and bolts. I also had to remove the plastic flap behind the upper grill and will have to design and install a replacement because it wasn't designed for my D3 intakes or the speeds.

5. My methanol nozzles are too small. Using the meth only at WOT with the boost I'm generating is evaporating the meth before it gets into the cylinders costing me power.The jets I have are great for hooning around on the street, but for long WOT runs all it adds is a little cooling and no HP.

6. I need to do some more aero tuning. At 160, fighting wind resistance is like trying to push through a brick wall. My lip splitter will help keep the nose down, but I've got to reduce the drag.

So I didn't hit 170MPH... YET. A couple more horsepower, some aero tuning, and a decent set of racing tires and I think I got this. Probably won't get back to Texas for a while so I've set my sights on the Chicago Half Mile next year. Now to remove my headers and get them ceramic coated before the winter sets in. Looks like I have a few mods to do for the winter.

What about the other cars present, you ask? Well, lets see if I can give you a brief recap. The record holding car at the mile is a wildly modified twin turbo GT-40.

Guess what the record is (Hint: its plastered all over the car)?

I gotta do a shout out for the Texas V Club. All current and past Cadillac V Series cars were represented at the mile this time: CTS V1 &V2, XLR-V, as well as STS-V. I believe there were 18 of us racing and another 20-25 came to spectate. A great bunch of guys and gals.

As a side note the Cadillac record was 200.9MPH, but ADM Performance brought a CTS-V Coupe that smashed that record with a 211.9MPH run on Sunday.

Among the other racers, several more exotics showed up on Saturday as well as some unusual American iron. I was surprised to see three different McLarens in the grid, a couple Audi V10s, and the Porsches came out in force.

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT SURVIVED THIS FAR, A SPECIAL TREAT. Thanks to Dustin, here's what the grid looked like Sunday from the perspective of his GoPro equipped R/C CTS-V.

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DISCUSSION (6)

getFuckedHerb > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight
10/30/2014 at 12:20

Thanks for all the pictures the mile is a fun event (My avatar is from my first visit there). Look forward to bringing the current toy down for it soon.

thismightbemylastburner > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight
10/30/2014 at 12:34

What was the slowest car to attempt the mile?

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > thismightbemylastburner
10/30/2014 at 12:38

This year I don't think it was a car. There was a 100cc motorcycle that took forever - dont know his exact number but I think it was 87MPH. There was also a couple cars under 100.

All the results will be posted on their website in a couple weeks. http://www.texasmile.net/results.php

450X_FTW > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight
10/30/2014 at 12:38

0:40 Guessing the challenger knew the brakes on his car wouldn't be good enough to stop his flying pig so he added a parachute?

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > 450X_FTW
10/30/2014 at 13:20

All cars shooting for over 220MPH must have 'chutes. He did get over 200, but not 220 so he never had to use it.

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > thismightbemylastburner
11/04/2014 at 16:49

O.K. The official results have just been released.... and the slowest car (that wasn't broken somehow) was a 1950 Studebaker Champion 2-door at 81.9 half mile, 95.0 at the mile. Interestingly, the slowest recorded mile for this event was a Ferrari 458 Italia with a 57.3 half mile and 50.7 mile - I think he changed his mind about opening it up and just cruised to the end.

OBTW, I was wrong about the motorcycle. It was a '71 Hodaka Ace 100 and he ran 78MPH not 87 (damn dyslexia) ;).