Ford Racing's Wayne Geoffrey (left) and Jesse Kershaw (center, black shirt), and Mark Franchetti of Keystone Automotive (not shown) stopped by our pit to check out the project car and join us for lunch. Mrs. Jones handled barbecue duty, and her track burgers, hot dogs, and marinated chicken didn't disappoint.
On The Dragstrip
It's a great feeling when the stars align and you have a successful track outing, regardless of which type of racing.
A lot of credit for our 9-second run goes to being prepared, and thus being relaxed instead of making last-minute changes or updates to the tune, suspension, and so on. All we did was put a quick charge on the battery, set air pressure at 12 psi in the Mickey Thompson ET Drag slicks, and topped off the tank with 5 gallons of VP Racing Fuels MS109E unleaded race gas.
Without trying to downplay anything about our 9-second experience, the truth is, the ride really wasn't overwhelmingly dramatic. There was no monster wheelstand, no wild wheelspinning, and no sashaying from side-to-side in our lane. Since this was the first pass with 830 horses under your tech editor's butt, the decision was made to leave soft from idle and shift at 6,500 rpm. The 'Stang responded by running straight down the track using 20 psi of boost, pouring on the real steam at the eighth-mile, and tripping the finish-line beams in 9.790 seconds at 141.98 mph.
A stop at the scales after the run was a true eye-opener. As the project car sits with its full interior, stereo, and all of the other accessories we've loaded it with, the T-top coupe weighs in at a whopping 3,500 pounds (with driver). Sure, there's a lot of performance we're giving up with all that weight, but it's a street car, so there won't be any stripping of parts or anything of that sort in an effort to lighten it up and go quicker. As it is, the car probably will go quicker once we launch with the transbrake and extend the shift points, so we're leaving things just as they are with the project 'Stang, saving the full-on, drag-race focus for our upcoming Boss 340 '90 LX.
Our newly installed XFI Touch-Screen Dash/Data Logger proved to be a great addition to the project car. We played back the recording of our landmark run and were pleased to see it was captured in its entirety without any problems. Our Snow Performance water/methanol injection system did a great job at cooling inlet-air temperature, which we're sure played a part in achieving the impressive speed.
This is what makes our T-top coupe's drag performance such a big deal. With a driver on board, the car weighs 3,499 pounds (we rounded it off to 3,500 pounds). The 9.79 e.t. is one thing, but getting that kind of weight to move at 141.98 mph tells us Rocco Acerrio's engine and Paxton's Novi 2000 are working well together and really making horsepower.
There's no better proof of accomplishment than this timeslip. The print is light, so here are the incrementals for you to analyze: R/T = 0.229; 60' = 1.560; 330 = 4.281; 1/8 = 6.384; MPH = 115.04; 1000 = 8.222; 1/4 = 9.790; MPH = 141.98.