To Whom It May Concern

Pullin’ From A Dig

Well, I took the SRT4 up to Fontana, about an hour and a half drive north of San Diego, to California Speedway. They were having an open invite at the drag strips for people to bring their vehicles in and see what they can do. I have never drag raced, legally or illegally, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try it out.

I had to leave at 4 in the morning in order to arrive by 6, when the gates were opening. They only have a set amount of cars that they let run, so to get there early is important. There were probably around 500 cars there competing, including about 30 or so SRT4s. I didn’t know anyone when I got there so I went around and visited with a few people.

Because I’d never dragged before, I went and checked out the ‘tree’, the lights that start the race, so I could figure out how everything works. Basically they have two photoelectric cells on the track, as your tires cross the first one, the first light goes on, when you cross the second one, the second light goes on and you are ‘staged’, or ready to run.

Then there are three yellow lights, and they go off, 3, 2, 1, then a green light that tells you to drop the hammer. The best basic strategy is to hit the gas right when the third yellow light turns on, because your human reaction time will cause you to have a slow start if you wait for the green.

I was able to do three runs down the strip, and I never did get a great start. On my first run, I was up against a Mustang GT, a car that is typically a couple of tenths slower than the SRT4. It was also that driver’s first time drag racing. The tree was way faster than I expected and I got bogged down at the start.

Then, as I shifted into second, YIKES, my shift knob flew off. So there I was with my shift knob in my hand, my car starting to redline, trying to think of what to do in a split second and avoid blowing my motor. I ended up dropping the knob and grabbing the stick, which felt very foreign of course (it’s hard to shift like that when you aren’t used to the ‘feel’ of the stick), and by the time I shifted into third, I was way bogged down and cost myself a lot of time.

The really bad thing about bogging down going into third gear, is that third is the monster gear for the srt4. There are very few cars on the road that can match up with the srt4 in third gear. With the turbo spooling full bore, it has a sweet spot in third gear that just won’t quit. But I went into third at low rpm due to a bad shift so it took a long time to catch up. This stunk because in second gear I was pulling hard on the Mustang, and I ended up losing to him by about 3 tenths of a second, pulling hard in 4th but without enough time to catch him.

My first drag run ever:

                 Mustang           SRT4

Reaction Time:    .788              .884

60 Foot:           2.301            2.491

330:              6.340            6.710

1/8:              9.658            10.073

MPH:              140.87(?)        74.04

1000:             12.525           .000(?)

1/4:              14.979           15.309

MPH:              91.39            92.48

I was, of course, disappointed. I wondered if I would be in the 15’s on my first run ever, but that wasn’t the way I wanted to submit to it.

For my second run, I went in with one of the other SRT4 drivers. I got a better start, but unfortunately, my shift knob flew off again, BLAH!! I recovered better, but that still goofed me up badly.

These were the stats from the second run:

                 His SRT4        My SRT4

Reaction Time:    .540             .670

60 Foot:          2.308            2.320

330:              6.060            6.667

1/8:              9.102            10.043

MPH:              81.64            74.40

1000:             11.710           .000(?)

1/4:              13.933           15.234

MPH:              101.53           94.47

On the third run, I made up my mind I was going to shift more carefully to keep that shift knob in place. I was going to run against that same SRT4 again, but he got stuck way ahead of me, so I ended up running against a Camaro. I got my best reaction time, but the Camaro just blew my doors off. I had a lot of wheel hop, and that cost me a little time. It wasn’t too bad though, and I ended up with my best run of the day.

These were my stats from my third run:

                 Camaro           My SRT4

Reaction Time:    .262             .469

60 Foot:          1.517            2.463

330:              4.404            6.452

1/8:              6.906            9.702

MPH:              97.67            76.23

1000:             9.093            12.449

1/4:              10.965           14.846

MPH:              119.82           94.01

There was a good 25 to 30 mph constant head wind, but I’m not going to blame that for my less than stellar times. I shouldn’t be too upset though, this is the first time I’ve ever done the quarter mile, so I know where I need work. My Aeroforce Pro gauge is awesome, I used it to read my first quarter mile, and it was dead on, within 1 to 2 one hundredths of a second, and right on for mph.

All in all I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I improved steadily throughout the day. My overall goal is to break into the 13's with my car 'as is'. I'll for sure be headed up to Fontana again sometime, I just hope they let us have more runs. I should do better. After I superglue my damn shift knob in place.

Oh, and there were some people had the new Impala SS's, and they were impressive. I thought SOMEONE might find that interesting heh heh.