Re: 1996 cobra in 1/4mile

With the money you dumped in it I sure hope you get better than 3 tenths....

My guess with sticky tires you're looking at a potential 13 flat...High

12....but there is no better way to know than to go at the track!

Let us know how you do.

Serge

My guess is that you will run MUCH faster than a 13.7 with that setup. I know a guy with a 99 Cobra who just has 4.56 gears and drag radials. He runs a 12.8.

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 09:29:30 -0400, "dave" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Depends on the driver. Car doesn't get it's self on down the track. If you have shitty response times, you'll have shitty trap times. Nature of the beast.

>

I would say 13.6's. 13.99 is with a pro driver that has driven the 1/4 mile thousands of times, so knock that time up about 2 tenths for a first timer. As far as response time, it does not figure in with the e/t. The e/t time starts when the car breaks the plane. You can have a 5 second reaction time and still run a 13 (although you would lose the race!).

Your times will vary from track to track and driver to driver. A great driver at Bandimere will get slower times than a fair driver at Houston. Where are you going to run it?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom

1998 GT Coupe 5-spd. Bright Atlantic Blue K&N FIPK, Tri-Ax, 3.73's, FRPP Coated Shorties, SpeedCal, P&P 2K Heads, 2K Intake, Bassani X-Pipe and Cat-Back, Subframe Connectors, JMS Chip, Eagle Alloy Wheels

I'm a relatively novice drag racer... I've only run about 30 passes or so. I know how to drive a car fairly hard and shift pretty hard... but... I'm obviously not a professional. This is my knowledge of your car (and those like it).

I have a -bone- stock 1997 Cobra. Well, now it has a shifter, but at the time of the crime, it didn't even have that. The only "mod" to this car was a set of Nitto Drag radials, 16" mounted on 16" GT wheels. I'm talking the factory stock spark plugs from 1997 (car had 28,000 miles on it at the time), factory stock wires, and a replacement factory paper air filter and fuel filter. This car was as stock as they come. It still is, save for the new wheels and a Tri-ax.

I propelled my car to a 13.87 @ 100.7 with a miserable grab-then-bog 2.3 second 60' time. With a real launch (hitting the throttle at the right time), that should be down to 13.5. I was also lifting the throttle at each

6800 RPM shift. I left the line at 4800 RPM but didn't get into the throttle fast enough. The car would lurch forward and then bog badly. The tires held the initial shock however.

With the mods done to your car, you will *never* hook on those tires. The KDWs are reputable for getting around a turn relatively fast (not nearly as nice as the KDs, but hey, they cost a ton). They're not sticky enough to keep you going forward on a heavy launch. I had Kuhmo Ecstas on the back at one point and I made a go at it... I couldn't even pull out like I was at a stoplight and trying to get a little jump on the guy next to me to take his lane. 1500 RPM, slip the clutch, and go immediately sideways. Finally get the car under control, *roll* into the throttle and light 'em up again. Get it back, get to redline, hit 2nd the same as I'd done all the time on the street, and I almost took out the guardrail. There was no traction to be found. Will you experience the same issues? Maybe not to that extent, but some stickies on the back will help your cause greatly. The 4.10's will amplify the traction issues though. I have stock 3.27's.

I'd say... with a good set of tires on the back end, hit all the gears on time, and run a very low 13, perhaps 13 flat. If you hook. You won't with those tires. If you're lucky, you'll grab a little and get it down the track fairly straight, but the soft launch required to do that is gonna kill any hopes for a 13.0.

Run the first few passes cautiously like you're expecting the car to do something stupid, because if you go out with those tires, run it up to 3000 RPM and drop the clutch, you'll be doing something stupid. You won't move at all, except that the back end will walk to your left.

Don't do any burnout in the water box. Drive around it (if possible) and do a quick dry-hop to kick the stones and residual water off. From what I've learned in here, doing a wet burnout on street tires just makes the surface hard and turns the rubber that peels off into little marbles of hard rubber. Just the thing you *don't* need when trying to get the car to accelerate.

Good luck and post your times. I'm interested to see what your car will do because most of the mods you've made are mods I'm planning for in the future.

JS

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 03:13:55 GMT, "JS" wrote something wonderfully witty:

High 13's perhaps, 13 flat, never.

I think most are interested in what the results are.

Exactly. Not with those tires. I think with some drag-oriented tires (BFGs or Nittos even) he could push the car to damn near 13.0 with a hard launch and hitting all the gears right. If my stock one can go 13.8 with a 2.3 60' (meaning if I knew how to drive, it should have been an easy 13.5), his 4.10

• exhuast car should be able to be in the 13.0-13.2 range. Exhuast is a big killer on those cars, and just opening it up helps a lot. There are guys with 4.30's, long tube headers, and complete exhaust work, nothing more, running 12.9. He should be close to that.

Everyone loves a good drag strip story..

JS

On the Ford Canada techs website there's mention of a chipped up F350 Crew Cab with the 6.0 diesel turning 13.3s.

This is one that I 'need' to see.

-- Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net