With the 2026 year winding down, I wanted to knock-off one of my bucket list items for the year and that was to get the car out to a different dragstrip. I had planned on going out the Friday night prior to the 9th but it got rained out and literally, October 9th was the last real race event they were having before closing the track for the winter, so it was the only chance I had left. The car had been packed and ready for over a week, so I got out of work early that day and set off around 2:30pm. Numidia is 118 miles from my house, plus NJ traffic and all sorts of construction on the road. The drive out there was good though, no real issues to report aside from the rear passenger drag radial giving me a rotational "bump" as it goes down the road between 70-75 mph. The tires are almost fully used up, so I am living with it as is until a new set of tires comes next year. Anyways, I arrived at the gate at 4:59, just one minute before they opened up. I bought two tech-cards, one for Test and Tune and the other for the Hot-Street bracket which is any car with drag radials. My plan was to run all-motor passes in the hot street class if/until I got eliminated and then do nitrous passes in the Test and Tune group. The facility is real nice, up on a big hilltop, good layout too. Once I got the car emptied of all my gear I went through tech inspection and got the car ready for a test pass in the HS bracket class.
Pass 1: Testing
Tire pressure was 19.0. Removed all air from rear airbags. Set rear Viking warrior shocks at 9 compression and 4 rebound (and I kept them there all day). This run did not get a datalog because the car in front of me put out an object on the track so I had to turn engine off and stop the log. But then we were told to re-fire quick and I was still belted in, too tight to reach my laptop and restart the datalog. The car ran good, but felt slow. I had been told by several people that my timeslip would be slower because Numidia is a slower track than Island by a few tenths. I found this to be actually fully true, as I was 2 tenths off my normal all motor 11.70s and 2 mph slower. With this current 3400 torque converter my car has slowed down all-motor but improved on the nitrous timeslips, so seeing the 11.90s passes on motor was making sense to me.
Timeslip and Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Dx9Xro7EM
Pass 2: Testing
Same car setup and same efi tune. Footbrake launched from a 989 rpm idle and the converter flashed to 3372 rpms. I let the transmission make the 1-2 shift, which was at 4975 rpms and the 2-3 shift I made was at 6083 rpms. I crossed the finish line at 5746 rpms.
Timeslip and datalog:[url=https://flic.kr/p/2sHpDVZ]
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZflleWTR0o
Pass 3: Eliminations Round 1
Dialed in an 11.90
Lowered tire pressure just a touch, from 19.0 to 18.6 psi. Everything else stayed the same. Footbrake launch from a medium idle at 1029 rpms, and the converter flashed at 3183 rpms. The transmission did the 1-2 shift at 4997 rpms and I did the 2-3 shift at 5960 rpms. I noticed that I was catching him so I backed down on the throttle a bit, then fully chopped the throttle off and back on to sneak by him at the end. I only went 103 mph because of the throttle work, but I took the win and crossed the finish line at 5223 rpms.
Timeslip and Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyP1ahjqHvc
Pass 4: Eliminations Round 2
Dialed the same 11.90 (probably should have changed it to 11.95ish)
Tire pressures and everything else is the same. Another launch from a medium idle at 1090 rpms, converter flashed at 3416 rpms. I let the transmission shift 1-2 again and that was at 4963 rpms. It looks like I short shifted or maybe had the transmission make the 2-3 shift at 5297 rpms. Realizing I was a bit behind, I blipped the nitrous button for a moment, but for some reason then I got OFF the throttle, probably because I didn't want to break out and run under my 11.90 dial in but I really don't know anymore. Finished the run at 5751 rpms and the driver next to me had a near perfect run on his dial-in, plus a good reaction time, so he did good and he took the win.
Timeslip and Datalog:
(datalog photo didn't upload, will redo it later)
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_jWv94FYok
Pass 5: Test and Tune with 150 nitrous shot
The track closes at 10pm and I had just finished the previous pass at 9:11, so I was hopeful to squeeze in two nitros runs before heading home. Tire pressure had dropped to 18.4 so I just left it there. Bottle heater got the nitrous system pressure up to 975psi. Footbrake launch from a high idle at 1130 rpms and for some reason the converter flashed a little bit low, at only 3011 rpms. I had the transmission shift from 1-2 at 5624 rpms and then I made the mistake of shifting 2-3 in a hurry (in only .6 seconds) so 2nd gear only got to 5137 rpms before lugging down into 3rd gear. Looking at the datalog I was actually through first and second gear in only 2.2 seconds, and the remaining 8.5 seconds of the run, I was chugging along in 3rd gear. I knew my mistake when I did it, but I just rode it out for the full pass, coming across the finish line at 6367 rpms which is higher than I like to be. My brain had me backing off the throttle at the end of the pass also, but it still produced a pretty good timeslip. The car ran a 10.57 and my all-time personal best is a 10.54. There was potential for a better timeslip if I held 2nd gear longer, and held throttle down hard the whole run, so I was excited for the next one. Looked at the datalog super quick in the lane, and noticed that fueling closed loop comp was maxed out at -10% and the engine was still running rich on the nitrous, but there was no time to pull a spark plug.
Timeslip and Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_b3RvfHGQo
Pass 6: Test and Tune with 150 nitrous shot.
No time for changes, so I hot lapped the car with the same settings. I wish I had adjusted fueling and avoided running rich at the top end, but my thinking was maybe it went rich because my foot was backing off the throttle at the top end of the last pass, so I left everything the same. Footbrake launch from 1109 rpms, with a flash at 3409 rpms. I decided to shift all gears this time, but took 1st gear too high at 6314 rpms. I took 2nd gear even higher, shifting at 6465 rpms. Yikes! Then finally got across the finish line, at 6251 rpms and I knew that was also a good pass, but I was hoping it might have been a 10.52 or something. However, in the shutdown area of the track, as the car was slowing down, I could feel that it was not decelerating the same as usual...then as I got to maybe 10 mph and started making the exit turn from the track, the engine shut off. This has never happened before so I was a little in shock but I got it fired up again and heard that it was running rough and wanting to stall out. Limped it to the timing booth to get my timeslip which was an almost identical 10.57 at 127 mph pass as the one I had just made 11 minutes earlier! The only problem now is... engine is hurt! Damn !!!! Due to the engine shutting off, this caused the datalog to save but add tehse wacky diagnoal lines across it and the even crappier thing is that I can't zoom in on it. I can scroll through it and watch the values, but no zooming in. Oh well.. we have BIGGER problems than a mis-saved datalog!
Timeslip and Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BekFRNplqs
So, I was pretty darn surprised about this but I limped the car over to where I left my gear in the pits. I was a little haphazard about diagnosing it in the dark. Engine would run rough at idle and needed throttle to keep it alive, running way rich on the afr gauges, and holley sniper was still adding fuel! I attributed it to maybe a blown oxygen sensor, vacuum leak at the china wall, or fuel injector issues.. so I put the tune in open-loop, and later another different tune file in open-loop. I started to think about calling a tow truck via AAA but I knew I needed to get the car off the track's property even to make that phone call. So I checked more things, packed more things, made foolish decisions, and drove the car out of the gates popping and banging! I kept noticing that above 1700 rpms, the engine would smooth out and run "decent", and after a few minutes on the dark farmroads of Numidia Pennsylvania, I got to a town area and pulled into a parking lot for more diagnosing. I was damn tired (woke up at 4:45 am) and just not looking forward to a long ride home on a towtruck....so I decided to keep on driving. Pulled over for fuel once, and another safety pit stop once into NJ, but I kept deciding to drive onward, with two fire extinguishers at the ready and watching my gauges like a hawk. Somehow, I made it home, and had convinced myself that it had to be something with the Holley Sniper and its systems. I was still definitely super happy about the fun I had at Numidia and I don't regret going there, not one bit. However, in the days ahead of diagnosing everything, I came to learn that it was NOT the sniper, but something mechanical.
...to be continued soon
oh, and heres food for thought about the two back to back nitrous runs. The shift intervals and rpms in each run couldn't be more different. One run was two quick low rev shifts and a climb up 3rd gear and the second run was over-revving every single gear. Yet, almost the same freakin' timeslip??!
