Arriving at the Live Oak gate (L.O. west off the 605 fwy), I entered the North Main Entrance to Irwindale and paid my $20. In return, I received a Tech Card and complimentary trunk inspection. I then pulled forward for my vehicle inspection.



After a successful inspection, you get your windows graffiti’d in 3 places & then pull forward a whopping 20 feet, park it and then “register”. Registration requires you to present your Driver’s License, as well as sign the disclaimer. You will then receive an official limited edition Irwindale plastic wristband award for your efforts.



Irwindale is an 1/8 mile & gets crowded, quickly. I ran into MrTomCat (my350z) with his APS TT 350z, and his buddy (sorry, forgot his name!) in the pits.

 

Later on in the evening we were joined by Davidchoi425 (David / G35Driver, OCG35 (Mike / G35Driver), Sein (My350z), and Nuttyprof (G35Driver)

Local domestics were pretty friendly and the Monterey Park PD 350z was there with his buddies. I was messing around and walked up to his car as he was getting ready to load and started questioning. “Were you aware, sir, that upon visual inspection, that your vehicle has modifications to its smog equipment? I also noticed that you do not have CARB approval sticker for the Turbonetics aftermarket product, or do you have documentation to support your operation of this vehicle under its current level of modification? I let him off with a warning, since he had a pretty good sense of humor.





Temps ranged from 88 at 5p to 70 at 945p. Didn’t like the fact that you could not avoid the water box and the crews thought it funny to soak the entire staging area. Was not a problem at first, but then water built up and you had to do a little burn out past the water box to clear your wet rubber.

On my Dunlop 19” DZ101 Direzzas, I was running with 32psi. Sein set his pressure at 20 (wtf) on his stock 19’s. There was no “bracket racing” at Irwindale. When there is you must be in the 7’s to qualify and pay an additional $20. Prize money comes from the bracket registration. So at Irwindale, bracket racing is just for the “big boys”.



A little competition for Mike … and you thought you get nervous when a cruiser pulls up on you!

 

First run was at 88deg
SOCALTED vs. Integra
Reaction .554 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.346
330 6.359
1/8 9.704 (68.57MPH) . . . . Opponent (10.464 / 70.2MPH)

FYI… I banged the rev limiter on 1-2 and 2-3. My bad!!!

Run #2 was at 88deg
SOCALTED vs. 240Z
Reaction .685 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.286
330 6.242
1/8 9.432 (77.06MPH) . . . . Opponent (10.080 / 69.13MPH)


Run #3 was at 86deg
SOCALTED vs. Drag S10 pickup
Reaction .633 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.240
330 6.160
1/8 9.331 (77.52MPH) . . . . Opponent (7.974 / 87.22MPH)


Run #4 was at 79deg**
SOCALTED vs. Drag Monte Carlo
Reaction 1.146 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.293
330 6.205
1/8 9.294 (79.92MPH) . . . . Opponent (8.932 / 83.78MPH)

**This was my run with DMH Performance's Electric Cutouts open **

Run #5 was at ??deg
SOCALTED vs. OCG35
Reaction .595 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.510
330 6.456
1/8 9.656 (76.95MPH)

OCG35
Reaction .854 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.395
330 6.496
1/8 9.698 (76.60MPH)

As a side note, the crew really soaked the water box and approach. Both Mike and I spun our tires like crazy at launch, as we don’t do burn outs. So, we learned on the next round to “spin” a little to dry them off.


Run #6 was at 73deg
SOCALTED vs. OCG35
Reaction .591 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.233
330 6.126
1/8 9.286 (77.90MPH)

OCG35
Reaction .785 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.253
330 6.143
1/8 9.292 (77.56MPH)

Last Race!! #7 at 71deg
Unfortunately, I think Mike walked away with my last slip. Mike if you have one slip with #3416 in the right lane, lemme know what it says. It was vs. a newer Impala and I think it was in the 9.3’s, not sure (yes, I beat him!)

I'd also like to congratulate and welcome Sein as the newest member of Team Transport! BTW... Sein ran an 8.9 and MrTomCat ran a 7.777!

Until next time... cheers, Ted

 

For those of you following my DMH Performance Electric Exhaust cutout experiment, this was an interesting experience.

Run #4 was at 79deg**
SOCALTED vs. Drag Monte Carlo
Reaction 1.146 (at Irwindale .500 is perfect)
60’ 2.293
330 6.205
1/8 9.294 (79.92MPH)

**This was my run with DMH Performance's Electric Cutouts open **

You can see that my reaction time sucked.. but that wasn't me... that was the car not moving over the line at launch... and I did not spin the tires. You can see that, even on the worst of launches, my reaction time has NEVER exceeded .690

Now let's take the average of my five runs (1,2,3,5,6) 4 is left out because that is the Cutout run, and I do not have the numbers for Run 7.

5 Run Avg vs. DMH
Slowed my avg. "reaction time" by 0.534
Shaved -0.030 off my avg. 60'
Shaved -0.064 off my avg. 330'
Shaved -0.188 off my avg. 1/8 mile
Increased avg. max MPH by 4.320mph

VS. my 4 run average (eliminating run #1 where I hit the rev limiter twice)
Slowed my avg. "reaction time" by 0.520
Shaved -0.024 off my avg. 60'
Shaved -0.041 off my avg. 330'
Shaved -0.132 off my avg. 1/8 mile
Increased avg. max MPH by 2.563mph

This very much correlates to what I felt in the car when last I ran the cutouts at LACR. It's a DOG off the line, having lost all low end power (more accurately, the "Will to Move"). BUT, as she gets going, she really starts picking up!

Being only a 1/8th mile course, I don't feel the run really gave the car the headroom it needed. On the other hand, I can't really say that I like having a lead bottom at the last yellow.

I wish that I had run a second E-cutout run, but wasn't sure how many more runs we'd get. I was trying to see if I could break into the 8's. Maybe next time, if don't run with half a tank of gas and changeout my 19's for the stock 17's?

Cheers, Ted

Please note: The above are observations based on a single open pipe run and are not to be considered guarantees that it will be repeatable for you or me. This is an experiment in process!!

 

your first run was against me! sweet!! thanks for the card Ted!

-Walter

 

Walter.. good to see you posting up. Now bring out your coupe instead of the Acura!

-Ted

 

Nice write-ups Ted... Sorry I don’t have your last race slip (only got mine).

Had a good time at the track, nice to see a decent VQ presence!! 1/8 is much dif than 1/4 mile (not nearly as fun, but worth it). I was fully loaded with daily driving gear in trunk - spare, jack etc) and kept hood closed for moist races. Intention was to see how car would run with close to real world driving conditions... Spanked a Civic (of course), got spanked by muscle car (although I beat him off the line - he only won by several tens)... the rest of the night was against Ted - ran real close but he edged me out each race!

The cop cars were bad @***!!!! 137mph!!!!! The best thing about this track was my car wasn’t covered in a layer of dirt inside and out (like Palmdale).

Look forward to getting out there with everyone again soon!

BTW - Sin did great being the only NA VQ under 9... I don’t think he's on this board so I posted kudos to him on my350Z!