Topic: 2012 Romanian Drag Racing Championship

[Kelu]

On 21st - 22nd April 2012 first race of 2012 Romanian Drag Racing Championship took place in east of the country, the rules has been changed a bit, most important new rules:
a) Drag radials are allowed in Street category where I'm racing
b) My group is now:
- between 3L up to 3.8L, NA, FWD and RWD
- between 1.6L up to 2.5L forced induction - FWD
- between 1.6L up to 2.2L forced induction - RWD

About 140 cars, about 2000-3000 public, 2 days including night, awesome weather, great cars.

I have qualified 4th in my group for the finals with 13.3s with 2.2s on 60ft out of 22 cars. This ET is killing me, I have it as my best time in last 2 years, the car is pulling a lot harder than with stock turbo but I loose a lot on gear changes until the turbo spools up back even I power shift, here is a video from inside:

OpelGT drag race - inside

I don't know if can identify the screamer sound from this movie, basically the turbo pulls nice in that period.

During the finals me and the car run poorly, I was launching way worse than in the qualifications, first race in the top 8 against a Seat Cupra 2L Turbo similar with our engine doing around 350-370hp with Hoosier drag radials:

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I launched with a pretty good reaction but a poor 60ft, on 3rd gear I got a flashing DTC because misfire and the car wasn't accelerating anymore but I go through because my opponent got red light.

In the semi - final I lost against the 1st place from qualification, an VW Golf V GTI with DSG gearbox with Hoosier drag radials and he is local dealer for APR with a best ET of 12.4s and I got 3rd place:
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The final race of the stage:
+900hp Nissan GTR vs +800hp Vette C6 Z06 compressor
Skyline 900hp VS Corvette 900hp

Some other pictures:
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PS: miller now you can see that my car is not way too low now?

[Kelu]

more pics....


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[Kelu]

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[Arabas]

1. why did you edit the video to double speed 
2. from what i hear when shifting to 3rd gear there is a small rpm range that you accelerate in 3rd gear, that the engine is not pulling hard, untill boost builds up and the engine sounds like it's delivering some really serius power. same thing applies to 4th gear, but it seems you end the race before the engine gets some serious power in 4th gear.
i 'd say higher diff ratio or shorter 3rd, 4th and 5th gear and you d get some serious reduction of time... hope 17 or 16 inch can do the trick...
3. i see pics, but i don't see any PICS (meaning nude sexy ladies) 

congrats bro! u make us proud!!

[elff]

Wow, that corvette got SPANKED!!!

Can you No Lift Shift in your car to try and keep in the boost?

[Kelu]

Arabas:
1) I don't do those kind of things, seems like you do 
2) 3rd gear is the gear where I spent most of the time of a run, shorter ratio means 1st and 2nd would be useless even with DR with the 400bhp power, now I raced with about 350-370hp
3) no nude sexy ladies this stage, money went to drift show/taxi and bike stunts, maybe next race when will be a little bit warmer even if now it was awesome weather

Wait until I will get the proper power and some DR  I plan to fight for the 1st place if I can achieve those 2 things

elff It was first visit of the track of both drivers, Vette just being upgraded and the guy was improving each run, his best time was 11.0 which is not bad for the first one and he still didn't finished the tuning, the car can do a 9s run in US strips but in Romania will probably run around 10.5s
The GTR was upgraded in UK last year and eat about 60 grand, it was bought by my friend who is organizing the drag races with a good price, he raced only 2 times before this final, the car was doing constant 9.8s last year in Romania, he did a 10.0s

I No Lift Shifted and still got a 13.3s, I don't have logs to look how much boost I loose on shifting and I raced with broken MAP sensor from manifold so probably I wasn't be able to see the boost in HPT. Also even my MAF was calibrated after MAP sensor broke my fuel trims shifted a lot which I think it produces KR (i have around -3* timing up top)

[Arabas]

i may be wrong here, but i don't hear 2nd gear being tooooo short, thus useless. honestly i don t ven hear 1st gear being toooo short...
instead of changing diff, maybe you could try 16'' wheels to see if this would help. i believe you could maybe do a flat 13 if when shifting to 3rd and 4th gear you had just a bit higher rpms...

don;t mean to push you, but YOU HAVE TO HEAR THE CRAZY GREEK GUY!!!!! FIND SOME 16'' AND TRY IT !!!

[Kelu]

Some more picture:
This the Golf which won my group and was 0.7s in front of the rest
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My favorite
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Some other racers
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Camaro Hennessy 750hp
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The winner
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Challenger STR8
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[Kelu]

Arabas: look at the video
2nd is starting at 03s
3rd is starting at 06s
4th is starting at 11s adn ends at 14s

I shift:
1st over 7000rpm
2nd just a little bit over 7000rpm
3rd around 6800rpm
I can't do it later

I tried 16" wheels about 2 years ago, i was gaining in 4th gear but I was loosing on 60ft big time:
Opel GT solo run

With some Drag Radials I will drop the 60ft from 2.2s down to at least 1.9s which means in same conditions I will be into 12s easily, the Golf with Hoosier got a 1.9s on FWD. I know that auto Kappa with only GMPP and exhaust can do a 1.7s on sixty on US strips so 1.9s is very doable for me in Romania, I even did once in the past using Toyo R888. With some polish of the tune and a little more 30-40hp I think I can do mid 12s which is my target and than being consistent will allow me to fight for podium in any race.

[Critterman]

I still can't get by the fact that you got beat by a Seat.


Lucky for you he redlighted

[Arabas]

these Seats can be very very strong, especially due to so many aftermarket parts  available for them. even with stock turbo, full bolt ons and a hpfp from rs4, they can give 380hp (sompared to the 320-330 of the kappa). and don't forget the finely tuned 6 speed tranny they got..

[Critterman]

But even so it's still a seat

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[Gentleman Jack]

There once was a Seat from Spain
Which caused Kelu a great amount of pain
He still won the race
With red on his face
When The Seat jumped the gun

[Critterman]

There once was a Seat from Spain
Which caused Kelu a great amount of pain
He still won the race
With red on his face
When The Seat jumped the gun

Keep your day job but good try.   They (Seats) have change a bit over the years.[attachimg=1]

[Kelu]

these Seats can be very very strong, especially due to so many aftermarket parts  available for them. even with stock turbo, full bolt ons and a hpfp from rs4, they can give 380hp (sompared to the 320-330 of the kappa). and don't forget the finely tuned 6 speed tranny they got..

You are pretty much right, the GT and that Seat were dead even, I did 13.34s and he did a 13.37s in qualification stage. Finals are mostly based on driver and consistency.
He had Hoosier DR, Seat have far better gearbox for drag racing, less loss on the drive train, and if he can launch same as me, I have no change in 4th gear where FWD cars are flying.

[LatinVenom]

I hope the Vette can improve because that nissan just got him bad.
I think once you get the DR's you will be fine.

[miller11386]

Well you have a problem kelu. Your power band is higher than your motor wants to rev, so you have 2 options:

Rev Higher or change your gearing to have shorter gears and thus decrease your rev drop between gears. IE rear end drive change/ custom gear set in your trans.

IMO you are going to much more cost effective to rev higher. What springs/retainers are you using? How high will you push it? 7k? 8k? 8500? 9k?

Get some giant springs and push her up to 8500rpm. Then when you shift, you will still be in your turbo's powerband. I can site videos if you need me to, however everyone will just complain im posting more non kappa related stuff.

[Kelu]

My turbo is in full boost around 4500rpm. I rev 7000rpm, when I shift I'm around 4500rpm or above if I'm not wrong, i'm not going under boost after shifting.

The problem is that all air is getting out through the BOV and to refill the whole intake it takes some time with this turbo, this issue I had even with stock turbo even the air was recirculated. I didn't logged my races this event to tell you exactly but with stock turbo I was having like 0,5s for each gear shift when I wasn't accelerating. I posted in a topic when I installed WOT Box.

I'm running stock head/engine.

I will work with my tuner on this issue.

[miller11386]

.5sec! thats a huge gap! definitely a place to improve there.

Get that valve actuating better, and recirc the valve back behind your MAF probably would not hurt either.

Higher revs will help as well. The more gas flowing out will give you a shorter spool time, so honestly valves and retainers should be at the top of your list... you need to rip to at least 8k, if not 8500.

Keep in mind it is still a little 4 cyl. You dont have displacement to spool, so you need RPM for more gas volume

Also you only rev to 7k? I know the doctor had my rev limiter at 7400rpm. I never came near it on the 2871 (no power there) but I would think you could go over 7k and still be safe.

[Kelu]

I have KR above 7000rpm even with 8 grade cold spark plugs that's why I don't above right now, I plan to change the MAP sensors because the manifold one is shot, increase the octane of the gas and see if KR persists.

My MAF sits between BOV (cold side pipe) and throttle body.

I'm aware about displacement and revs

On my list now are:
- drag radials
- GTX3071 turbo
- valve springs - the KR/misfire which I see above 7000rpm might be valve float
I can't buy them all, I need to be 110% sure what I need and not shooting in the dark.

My turbo pushes pretty strong even above 7000rpm.

[miller11386]

Kelu, I hope you are joking about ANOTHER turbo change! IF you do choose to go to another turbo, please, get an FP turbo and be done with this nonsense! GTX's are being sent into FP for their upgrades. The amt of TQ the make down low plus their 500rpm lower spool makes them better than the standard GT/GTX. Also be sure to pickup the TiAL turbine housing... here would be a very similar FP turbo that would fit your car nicely:

http://store.forcedperformance.net/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=FP&Product_Code=NTGT3076HTA&Category_Code=Turbo-FP


Keep in mind if you only rev to 7k, you can only get ~470whp out of this setup

[Kelu]

Miller: who said I paid the previous one? I will pay the one I will keep and be happy with it

I don't like to buy turbos which don't have compressor maps.

[SHiNY]

Kelu doesn't joke. He's a very serious Romaniac!

I used Tapatalk Elff!

[miller11386]

FP have even out matched EFR's for power and spool times. (I know your favorite turbo ever is the EFR)

Since you are changing turbos more than you change your shorts, try a HTA 3586 out

I hope to have a very good review on the power those make in the upcoming weeks

[elff]

Miller,
Is that what you are getting?

Kelu
To me it sounds like that turbo spools way to late.  Tuning will help a little but not a lot.  I you are going to be revving that high you really need upgraded valve springs. 

No package from PA yet?