G'day to all,Took my car to the drags for the first time yesterday.Bought it already set up and had only done six passes, best of which was 10.7 @ 129mph.My plan is to get it on the road .Obviously some changes and sacrifices have to be made but I'm ok with that as its too much for the street anyway imo.Its an LH with 355 stroker,toughened tri-matic, 9 inch ,full spool, 3.77 gears etc.I've had car re-wired,installed interior including dash,heater,wipers and made some adjustments ,timimg,valve clearances etc...thats all so far .Going slow on purpose cause I was waiting for a chance to take her to the drags.
I was very happy at my first pass.Took it easy, medium burnout , launched at 2800ish , ( 2800 stally) ,and took her to about 5800 (limiter @ 7000) for a result of 11.26 @ 125mph.At the end of that run i stopped to speak to a marshall about where the finish line actually is as its hard to spot at Heathcote.I put my car in neutral ,spoke to him for 30 seconds and then could not select a gear to drive away.Fiddled with it a little and realized that it was actually in reverse which is strange because you have to go back to drive and lift shifter (B&M Quicksiver) to select reverse or park.I switched car off and moved linkages underneath it with my hands and all seemed to be fine again.Second run I launched a little harder and took her out further but backed off early looking for that damned finish line for an 11.24@ 110mph.But that's only the least of the bad news.....
DISASTER !!!!
As i went over the what i thought was the finish line I backed off the pedal and this time I decided to flick car into neutral.I know there is much debate about whether this should be done and i learnt the hard way.I will never do it again.I had instant full lock up of the rear ,got fully sideways with the car even beginning to bounce sideways.At this stage i was positive I was going for a roll but she somehow settled and aimed for the opposite wall which I managed to steer away from and just graze on drivers side ( I was in left lane).Damage is ,slight panel damage to guard and both doors, broken flares, 3 damaged rims, 4 flat spotted tires (front wore right through and popped).Couldn't have asked for a better result from a near 200kph spill.Car has no cage.I could be dead.Scared me a little afterwards.At the end of all this shifter was again not working like after first run so i again moved linkages back and forth and ended up backing car off the trailer and all seems to work , not even a leak.
Gonna leave this one to a pro.I will be taking car to an auto specialist as he wants to check out the gates on shifter and auto etc. but am interested in the thoughts of some of you knowledgeable ones.
If it went into reverse wouldn't it have self destructed?Wouldn't something at least break with decent sticky slicks on the back? Is it something else?Someone yesterday suggested rear brakes being to tight and heat from burnout causes seizing so once you let off the pedal you get lock up?Car was rolling no problem though.
Thanks in anticipation of your thoughts.Feeling lucky to be alive ) Three weeks ago I hit a Buffallo at 110kph in Kakadu Nat. Park. Someone must be looking after me but this car thing must be sorted asap.