First time at track with mods. Opinions?

[N4ASHO]

Once my 2015 SHO had 1000 miles on it I ordered up some parts from Livernois and headed for my closest track which is New England Dragway in Epping NH. I have 25 years experience at the quarter mile and tried to get everything I could from the car.
Current mods are:
Livernois 93 Tune
Catless DP's
Windstorm Intake
160 stat
gapped plugs
3 bar map
I'm at a slight disadvantage since I'm 350 lbs but was able to run a 13.0 @ 109 mph with a 1.89 60'
I then made 3 more hot lap passes at 13.1
Was bringing up the boost slightly and launching around 2K. I did try to power brake once and launch harder but the boost cut activated and the car fell on its face.
Since its a consistent low 13 sec car I wanted to see what was next to be a "consistent high 12 sec" car!
Not sure if the aftermarket exhaust would help at all or if I should try hard pipes next?

 

[BamSHO]

How long did you let the car "learn" the tune before you went to the track. Sometimes it take a week or two for it to settle in. You should easily run in the 12's with your mods. 2-2200 launches are the best. What where your tire pressures at and did you turn off TRAC?

 

[N4ASHO]

How long did you let the car "learn" the tune before you went to the track. Sometimes it take a week or two for it to settle in. You should easily run in the 12's with your mods. 2-2200 launches are the best. What where your tire pressures at and did you turn off TRAC?

I installed the parts and only had the tune installed for a day before hitting the track which was about 125 miles. I did have TRAC turned off and ran stock tire pressures

 

[2012korn]

Yeah. I would expect you to be deeper in the 12's with your mod list. Most are high 12's without downpipes.

 

[brucelinc]

The weight would be a factor but your 60 is as good or better than mine and your trap speed is higher although your ET is not quite as good. Keep in mind the DA and wind direction can make a difference.

Guys with experience, what does it mean to have a high trap speed but a less than stellar ET?

 

[2012korn]

Normally that means you spun halfway down the track. But that's not applicable here.

 

[Butcher]

What are your 660' numbers? Your times are surprising to me. I have a '13 with the same mods (except my DP's are catted). You have a better 60' time and you're 2 mph faster, however you're two tenths slower than me. I ran 12.86 @ 107.1 with a 1.90 60'. The DA that day was around 2600 feet. I'm curious as to how you lost .2 seconds while gaining 2 mph between 60' and 1320'. Were you manually shifting your car?

 

[brucelinc]

It would be great if those of us who take our cars to the track would post our timeslips and DA in the drag racing section of this forum. Seeing each time/speed helps figure out where any shortcomings might be.

 

[SHOdded]

And mods at the time also ...

 

[N4ASHO]

I was in normal drive mode letting the car shift itself
Time slip shows....
R/T .175
60' 1.899
330 5.463
1/8 8.434
MPH 82.87
1000 10.974
ET 13.096
MPH 109.01

 

[brucelinc]

Interesting. You are over 2 mph slower at 1/8 than I am but 2 mph faster at the end of the 1/4. Part of that could be better aerodynamics of the Taurus compared to my MKS.

 

[Butcher]

Ok, now I'm really baffled. If I didn't know better, I would say that the mph beams at your track were too close to each other. However, you were at at really good track, so I doubt that could be the case. You picked up almost 4 mph more than me, from the 1/8 to the 1/4, but you lost some ET. I'm having trouble understanding how that happened. Here are my times, for comparison:

60' - 1.909
330' - 5.369
1/8. - 8.275
MPH 84.61
1000 - 10.768
1/4. - 12.869
MPH 107.15

 

[Butcher]

Based on split times, you lost almost .07 seconds, but gained 4 mph versus my times. I'm at a loss for an explanation.

You weren't weaving all over your lane, were you? I mean, if you actually travelled 1400 feet to cover 1320 feet, that might explain it.

 

[brucelinc]

It is strange. My numbers are in the drag racing section but they are more in line with Butcher's.

 

[RainsFather]

Would definitely be beneficial to drive it a few hundred more miles and then go again just to see if it was something weird with the way the car was running with the adaptive learning process in the ecu. Another good thing to do would be to data log, but can't with your tuner.

It's like your car jumped off the line well, roasted the tires through the 1/8 (or lost power), and just killed it on the top end of the track. It's exactly what my previous two vehicles did when I was first getting used to running them, but they were both RWD and the SHOs AWD should prevent that issue.

 

[SilverSH0]

Would definitely be beneficial to drive it a few hundred more miles and then go again just to see if it was something weird with the way the car was running with the adaptive learning process in the ecu. Another good thing to do would be to data log, but can't with your tuner.

It's like your car jumped off the line well, roasted the tires through the 1/8 (or lost power), and just killed it on the top end of the track. It's exactly what my previous two vehicles did when I was first getting used to running them, but they were both RWD and the SHOs AWD should prevent that issue.

It's very odd. His 60' time is better than Butcher's so he got off the line better on the short end. Also, his trap is faster than Butcher's. So in 9/10 of races when someone has a faster 60' and a faster trap, they're going to have a faster time. But in this case Butcher's car had a better time and it's definitely odd.

If he was blowing the tires off on the launch but making good power I would expect lower 60' times with high trap speeds. High trap speeds with low 60' times is very odd. I would wonder if it's bogging down in 2nd gear or losing traction there (his 330' is worse than Butcher's). His 1/8 mile trap is slower than Butcher's but his 1/4 mile trap is faster.

 

[N4ASHO]

I will likely go back in the next week to see what changes reflect from time on the new tune. I originally noticed a delayed shift into 2nd gear which now seems to be fine. But back to my original question of future mods, what would be next? I was looking at both hard pipes or exhaust to hopefully gain a couple tenths. But was not sure how well either benefit on these cars

 

[BamSHO]

Next bang for the buck is meth injection. As for cat back exhaust and hard pipe, not sure you gain that much for what they cost.

 

[RainsFather]

I will likely go back in the next week to see what changes reflect from time on the new tune. I originally noticed a delayed shift into 2nd gear which now seems to be fine. But back to my original question of future mods, what would be next? I was looking at both hard pipes or exhaust to hopefully gain a couple tenths. But was not sure how well either benefit on these cars

Exhaust would be your next step. Catted/catless down pipes and get rid of the third cat by having a shop remove it or buying a full exhaust system. Meth injection would be after that. Hard pipes aren't going to do a lot unless you have done everything else, including bigger turbos. Though hard pipes do look nicer than the black plastic.

 

[13blacksho]

Exhaust would be your next step. Catted/catless down pipes and get rid of the third cat by having a shop remove it or buying a full exhaust system. Meth injection would be after that. Hard pipes aren't going to do a lot unless you have done everything else, including bigger turbos. Though hard pipes do look nicer than the black plastic.

I've been thinking about having the 3rd cat removed...
Does it just increase sound by a bit or is it pretty noticeable?
I'm assuming the power gain would be very close to 0...