I made $ drag racing my stock Geo Metro 3 cylinder (long)

[ATaylorRacing]

They held Import Day at Edgewater drag strip near Cincinnati Sunday and unlike the vast majority of tracks that allow domestic compacts in they stick to a imports only rule. Sooooo I drove the 96 Geo Metro 1 liter down there. I was worried that it would not run quick enough since nearly all tracks have a 19.99 second rule for your time in competition. I had a tach put in Tuesday to help for this day and found that on the street when I thought I was winding it tight I was in reality shifting at only 4000 rpm! I drove it down there with the gas that was already in the tank so I would not be carring extra wt of uneeded fuel. I weighed the car after every pass too. When full of gas it is 1730 lbs (I have taken 70 lbs out of it)....but Sunday I also took out the baby seat, his toys, his bag, the spare and jack for a car wt of only 1660 lbs! The gas gauge read a bit over the red mark so I still had enough gas for the mission. I put 11 practice passes on it and 4 more rounds of eliminations....the car did not use but 5 lbs of fuel during the event and the 80 miles of in town driving with another 115 miles of interstate and a total of 15 full out passes on the track gave me my worst FE ever of only 37.1 mpg.

The 1st pass I side stepped the clutch at @ 2000 rpm like I do on the street (at 1500) and shifted at 5000 rpm....my slowest pass of the day...a not good enough 20.23 at a mind bending 64.71 mph and once into 3rd gear before half track it seemed so far and slow to the end!The 18th mile was a 12.809 at 53.65 mph. From there on I experimented with different ways to launch and shift points. The 2nd pass while shifting at 5500 found this thing a blur at 19.838 and 67.51 mph while also launching at 2500 rpm and getting a bit of tire spin!!! I found that only with some tire spin and shifting at 5500 rpm could I stay in the 19s. The best pass was a 19.687 at 68.00 mph while not shifting into 4th and crossing the finish line at 5700 rpm. The 4th gear shift was alway at the mph recording light, 90 ft from the finish line.

I found that the car ran the most consistant times when leaving with some tire spin and shifting at 5500 on all shifts but the 4th gear one I was now doing at 5250, a few feet before the mph timer lights. Driving this way on my last 7 practice passes and 4 rounds of eliminations it ran between 19.842 and 19.995.....I dialed a 19.90 for the race. My 12 second SRT4 varies by only .14 pass to pass so this was quite acceptable while the 17 second Horizon I race varies by .06 at the most.

My average reaction time in practice was a .061 (.000 is perfect) while my best was a great .013 (I try for a .020-.040) and in eliminations they averaged a .066....not too great, but compared to my competition, darn good. In practice my opponents had a best of .101 and the worst of .727 then in the 1st three rounds of eliinations they had easy to beat .287, .303, and a .320. In the 4th round I beat myself by running .051 too fast against a plain jane 4 door accord that ran a 17.358 on a 17.35 dial and his RT was a .041 to my .061...I was on the brakes barely at the end and I beat him across the line by only .031.....I was okay with that because it is hard to judge finish line margins when there is a big mph difference.....in this case he was flying by me at 79.8 mph....the slowest car there but for me. Then I found out that he races there for pts every weekend with that car and his Super Pro car.

The quickest car I ran went 10.948 at 130+ while most ran 12.20s - 14.60s.

Oh yeah, the $250 did not hurt either...now I know I have a capable spare if my 12 second car is down!

[phoebeisis]

Hey- 19 second 1/4 at 68 mph is awfully got for a Metro. I would have guessed 22+seconds at best.

What does 68 mph= in rear wheel hp, I wonder?

Great passes, but from your name and mini bio ,"34 time....", you've obviously had lots of practice.
Charlie

[ATaylorRacing]

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

Hey- 19 second 1/4 at 68 mph is awfully got for a Metro. I would have guessed 22+seconds at best.

What does 68 mph= in rear wheel hp, I wonder?

Great passes, but from your name and mini bio ,"34 time....", you've obviously had lots of practice.
Charlie

I use a drag strip calculation to find the HP at the drive tires. You take the total wt of car and driver, multiply by 200, then divide that # by the elapsed time 3 times. On my Geo a 19.85 pass is only 48.2 HP! The less HP you have the more that wt effects the ET. My 12 second SRT4 takes 150 lbs to = a .10 secong, my 17 second Horizon takes only 30 lbs and I am guessing only 20 lbs would be needed on my Geo.

Nowadays most track timing systems cannot handle a 20.00 or slower dial in during eliminations.....but during the 80s I had a Chrysler Reliant that ran mid 21s with a 2.2 and auto and a friend had a small V8 diesel Olds that ran 22s......his car now has a 355 and runs in the mid 11s.

I can, and will race anything......as far as experience goes, I never raced the Geo before, but it is nearly as consistant as my 12 second SRT4. In 1986 I won the Coca-Cola Hoosier Nationals in a Dodge Maxi-Van that was plated as a bus! It took 2 races to find out how to drive it for consistant ETs.....it was the only time I won a championship in a RWD vehicle!

[Right Lane Cruiser]

This must be hard on the clutch, no?

[blownb310]

Unusual, [but interesting] story for this forum. I drag raced for many years and have always found that leaving the starting line with lots of revs and some wheelspin will net the best times for a small, low-torque engined car.

My old Datsun B210 ran 20.6 seconds @ 62 mph when it was bone stock. I later stripped all extra weight out of it and built the original 1400cc pushrod engine for maximum power and ran a 14.17 @ 96.9 mph with it. This was with the original open diff and regular 60 series street tires.

Mike

[raveneon]

Originally Posted by ATaylorRacing

I use a drag strip calculation to find the HP at the drive tires. You take the total wt of car and driver, multiply by 200, then divide that # by the elapsed time 3 times. On my Geo a 19.85 pass is only 48.2 HP! The less HP you have the more that wt effects the ET. My 12 second SRT4 takes 150 lbs to = a .10 secong, my 17 second Horizon takes only 30 lbs and I am guessing only 20 lbs would be needed on my Geo.

Nowadays most track timing systems cannot handle a 20.00 or slower dial in during eliminations.....but during the 80s I had a Chrysler Reliant that ran mid 21s with a 2.2 and auto and a friend had a small V8 diesel Olds that ran 22s......his car now has a 355 and runs in the mid 11s.

I can, and will race anything......as far as experience goes, I never raced the Geo before, but it is nearly as consistant as my 12 second SRT4. In 1986 I won the Coca-Cola Hoosier Nationals in a Dodge Maxi-Van that was plated as a bus! It took 2 races to find out how to drive it for consistant ETs.....it was the only time I won a championship in a RWD vehicle!

If u can launch a 12s fwd then you can drive anything ... Often stated and always true...the driver mod is the best mod available for your car

Just out of curiosity what's ur 60ft on the skittle?

[Yaris Hilton]

I live in Bristol, Tennessee. I'm tempted to take my new bone stock automatic transmissioned Toyota Yaris sedan out to the Thursday amateur nights at the Thunder Valley drag strip for a hoot. My wife said "NOOOOOOOOO!!!"


I am curious what it'd do. Yarises have a reputation nowadays for being slow, but the seat of my pants tells me it will accelerate about like the 1971 Ford LTD with a high compression 429 that I drove back in the early '80s. Back then we used to joke about painting numbers on its sides, because the late '70s-early '80s performance cars were so slow!

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

I live in Bristol, Tennessee. I'm tempted to take my new bone stock automatic transmissioned Toyota Yaris sedan out to the Thursday amateur nights at the Thunder Valley drag strip for a hoot. I am curious what it'd do.

I've been to Thunder Valley. It's one of my favorite tracks. Tell your wife not to worry. You can't hurt a Yaris with an auto transmission by drag racing it. It will be interesting to see what it runs compared to what the magazine road tests ran with it. I'll bet you won't be able to match what they ran because they don't own the cars that they test and are therefore usually merciless with them.

[phoebeisis]

Hmmmm, years ago there was a drag racing track about 30 miles upriver from NOLA. I would ride by and could hear those beasts from a long way off.

Has anyone given drag treatment to a Prius? I would guess it was a 17 second car dead stock.
I wonder if there is an"easy" way to jack up the electric motor? I wish I knew more about electric motors, but I suspect the stock electric motor is probably a pretty high tech piece of equiptment (good power to weight and good power to volume).

A 200 hp electric motor+ the gas motor with all that instant torque in a 3000 lb car would be quick.

Charlie

[Kacey Green]

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

Has anyone given drag treatment to a Prius? I would guess it was a 17 second car dead stock.
I wonder if there is an"easy" way to jack up the electric motor? I wish I knew more about electric motors, but I suspect the stock electric motor is probably a pretty high tech piece of equiptment (good power to weight and good power to volume).

Something like this?:


Here are the writeups from racing
http://www.grlt.com/hybrid-news/race...18-175-40.html
http://www.grlt.com/hybrid-news/why-...10-119-40.html

I wouldn't do this to my HCHII for two reasons, First it isn't designed for 0-60 like the Prius, second, I'd always end up loosing the Fuel Economy Championships.