Anyone avail. for videotaping at Aug9 TNT?

[Scott Y]

A buddy is driving his 90TSi from Regina Saskatchewan to here, and we're having a best of 3 grudge match at Bandi. We're both fairly new to drag racing and our cars have very similar mods. He's run 13.1@102 at 2200' in Saskatchewan, my GVR-4 has gone 13.6@98 here at Bandi. Last year I trapped at 101, so I left something on the table when I missed 3rd gear on my 13.6 run.

Will there be anyone there early on Wed night? We plan on being there when the gates open to have some fun and we wanted to videotape the runs, so if anyone is going to be there and is willing to hold a camcorder let me know.

It's going to be a full day.
- We're taking the cars to CarzCustom to dyno and tune them; this will be the first real attempt at tuning the Galant with the PLX wideband and DSMLink, the 13.6 happened without them.
- We'll show up at 4:00 to sit in line at Bandi and then line up for our best of three match.
- We'll hang and play at the track after that, then pack up and head east either Wed night or Thurs morning, after giving the Galant a thorough once-over.

Should be fun!

We're very interested in what the altitude does with his timeslip.

[Scott Y]

He left at 4:30 in the morning, and was at our door at 7:00.

He actually created a plaque with our names on it and 4 open places for the winner's name to be placed on it in the event that we meet up at least 3 other times in our lifetime to race the cars. It was a very classy and touching thing to do; we've been talking (friendly) smack about racing for over 4 years and we're about to finally have our first race and we're having a lot of fun with it. Isn't that what this whole hobby is supposed to be about?

I hope to see some DSMs there tomorrow in the sea of Subarus and Neons.

[ErikW]

I try to call you in the morning to see when you are leaving for the Dyno. I'm curious and have the time off. I may want to tag along. I have limited cash, but I may still concider videotaping you guys and pay spectation at Bandi to see this. :)

[Scott Y]

Here's how I spent last Wednesday.

We went to Carz to dyno both cars. The Galant was first, and after 3 pulls we got it to 275hp and 289 ft.lbs. The TSi was next, and it did a best of 272hp and 290 ft.lbs. Very close, the power curves of both cars were almost identical. We had set both cars independently (tuning before the dyno) to an identical 22.5 lbs of boost without knowing it. We had no idea that the cars would dyno that close, now the pressure was on. I don't recall the exact numbers, but the scales at Bandi showed that the TSi was at least 200lbs lighter than the G-VR4.

We met up with Erik and got to Bandi as quickly as we could. By the time we were through tech the lines were already forming. We got lined up together and away we went. Erik got the first and last runs on tape for us. The only rules were that it be a best of 3, and that the win light determines the winner of the race.

-1st run-
Scott: .492 reaction, 1.88 60', 13.75 @99.2
Dean: .520 reaction, 1.76 60', 13.56 @ 100.3
Dean had a great launch, by midtrack the Galant was gaining a bit and then started knocking and Dean pulled away. It was a nice close race.

-2nd run-
We both had bad launches on this one.
Scott: .359 reaction, 2.15 60', 14.04 @ 99.9
Dean: .534 reaction, 2.22 60', 14.21 @ 100.3

-Last run, for all the marbles-
Scott: .185 reaction, 2.09 60', 13.81 @ 101.1
Dean: .611 reaction, 2.11 60', 13.97 @ 100.9

So, the plaque stays in the U.S. until Showdown v2.0, whenever and wherever it happens. That was the most fun I've had at the track in my short history. Dean's run a best of 13.1 @ 103 at 2200ft, so the altitude took almost 1/2 second away from him. He found the car harder to tune at alitude than it is at his home elevation and had 3 lbs less boost without making any changes to his setup.

Thanks to Erik for taping the runs and helping us line up the cars in the staging lanes for the first and third race. The staff was telling us it was too busy to arrange it. For the 2nd race, I begged 'my buddy came all the way from Canada so we could run the cars together....'

So, we hung out and watched people run for a while then headed home, packed up the Galant and drove 24 hours straight to Ohio for the shootout. We took I80 (which sucked) and for the return trip we did another 24 hour marathon, his time on I70 which was much better. Total miles=3028, total cost of fuel>$450. The shootout rocked!

As a side note, Dean's home track in Canada is in the middle of V8 country with no love for 4 cylinders and they aren't afraid to make it known. He was pleasantly surprised at the common courtesy displayed by almost everyone at Bandi, and how most of the different owners respected other peoples' cars regardless of cylinder count or brand name.

[Kibo]

Sounds like a good time to me!

Was the cost of fuel for the Shootout trip for one vehicle or both? (I'm assuming it's per vehicle.) I'd like to make it out there with a car one of these days. :)

[Scott Y]

The cost of fuel was to get the Galant to Ohio and back, there was no track time in Ohio.
approximate numbers are $450 / 3028 miles = $0.14 per mile.

[ErikW]

Good to hear you got there, had fun, and got back safe and sound. 24hrs of driving each way is InSAnE. Bet if you had time to trim out the fuel for cruize instead of racing, it could have been better for your mpg on your trip.
It was AWSOME to see two totally different DSMs, designed and tuned so far away and end up being such a close dyno and race! Now the-heat-is-on, for each other, for the next time. ... Will it be as close of a race as this one? Stay tuned..
Scott. You gotta post yer pics on the picture gallery soon!!!