1995 GSR QM Times


I have made nearly 100 passes in my car and it's taking up too much space on this page to list everyone of them. I will now only highlight the runs that are exceptional or where a change made a significant difference.

Reaction time: How long it takes for your tires to leave the beams after the light goes green (so DON'T wait until it's green). For some reason Firebird calls a perfect light a .500 while Speedworld's perfect light is a .000. A good light is a must when racing for real against someone. If you can leave the line before your opponent, you can actually beat him/her with a slower ET. Of course if you get too anxious and red light the start you lose automatically, regardless of how much faster you are. ET will still be recorded but if you're racing for real it doesn't count.

60' Time: This is a good indication of how hard the car is launching. This number is very important as it sets the pace for the entire race. If you mess up at the start, you're not going to do well, period!

E.T.: No not the cute little alien. This stands for Elapsed Time, and it measures in seconds to the thousands how long it took from the time your front wheels rolled off the staging beams until they tripped the beams at the end of the quarter mile. NOTE: Reaction time has NOTHING to do with E.T.

Trap Speed: At the end of the quarter mile there is a second beam slightly further and it averages the time it took and calculates the speed at which you are traveling at the end of the quarter mile. Trap speed is a good indication of how much HP the car has, regardless of traction or driver skill at launching.
Date: Reaction 60 FT. 330 FT. 660 FT. E.T. MPH Comments/Notes
1/23/98 1.237 2.497 6.718 10.137 15.552 90.46 Firebird International Raceway - 1st time in this car. Spun the tires a little
1/23/98 .848 2.591 6.828 10.256 15.691 90.30 Firebird International Raceway - spun the tires a little more
5/15/98 .502 2.768 7.063 10.513 15.946 90.78 Great reaction time. Terrible start! All motor, 16" wheels
5/15/98 -.061 2.737 6.991 10.418 15.832 90.92 Red lighted the start. Terrible launch. All motor, 16" wheels
8/21/98 .583 2.485 6.753 10.199 15.649 89.81 Consentrating so hard on launch, didn't leave on 3rd yellow light!
8/21/98 .359 2.473 6.699 10.150 15.615 89.32 25 psi, hot summer night, DPR ss valves and valve job. Head rebuild didn't seem to help any.
8/21/98 .198 2.477 6.803 N/A 15.735 89.52 Spun the tires bad shifting into 2nd gear. Also peeled 3rd gear as well as chirping 4th gear. Damn Nitto tires suck!
9/25/98 .054 2.422 6.681 10.133 15.549 90.71 Clear weather, high 70's to low 80's. Tire pressure at 22psi on 205/40-16 Nitto NT-450's. Removed pwr steering belt, spare tire, tools, and floor mats. Launching and reaction times slowly getting better.
9/25/98 .090 2.349 6.581 10.028 15.455 90.58 Great launch. Reving to 3K-4K then slipping the clutch with very little wheel spin if any. I've got the lights down (R/T) as well as my launch. Now I just need more practice and to work on my shifts.
10/16/98 .172 2.262 6.505 9.924 15.349 90.361 It was cold this night at "Speedworld" but this time is due to my awesome launch. I couldn't believe how well I hooked up. My shifting is still kinda crappy. Still too much wheel spin going into 2nd and a chirp going into 3rd. If I can duplicate my launch with good shifts a 15.2 will be no problem assuming no changes on the car. 22 psi in the NT-450's.
11/20/98 .279 2.271 6.404 9.733 15.034 92.389 Cool night again at Speedworld. Tires at 25psi. No spare tire, tools, or floor mats. Also removed ps pump belt.
11/20/98 .262 2.191 6.286 9.623 14.949 91.882 Awesome launch and every shift I did was real good. I'm finally able to get wheel spin on my 1-->2 shift under control. Looks like practice on shifting paid off as I FINALLY made it into the 14's!
11/20/98 .142 2.152 6.253 9.580 14.895 92.010 This was round two and it was the closest race I've ever been in. At the end I could not tell who finished the line first. It wasn't until I got the time slip that I knew. I believe the other guy finished the line by only a couple thousands of a second. We actually both broke out of our dial-in's but I broke out by more. I was sad that I was eliminated in the 2nd round, but happy that I ran a best ever 14.89!
11/20/98 -.016 2.225 6.353 9.678 14.979 92.304 Working on that damn light. I used to be pretty good I thought. But now I either red light or am getting .6xx-.7xx. I'm not going to be very competitive until I get this light down.
1/16/99 .010 2.215 N/A 9.698 15.000 92.293 This was Speedworld Saturday Day Challenge. It was pretty hot, about 70-80 degrees. Tires at 25 psi, normal clutch slip launches at 4K rpm. New mods are ITR intake cam and DPR cam gears. Gears set to 1-1.5 deg advance Intake/3-3.5 deg retard exhaust. Times and MPH seem are similar to the last time I raced on a VERY cold night so that is good. I will need to do some night racing or dyno tuning to verify the success of the new mods.
1/16/99 .159 2.198 N/A 9.647 14.936 92.364 My launches are pretty good but they still could be improved on. This one here was REAL good. If I could only duplicate it. I still stand by my saying that bogging slightly is better than wheel spin. But I need to get consistent and not do either. This 2.1x launch on street tires is a perfect example of what is possible with more practice. I also need to get my reaction times more consistent if I ever want to start winning at bracket racing.
1/16/99 .068 2.211 6.354 9.679 14.966 92.427 This was AWESOME!!! I was up against a very experienced bracket racing V8. He had TONS of "Winner" stickers on his truck showing how many times he had won this event. We both had identical reaction times but I hit my dial-in within .016 seconds and he was off by .089. WAHOO!!! The underdog takes the win. My track buddy JR said everyone watching the race was like, "The import won???". That was cool.
1/23/99 .177 2.177 n/a 9.648 14.947 92.014 About the same weather as last weekend. Slight cam gear changes, different brand gas (Shamrock vs "76" or Mobile), and Mobile 1 10w30 (vs 5w30). Not sure what made me lose HP (or why the slightly lower trap speeds).
1/23/99 .003 2.195 6.331 9.669 14.998 89.032 First round "Street Trophy" with a 14.97 dial in. I was a car length ahead at the end so I let off the gas. Even letting off I was only .018 second off my dial-in combined with a .003 light, I was pretty hard to beat that round.
1/30/99 .062 2.284 6.691 10.147 15.550 432.245 Spun 1st a little and missed 2nd gear. What a waste of a run! But hey check out that trap speed! Can you say, "Electronic failure!"?
1/30/99 -.027 2.199 6.381 9.726 15.052 91.792 This car needs TUNING! I think my cam gear settings with this ITR cam made the car SLOWER.
1/30/99 .145 2.199 6.330 9.654 14.955 92.252 Wow! Advanced timing from 17 to 18 degrees. Not sure if this time was due to a better run but the trap speed is indicating a noticable gain in HP. Still need to dyno tune to verify.
2/06/99 .063 2.295 6.426 9.763 15.063 92.282 Changed cam gear settings. Car felt a lot faster than what this time reflects.
2/06/99 .022 2.210 6.341 9.660 14.944 92.567 Advanced ignition timing from 16 degrees to 18 degrees BTDC. Trap speed seemed to get better. This could have been due to hooking up better at the start though as well.
2/06/99 -.007 2.211 6.380 9.732 15.058 91.876 What the dilly? (low trap speed) The car sat for a really long time and I don't think the car was warmed up. The water temp was up there but the O2 sensor wasn't up to operating temp cuz my A/F gauge wasn't working yet. Maybe it does do something even in open loop?
2/06/99 .009 2.233 6.386 9.716 15.024 90.072 1st round. Ahead of the guy so I hit the brakes at the end. Slight change to exhaust cam gear. Can't tell if it did anything this run.
2/06/99 .018 2.286 6.492 9.839 15.135 92.616 How the hell did this happen? I must have been shifting shitty cuz this is my highest trap speed yet (highest HP?)??? I was eliminated this round.
2/27/99 .055 2.257 6.464 9.852 15.231 91.356 About 75-85 degrees. Put the stock header back on. Either bad weather conditions or that Comptech actually did something!
2/27/99 .030 2.211 6.408 9.787 15.207 89.035 We actually both broke out this round (and I was ahead and even hit the brakes at the end!). I broke out by .023 and he/Tom broke out by .020. Basically I lost by .003 seconds! DAMN!!!
3/05/99 .020 2.278 6.560 9.998 15.440 90.245 Stock header with about 150 lbs worth of tools in the trunk to swap in the Comptech header.
3/05/99 .157 2.273 6.513 9.917 15.289 91.602 No changes or weight reduction. Simply swapped Comptech header. Looks like it knocks off at least a tenth and gains over 1mph trap speeds. Not too bad. That's all I wanted to know.
3/05/99 -.239 2.569 6.716 10.057 15.355 92.483 I removed the 85 lb jack from the car (notice the increase in trap speed from the higher power to weight ratio?) and tried staging really shallow. Turns out what I thought was staged was actually staging my low hanging bumper! That is why the super slow 60' time. This should have been about a 15.0xx run.
12/xx/02 xxx 2.2xx xxx xxx 14.000 99.xxx This was with the new 2.0L motor. I can't find the time slip and don't remember the date so that is why I wild carded most of the fields. I do remember it was a 2.2 second 60' time and exactly a 14.000@99 ET though.

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