Life above 110 mph

[Joe Shown]

What would you be prepared to wager that the 4.10's will increase one's speed in a distance of one mile? A friend of mine has a 90 ZR-1 that posted a speed of 149.7 in one mile during the Sandhills Open Road Challenge One Mile Shoot Out last August. Other than a set of Borlas the car was stock. He now has a 4.10 gear and will run the same course in August this year. I will make a friendly wager that his car will be faster than before.

I just checked some notes I made two years ago when I wrote a story for KOTH magazine about how fast the ZR-1 can go in 1/2 mile. My best 1/2 mile speed was 139 with 3.45's. When I changed to 4.10's my best speed increased to 143 MPH. My car presently will run 164 MPH (official time not speedo) in one mile while turning 6,200 RPM in 5th gear, and is accelerating. A speed that was 5 MPH faster than the fastest Viper entered. I also used a G-tech on my car before and after the gear change. Before gear change I had a best G-Tech E.T. of 12.7 and a best of 12.4 after. My 0-60 time dropped by .4 second also.

Joe Shown

 

[91mongoose]

I wouldn't wager more than a beer on events a year apart. Too many variables (wind, temp, car condition, tires, humidity, etc) But I would be curious to see the results.

In my case I saw the following w/4.10s: I would loose traction in 3rd gear frequently when "rolling on the throttle" as I crossed 4000 RPM. My best g-tech times were 13.2 @ 110 and 4.9 0-60. My friend with the lt4 (w/ hotcam) would loose in a standing race to 100 by about 1 car length, he'd loose by less than that in a 70-130ish race. My car would loose its punch at about 156 MPH (6300 in 5th). It was still climbing well at that point, just not in multiple MPH increments.

After swapping for 3.45s with the LT4: I loose traction in 2nd gear occasionally, never in 3rd. I ran a 13.1@111 G-tech on the same stretch of road w/ the same ambient conditions (95 degrees and low humidity), I managed a 4.7 0-60. I now beat the LT4 by about 1.5 cars in a 0-100 race, 70-130 was now a 2-3 car gap. The car pulled strong to about 167 before the "singles" start to click off.

Keep in mind that I live in west texas and we have a constant film of dust on the road at all times. Also keep in mind that the only acceleration mod I had at the time I made these observations was a 20# flywheel. And one more point to consider is I have frequent opportunity to push 170+ on the wide open roads around here The 4.10s definately prevent that.

EDIT - 6200 in 5th? That's only 157 w/ 4.10s & 315/35/17s. 6600 is 164. http://www.bcvettes.org/links/rpm2mph.html I wonder if your tach is off? Mine reads 10% high, sounds like yours might be 10% low?

 

[Joe Shown]

Dear Mr. 91mongoose,

You are certainly a cheap skate. The bet is a six pack or nothing.

Joe Shown

 

[91mongoose]

Dear Mr. 91mongoose,

You are certainly a cheap skate. The bet is a six pack or nothing.

Joe Shown

And proud of it!!!

I bet you can't rub two pennies together and make a nickle And I bet your wallet doesn't squeak like mine either

A six pack it is

 

[Joe Shown]

I will inform you of the one mile results in August.

Joe Shown