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An unexpected trip to the dragway with a Z06 and GT500


phdpsy

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Excuse the length, but you have to hear the whole story to appreciate the night. Went to a test and tune night with some friends to watch a friend of mine try out his new Z06. We all had our 'fun cars', but only three of us planned on actually running our cars (I was not one of them...originally). The Z06 was dead stock and only had 870 miles on it. Now keep in mind that we are not frequent racers, but just a group of middle aged guys out for fun (and the typical "smack talk"). He ran it a couple times to get the feel for her and popped off a couple low 12/high 11 times. Not bad at all (IMO) for the first couple runs in a car he was still learning. He was kind enough to let us all take a trip down the strip with her, and to be honest, it was a really nice car. Pulled steady and strong. Shifted incredibly smooth. I ran a 12.22 with some pretty significant wheel spin at the line with the stock tires.

 

Well you know that you cannot go to an event with friends and different makes of cars without the inevitable trash talk beginning. Then it happened. Another driver at the track (a big Chevy guy apparently) made the dreaded "Don't you wish that your 'big fat Ford' could run like that" comment. Not being one to get hot under the collar I simply responded that while I liked the Vette, I needed the backseat just in case I ever had to use the car to pick up the kids. It likely would have ended there, but my friend (with the Z06) chimed in with "Yeah, he likes to polish the car more than drive it". The other guy laughed and said "Typical Mustang owner" and walked off. Well after another couple minutes of ribbing from my friends I agreed to make a run...

 

I have to admit that when I got up to the line I was very nervous....not really sure why. Had never had the GT500 at the track, but had made a few spirited stop and goes on the remote highways in our area. The first time up was against a guy who had to be 17 and was driving his mom's new G8. I thought...If I lose to this guy I will never hear the end of it. I bogged horribly off the line as I was not expecting the great track prep :doh: (I was used to the tire spin on regular pavement). I managed to recover a little, but the 2.18 '60 had doomed the run so I started backing off at about 1000' or so (the G8 had spun miserably on his stock street tires and was a few car lengths behind me). I "Won" the race, but the reward was a fairly dismal 12.33 timeslip. I knew that the car had much more potential, and that the timeslip was only representing my poor efforts. Oddly enough, I was met with "Congratulations" from my friends and the Chevy guy even came by and said "Nice run, but I told you you could not hang with the Z06".

 

15 minutes later I was back in the staging lane. With the initial butterflies gone and knowing the track would hold a much stronger launch, I was off..... :shift: The car dug in with the MT305s and with the exception of a slight bobble on the 2-3 shift it was a very clean run. Let's just say that Z06s in the future will look better in the rear view mirror :dance:

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The Chevy guy that had come over earlier, I never saw again that evening. Don't know if he was still around or was avoiding our group. We left about 30 minutes after that. My friend knew that I was likely to beat his time by a fair bit if I ran well and was not offended at all. We have all known eachother for 10+ years and keep everything fun. We had done a couple highway pulls on the interstate the weekend before, and I could consistently pull away. The current set up has around 650rwhp to his stock set up...I'd be a little pissed if I couldn't pull away. He did say that once he added some headers, intake, and some sticky rubber he wants to run again. I doubt that I'll go back to the strip with the GT500...might as well retire a winner ;)

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The Chevy guy that had come over earlier, I never saw again that evening. Don't know if he was still around or was avoiding our group. We left about 30 minutes after that. My friend knew that I was likely to beat his time by a fair bit if I ran well and was not offended at all. We have all known eachother for 10+ years and keep everything fun. We had done a couple highway pulls on the interstate the weekend before, and I could consistently pull away. The current set up has around 650rwhp to his stock set up...I'd be a little pissed if I couldn't pull away. He did say that once he added some headers, intake, and some sticky rubber he wants to run again. I doubt that I'll go back to the strip with the GT500...might as well retire a winner ;)

 

Good, add 3:73's and slap him again :)

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A 10.8 with a stock pulley on a TVS!!! Wow!

 

Once your friend gets his bolt ons, run him again! Typically bolt on Z06's put down ~500 rwhp. Numerically, the extra 150 rwhp still give the GT500 the advantage until aerodynamic factors come into play around 140+.

 

And you still have the 2.65 upper pulley as a trump card!!

 

Friendly rivalries are fun as long as they remain friendly.

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Dude, you ran a 10.8 ? :mademyday:

 

The story you told was going strong until you left me flat. What did big mouth say when you were done? I woulv'e made it a point to find him and ask him how he liked that run better than the prior run.

 

.................a 10.8?......damn, you make all of us proud. /me wipes tear

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Dude, you ran a 10.8 ? :mademyday:

 

The story you told was going strong until you left me flat. What did big mouth say when you were done? I woulv'e made it a point to find him and ask him how he liked that run better than the prior run.

 

.................a 10.8?......damn, you make all of us proud. /me wipes tear

 

Did not mean to leave you hanging there at the end, just did not have any more contact with him as I noted in my second post. I wasn't about to search him out to give him grief. There were a couple highly modded camaros running in the 10.1-10.3 range, so the Chevy guys were well represented overall. Of course only one of them could say that they drove their cars to the track (saw it on the trailer). But it was funny how no one else came by to try and give me a hard time about my 'overweight' Ford.

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Did not mean to leave you hanging there at the end, just did not have any more contact with him as I noted in my second post. I wasn't about to search him out to give him grief. There were a couple highly modded camaros running in the 10.1-10.3 range, so the Chevy guys were well represented overall. Of course only one of them could say that they drove their cars to the track (saw it on the trailer). But it was funny how no one else came by to try and give me a hard time about my 'overweight' Ford.

Nice job!

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Great story; besides the Z06 and your shelby, what else were your friends running? Anything interesting?

There were 5 of us there. The two other guys that planned to run had a modified '93 RX7 R1 and a stock 2008 vette with the paddle shifting automatic tranny. The RX7 only made one run and Mike said he heard a strange "Clunk" at launch. So to be sure he would get home, he didn't run again. The guy with the 08 auto vette is our "Senior" member. He is 68 and gets grief all the time from us that we are going to pull his license if he does not exceed the speed limit at least once a month. He takes it well and reminds us that he was exceeding the speed limit years before the rest of us were born and that he used to do it for a living (ex-State Trooper). The last guy has a 08 Lotus Exige S that has to be one of the most fun cars I have ever driven on twisty back roads. At almost half the weight of the Shelby, it feels like a go-cart.

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Did not mean to leave you hanging there at the end, just did not have any more contact with him as I noted in my second post. I wasn't about to search him out to give him grief. There were a couple highly modded camaros running in the 10.1-10.3 range, so the Chevy guys were well represented overall. Of course only one of them could say that they drove their cars to the track (saw it on the trailer). But it was funny how no one else came by to try and give me a hard time about my 'overweight' Ford.

You didn't need to rub it in his face, so that was the sportsman thing to do. I guarentee you they knew what your ET was. Enough said.

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