My bone stock '97 vette against the world!

[Chris Arnold]

This is gonna be a long one so if you want to skip ahead these are the cars that I raced:
96-98 Mustang GT (with bullet h/c/i)
Saturn Ion with a twin-screw blower
98-02 Camaro SS with headers, catback, CAI
99-04 Supercharged Mustang GT
LS2 GTO with a CAI
LT1 Camaro SS with LT4 mods and bolt-ons.

My car is bone-stock and carried a 215 lb passenger and my 200 lbs ass driving.

I went out to the local scene tonight and just had to get it out of my system. I really want to run a guy's GTO w/ the LS2 & headers/CAI/tune, but he didn't make it out tonight.

The first guys came up to me. A guy in a 96-98 Mustang GT and his buddy in a Saturn Ion with a twin-screw blower, which is supposedly stock wanted me to run them. Being a Mustang guy (I have a turbo '91 making pretty decent power) I was interested in the mustang. I asked him what was done and he said it was stock. I lost interest and told him so. So he said, "Ok, Ok, I'm not gonna lie. It ain't stock it's got a different top end h/c/i." Now, I was really interested. Meanwhile the guy in the Saturn told a buddy of mine that he'd raced and beaten his friend's '99 C5 recently. I had no idea what the outcome would be with the Saturn. Afterwards he told me that it was running 12psi, but didn't go into the other mods. They wanted to go from a roll, and I was game for anything.

96-98 Mustang GTThe mustang started at 15 mph and honked it off. It was disappointing to say the least. The vette just ate the stang's lunch. By the end of 2nd it was all over as far as I was concerned. I had him by multiple car lengths and was pulling away hard.

The Ion lined up next and wanted a 40 roll, which is the beginning of 2nd for the vette. I was surprised at how well his car pulled. I mean, we were absolutely door to door and I wasn't gaining ground until he shifted. I was at 5000rpm in 2nd and he shifted into 3 which is where I put about 2 cars on him before shifting into 3rd myself. From there, I pulled slightly until the top of 3rd, and when he shifted again the vette walked away nicely. I shut it down at around 120 with 5 or more lengths.

The next car that the Ion and Mustang tried to start something with was the '98-02 Camaro SS. According to my friend this car had pacesetter long-tubes and a whisper lid. I followed him out to the highway and was directly behind him on the on-ramp while he was merging at WOT (no cars for about 1/2 mile up the road. I was several cars back and went WOT when I heard him go. I shifted over to the left lane and stayed on it. It took me until the bottom of 5th gear (150 or so) to get by the Camaro. The Camaro then ran the aforementioned Mustang GT and walked away. When we turned around and went the other way I lined up with the camaro. The guy didn't seem to have much street-racing sense, and it was difficult to get him to match speeds with me. At first I was going 40mph and he was going slower. So I slowed down, but I didn't want to run from 35 which is almost my first gear's shift point. So, I slowed down and tried to get him to slow down to a more reasonable speed. Instead he jumped on it and got a half-second jump or so. I got on it eventually, haha, and passed him by 110 mph or so.

When I made it back to the hangout, I saw a pretty cool guy I met the night before. His '99+ GT has a centrifugal blower and not too much else, though it probably has bolt-ons like exhaust, pullies, etc... We ran three times, and he also had a passenger during the run. The first was around a bit of a bend that had me on the outside and when we got into it, it was give and take until he missed fourth. I thought he had just let out. So, I let out, too. The result was ambiguous with both car still side by side. The second run was nice and straight from a 40 roll (his idea). I started in second and when we went I jumped out nicely. I immediately told my passenger that I think he started in the wrong gear, and afterwards found out that it was true. He tried to run me down, and I didn't let out until he did somewhere into 5th gear (the shiftpoint from 4th is about 140mph). He was still a car or two behind me. On our last race he got it in the right gear and finally didn't miss any. It was a good clean run. From 40 up to about 130 or so, the Mustang pulled 3-4 car lengths or so. Not running away from me, but it was a steady pull in every gear.

The next guy with the LS2 GTO was complaining about weight and how heavy his passenger was and blah blah blah. So, we left his passenger at the hangout and I still took mine. I ran him twice. Once was from a 40 and once was from a 25 or so. On both of them, I got a slight jump, then he pulled me by half a car or so. When he granny shifted he lost that half-car (I powershift). And in 3rd gear I began pulling. In 4th gear he fell back quite a bit. I think his power:weight ratio is higher than mine was, which allowed him to pull, but my aerodynamics saved the day in both races. I wasn't sure what to expect against the GTO, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he had a CAI and an aftermarket cat-back. So, it looks like my future race with a different GTO that has headers, a CAI, and a tune might be an even more interesting race.

Finally, my passenger got out, jumped in his Pre-'98 Camaro SS (LT1) and gave me a run. He told me the mods, but I honestly don't remember the specifics. I remember him saying something about LT4 parts, and I know he's also got some other bolt-ons. I ran him twice. During the first race, I think he may have started in a bad gear because I pulled hard from the start to the end of the race. The second race, I started at the bottom of 2nd, he got a decent jump, and pulled about 2-3 cars. Going into 3rd gear I started to make up ground. Shifting into 4th at around 115mph, I was door to door with him, but pulling hard. I shut down around 130 with a couple of car lengths.

The races were a lot of fun because other than the race with the first mustang, I had no idea how any of them would turn out. Afterall, I was being honest about being bone-stock, and you never know if the other guy is being honest too.

My friend said he may bring the video cam for the race with the other GTO. If he does, I'll post the vid.

Chris

[ls1camino]

Good Races.

[big hammer]

nice runs my son

[LS1Jason]

Good runs. I'm having a hard time with the LS2 GTO part though. Guess I'd have to see that one for myself.

[Chris Arnold]

It's not the first LS2 GTO I've pulled on up top. Not sure what's so hard to believe. It was stronger than my car down low, but not by much.

Chris

[hutch1999]

sounds like a whipass time, i bet no one believes the vette is bone stock

[Chris Arnold]

Nope, I had to bust out the paper air filter to convince them

[c5z28]

Man you racing from 40 each time sucks. Sounds like an eventful day

[Chris Arnold]

It seems that no one wants to race from a dig anymore.