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How come no DSM's at Drag week

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kinda-stock

Proven Member
55
0
Jun 4, 2016
jefferson, Louisiana
Question is, is this possible? wanna here your guys thoughts. I am curious to know what parts are preventing our cars from competing in this event. What type of build do you guys recommend for a DSM to compete at drag week? Please no flame answers like "Just buy Buchars race car..."

Which engine and drivetrain mods would make our cars reliable to drive 1800 miles and make 8 - 9 second passes across 5 states all while pulling a small utility trailor of tools
 
there are several different classes to compete in. seeing how RWD converted DSM's make 8 second passes look easy, aswell as Auto AWD cars...do you think our cars can take the abuse of the Drag Week challenge?
 
so back on topic. personally, i think a 74mm turbo or better
fully built block with all the trimmings
TH400 or Glide
8.8 or 9" live axel RWD conversion

and now you have a Drag week DSM
 
well its aparent that we give these 4G63 engines complete hell on a weekly basis...what about the drivetrain?

Auto or Manual. which will take the abuse of 8 sec passes all week during drag week?
 
Drag Week is a grueling event. It takes a lot out of you and the car. A new rule went into place this year, and that was that all cars have to run on a radial or slick. This one screwed me over, as I didn't want to pull a trailer nor had the time to figure out how to make the Talon pull one. So I reluctantly bought drag radials, which ended up making me launch the car too soft, and thus resulted in crappy times. Now, I run in the "street machine eliminator" class. I.E. the 10.00 class. There was one other Talon that used to run in this class, but it never made it to the end. That guy now runs his camaro in it, and he does really well. His Talon was an automatic, and the trans didn't last either time he had the car there.

There's a few reasons we probably don't see many dsms/evos/ect running drag week.

1. Safety. This is an event that follows NHRA rules. Even if I had my s*it together this year, the fastest I would be allowed to go would be 11.49, as I do not have a roll bar. My car was trapping 124-126mph, so we all know with a decent launch, that would have got me booted. After the fallout from this year's shootout - I don't forsee many dsm/evos that would even be up to par with NHRA safety rules to run in the faster classes at Drag Week.

2. Endurance. 1500 street miles. 5 tracks. 5 days. You see a TON of breakages. People changing transmissions on the side of the road. Rebuilding engines, ect. This event is NOT for the faint of heart. If you think about the stress put on the drivetrain components of these cars, that were never ever designed to experience that, you know something is going to give. The LS-Eclipse does well since it's made up of heavy duty parts (ls engine + ford 9" rear end in a lighter car), and he doesn't run the car at maximum output for Drag Week. It's a 9-second car, but he runs it in the 10s for the event. The AWD system now becomes a slight disadvantage, as you have MORE parts that can break coupled with sticky tracks. This year, I took a car that literally went from non-running, to tuned in a week. Not nearly enough time to work the bugs out. And I paid for it on the side of the road.

It's a fun event and a cool experience. We actually are kind of hooked on it, and plan to keep doing it.
 

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Always wanted to do drag week with my buddy, maybe bring my dad along. hard to get time and money to do it. I don't see why a well built auto dsm couldn't go all week with no issue running 10s, but these are the events that put vehicles to the test.

My question for ppl who've participated (@95talongirl) would be: how many runs are you actually doing per day/track?

I know alot of ppl bring a trailer, which can be a PITA, but i feel like a it could be done. time and money will tell!
 
You can pretty much run as many times as you want. Most people adopt the "one and done" strategy, though, since the drive afterwards is anywhere from 4-6 hours WITHOUT any major breakdowns. They give you a route to follow, so you can't just jump on the freeway and go to the next track.

The day we were extracting a fitting out of the oil filter housing on my car, that road trip took us nearly 10 hours to complete. We ran into issues with another car in the group after my oil leak problem.
 
Here's a video we made it in due to them finding us on the side of the road. LOL..

You must be logged in to view this image or video.
 
if you think about it, none of the really fast cars at drag week have any creature comforts. Majority of cars there are full out race cars with a plate and turn signals.

i see it two ways. A DSM drag week car has to be purpose built. Our cars dont have box steel frames and big block V8 engines. We do have a weight advantage. If converted to RWD, live axel, TH400 or glide; i dont see why a DSM built to those specs couldnt win the or be very competitive in the 10.00 class.

It all goes back to time and money. Yes our cars are now becoming classics and still the drivetrain will hold 400hp all day stock for a certain extent. 800hp is definitely a stretch. I think conservative launches, boost by gear and a shorter tire would all allow an AWD to survive this week long test of strength
 
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