Okay! What is your true and tried recipe for a high to mid 12's sec GN???

[TurboMonte 2]

Pacecarta

That's good stuff Paul!

Mod-wise, I'm about where I'm going (daily driver) with exception of adding alky. Bought a used SMC non-progressive kit from TB member here & sent complete kit to Steve @ SMC for refurbishing, after finding out that the pump wouldn't run.

I had my car up on jack-stands, getting ready to install a Walbro & hotwire when I learned about TB.com date at the "Rock" for 12/2 & just did a whoa! I really wanted to get some good track baseline data "pre alky"--& it turned out to be a great day for testing...

My street meats are Firestone "Indy 500's". Hummm--if I could have just got 275's & no fitment probs--I wonder--12's ?--hummmm...

 

[Adam Connell]

So! According to most of you thus far, I can't run 12's on my street motorcycle width stock tires?

For me, adding and alky system or some other somewhat exotic parts is out of the question; I alreday have a high 9sec car that I can run home to if necessary. Besides, this GN is too clean and was well taken cared of by the previous owners; the last thing I need is another drag car. I just want it to be faster (high to mid 12's) on regular meat and regular gas while chillin' like nothing ever happened...now that's street sneaky.

I guess I'm asking for too much? What do you guys think of the my mods above?
If I am not mistaking, I will swear that I saw a few GN's in Chicago run high 12's and some mid 12's on STREET tires back in early to mid 90's! Was I seeing things?

C'mon; there gots to be a recipe out there!

Thanks.

Yes, I have the fastest v-star 1100 in Texas running 12.70 at 106mph and Im running a metzler me880 street tire no problem... different ballgame with motorcycle tires... Bike tires are sticky by nature thats why you only get 4-10k on them... Street tires include drag radials unless you just do not want DRs...

Also on a later post you said you adjusted your timing when the car spiked to 20lbs... if it is going to 20lbs then you need to adjust the waste gate... Keep it around 15-16 and set the timing to the maximum before it does not knock. You will see more performance from a lower boost car running better timing than a car that is knocking and retarding from too much boost. 15-16 is safe for plain 93 octane... much higher is asking for blown head gaskets because of detonation. Spend the 50$ and get an RJC boost controller... you wont regret it. It makes the car feel stronger because the boost comes on more sudden and at a lower rpm. I rode in a car that was identical to mine except his boost controller and drag radials and that thing really was much stronger feeling than mine.

 

[TurboMonte 2]

Boost Controller

BTW, I'm running a Q-Boost Controller installed recently to eliminate a consistent 2-3# boost spiking

 

[TurboMonte 2]

Motorcycle Tires

I'm certain MyBoosta was making a tongue-in-cheek reference to the stock GN 215/65/15 tires being only "motorcycle width tires"...

 

[jpratt]

12.863 at 107
Nitto 555 tires, not the drag kind either.
TA49, 60lbs, Champion iron heads, ATR 3" SS, test pipe, Pitbull mufflers, Big mouth, 3" MAF, Turbo Tweak Chip, Precision Viglante 5 Disc LU, Century Trans, RJC mega-cooler, THDP, UMI upper and lower rear controls arms, ATR rear sway bar, exhaust cut out, RJC plate, 17PSI boost, no knock, horrible 2.2 60', third run on my first day at the track in the GN. 12's can be had. My turbo is small for my combo and is the weak link in the power dept, but you can see that 12's are attainable. All mods have been slowly done of the years. My car should be below 12.5 but I am a horrible driver and had zero PSI launches.

 

[TIMS87GN]

You should be able to go mid-twelves with your mods. My car did that with 20 -22# and 009's on street tires. You could easily go faster with a larger turbo and those mods, but you would need alky or good gas.

 

[TurboMonte 2]

Champion Heads!

Champion heads Mr. Pratt--now you're talkin a shoe-in on street meats!:biggrin:

MyBoosta--what king of mods are you willing to consider/make, staying within your 93 octane & street tires criteria?? A little more feedback here from YOU please,,,

 

[MyBoosta]

Champion heads Mr. Pratt--now you're talkin a shoe-in on street meats!:biggrin:

MyBoosta--what king of mods are you willing to consider/make, staying within your 93 octane & street tires criteria?? A little more feedback here from YOU please,,,

Wow, you guys are real true gear head car guys. I can sense the passion and love for your powerplant through your replies...I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO HELP ME ON THIS SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT ENDEAVOR....Thanks, I mean it.

Please allow me to answer/clearfy a few comments from above.
*When I said motorcycle tires, I was reffering to the size of the stock size tires provided by Buick. A car with this much weight and power should have been served with more meat from the factory. To the motorcycles guys, please accept my opologies if I offended you.

*I see that 92% of you guys voted on a Alky system and at least using DR's, and some of you already accomplished what I am trying to do. However, no one has done it on GY Eagle II 215/65/15 tires! Boy, I could easily go out and buy tires, and if I did, it would be a set of 16" for some sort of GTA/GNX replica wheels. You see, to me, this car is more for some show and a little of go! But that speed virus that runs in my blood is has been hitting me hard; I can easliy see myself getting loose on this buford and the next thing you know, I have another race car in my garage and a very angry wife. I'm trying to maximize what I already have on this GN, and that is why I asked my original question in a indirect manner: "Is High to Mid 12's with the mods currently on my car a possibility?"

*Turbo Monte, future mods are: getting a better maf pipe and tubing for my cone filter, a oil breather element for the driver side valve covers and maybe that $50 boost controller from RCJ some of you have suggested. Other than that, I don't see any other mods in the near future. Again, I don't want to get too crazy with this car because I know me; once I get going I can't stop.

So, can I assume that I already have all the pieces necessary to try for that coveted 12 second on street tires quest?

Thank you very much

 

[Roc87]

Went to the track looking for a 12second time slip on my then 245/50/16 BFG G-Force T/A's, I can run 11.9xx all day on my old hard 26" slicks that never netted me a 60' better than a 1.71. But on my radials, I wasn't able to get the 12 second slip. Only managed to run a 13.3 @ 114 though .

When I got home, I posted asking about a 12 second pass with radials, and it seemed plenty of people have done it, most said they used the cheap pep-boys tires.

 

[DR BOOST]

^^^^^ you should be beaten with a THDP for putting a cowl hood on a GNX clone.

 

[flattype]

I have the same basic set up as you but with a THDP and TE44 turbo. I can spin 2356015 BFG drag radials once I hit around 15psi. When I had street tires it would spin so easy it was a joke. The 2356015s fit nicely on the stock wheel and hook pretty well. I think this is what you need to run high 12s.

 

[MyBoosta]

I have the same basic set up as you but with a THDP and TE44 turbo. I can spin 2356015 BFG drag radials once I hit around 15psi. When I had street tires it would spin so easy it was a joke. The 2356015s fit nicely on the stock wheel and hook pretty well. I think this is what you need to run high 12s.

Thanks Flattype. I do need more meat that's for sure.

I will pass on the DR's since I could get caught in a rain storm and regret having Dr's mounted on

Thanks:smile:

 

[bison]

Hi,
You guys need to check out last month's HOTROD magazine.There's an article about a sanctioning body called FAST. These people are running low 10s and up on Bias pseudo race tires, with old tech muscle cars. I think you have all the mods you need to achieve your goal, and then some! Back in the 70s, I ran a '64 Falcon to a 12.85 et at only 102 mph. Admittedly, I had a set of slicks on it, but I'll bet it would have run 13.2 without 'em. And THAT car didn't feel anywhere as fast as my '83 Regal does.I am getting old, but my butt still tells me there's a lot of power in a Buick V6. Have fun!

Dont be fooled by the FAST class. Those cars are serious machines that typically have $30-50k invested to get them to run that way. Thats on top of what it costs to aquire one of those cars. One of my friends has one. It the black Road Runner that runs 11.20's@123mph. Nothing cheap about it. Unfortunately the rules in that class limit the potential of our cars run under the same conditions. If you can get the mph up to 109-110 then you could squeak out some 12's if you pedal it right out of the hole on the 215-65-15's. I wouldnt want to have those on my car anyway. Get some DR's.

 

[TurboDave]

I've been racing my 86 in pure street trim for a couple years now, and I'm running regular ol' Firestone Firehawks on the rear (255/60-15), and after a LOT of runs practicing different methods to get them to hook, I've finally figured a way to get them to 60' regularly in the 1.8's
I back into the water, pull forward out of the water a couple feet (your not supposed to do a burnout "in" the water anyway), and just boil the crap out of them (John Force type burnout). A lot easier on the rear brakes because of the line lock, so the rear brakes stay cool and help hold all the boost on the line that the tires will launch with.
They stick good and it's easy to run mid 12's all day long that way.
Of course my car has been set up to run mid 11's in race trim (PTE44, MSD50's, V2 front mount IC), so I knew it was just a matter of getting it to hook.
Street tires and 93 octane pump gas, running 20# of boost, so it's not hard on the car at all.

 

[conn84gn]

I run 255/60-15 street tire also, taller 27" and wider 8" plus. than the 215
The 215's are good for smoke shows
DR's for Christmas:smile:

 

[fitz3820]

My car runs high 11's at 24psi on racegas and street tires but without the good gas, I can only run low 13's - the 2.0+ 60' on street tires kills me.

Boost makes these cars run fast and what passes for street gas now one usually can't run high boost without alchy injection...

 

[SloGN]

I've been racing my 86 in pure street trim for a couple years now, and I'm running regular ol' Firestone Firehawks on the rear (255/60-15), and after a LOT of runs practicing different methods to get them to hook, I've finally figured a way to get them to 60' regularly in the 1.8's
I back into the water, pull forward out of the water a couple feet (your not supposed to do a burnout "in" the water anyway), and just boil the crap out of them (John Force type burnout). A lot easier on the rear brakes because of the line lock, so the rear brakes stay cool and help hold all the boost on the line that the tires will launch with.
They stick good and it's easy to run mid 12's all day long that way.
Of course my car has been set up to run mid 11's in race trim (PTE44, MSD50's, V2 front mount IC), so I knew it was just a matter of getting it to hook.
Street tires and 93 octane pump gas, running 20# of boost, so it's not hard on the car at all.

Dave i have a bunch of time slip from the last few yrs where i have been in the consistent 1.80-1.85 60 ft range on street tires.

My best way to get the car to hook on the street tires is first my burnout consists of bypassing the water box ( the water on street tires get thrown up in the wheel well and drip back down on the tires) so i brake boost the car till it spins then i relese the brake and mat the throttle till it spins up into third gear. then i get off the throttle and roll straight to the line and leave @ 0-1 psi of boost.

i have been several 7.70's @ 18-19 psi of boost on 245/60/15's street radials on weld draglite wheels. my suspension consist of stock lower and upper arms and sway bar just added a pinion subber and 2 air bags. On the street tires i run no air pressure @ all.

the car seem to work really well for the stock suspension and for it to have 135k on it

 

[Roc87]

^^^^^ you should be beaten with a THDP for putting a cowl hood on a GNX clone.

Yeah, well the entire car is going to be stripped to steel and I may get rid of the cowl for a c/f stock looking hood.

........But I may keep it just to upset people like you

 

[Sweet6]

My GN in the sig below went 11.79 on 21lbs with DRs. I would think I could run at least 17lbs on 93. I would think it would still be in the low to mid 12 for sure on DRs. I think the front mount helps a lot if you are running on 93 octane.

 

[TurboDave]

My GN in the sig below went 11.79 on 21lbs with DRs. I would think I could run at least 17lbs on 93. I would think it would still be in the low to mid 12 for sure on DRs. I think the front mount helps a lot if you are running on 93 octane.

It's a "fine" balance between boost and timing. I use pretty low timing in order to run an honest 20-21# of boost on straight 93 octane. It's a street Extender chip, on the rare occasion that I need to run in "race" trim it's merely a matter of cranking up the timing in the Translator (to match conditions), cranking the boost up on the BstCommand, and mounting sticky tires (which I no longer have, and why I run street trim now).
I notice in your sig that you run a hefty chip which might preclude you running much boost at all with 93.

Ooops, sorry, I see that chip is in your TTA. Can you turn the timing down (sub 20° range) in the GN's chip?

You're 87 and my 86's "best" times and MPH are Soooooo Close. Gotta love the way those vigilante converters mph, huh!!