Tuning A 1990 Ford Mustang GT For The Dragstrip - Tales From The Track

With that in mind, we decided we would make a few eighth-mile runs to fine-tune our launch procedure and get the 60-foot times where we expected them to be, about 1.50-1.65 seconds. Then, once we had that dialed in, we'd throw the Hail Mary pass and hope we get kicked out.

Getting back to our tire dilemma, HP Performance's Sean Story set us up with a suitable wheel/tire combination to meet our needs. A pair of 16-inch wheels from a '95 Mustang GT wearing 26x10.5x16 Mickey Thompson ET Street tires would do the trick and fit nicely in the wheelwell.

Prior to visiting the strip, there were some loose ends that needed attention, namely the Optima battery, which was sliding around in the battery tray, and the antifreeze/water mix in the cooling system. We drained the coolant out of the engine and filled it with a combination of distilled water and Royal Purple's Purple Ice additive. In the event that our block developed a split personality, we wouldn't have to worry about spilling antifreeze all over the racing surface.

Our first attack on the track took us to Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida. We arrived about 15 minutes after the track opened, and the Saturday night test-and-tune was jumping. After unloading the GT, we headed over to the tech inspection, which was already about 10 cars deep.

With the green light from the tech official, our pit crew, which consisted of your author's brothers Brian and Anthony, had the rear wheels swapped in no time, and the GT was wheeled into the staging lanes.

The last time ProCharged Pony made a real drag pass, it stopped the clocks in 11.43 seconds and went through the traps at 124 mph. This was with the stock 140,000-mile 302 bottom end (cam and all) and the engine pumping out about 500 hp to the tires. Oddly enough, we utilized the same wheel/tire combination then.

The first run of the night started off with a poor burnout. We're no stranger to sidestepping the clutch and jumping on the brake, but the brake bias with the four-wheel disc brakes was set too heavily toward the rear. Despite the horsepower and wheel speed associated with a Second-gear burnout, the slightest brake pressure pulled the motor down quickly, with barely a puff of smoke coming from the M/T gumballs. This is when clutches can easily burn up, so you have to be careful.

The GT rolled to the line, and the engine rpm was raised to 4,000. Side-stepping the clutch immediately led to wheelspin, and we pedaled the gas to get it to hook. Two powershifts later, we let off of the throttle past the eighth-mile mark, as it was apparent the engine was not running properly.

On the return-road, the diagnosis was that an intake charge tube had popped off. A simple fix, but the bigger problem was the poor burnout. The timeslip revealed a 1.87 60-foot time-a 7.68 elapsed time through the eighth-mile at a speed of 82 mph. With the 3.55:1 rear gear ratio, the 2.95 First in the six-speed and our power output, short times should be in the 1.5-1.65 range, so we had some work to do. Multiplying the eighth-mile time by 1.51 (1.55 for normally aspirated cars) puts us at an 11.59, and way off where the car should be.

Our tire pressure had been set at 16 psi, but with the crappy burnout, the tires just weren't getting enough heat in them to be effective. We surveyed a few other racers and found everyone's cars-including those that normally never had traction problems-to be spinning, which suggested that track conditions were not optimal. Regardless, the tires needed to be hotter if we were to have any chance. With the staging lanes getting fuller by the minute, we dropped the tire pressure to 15 psi and hot-lapped the car for another run.