I made money drag racing my 3 banger Geo...Again!

[ATaylorRacing]

Well, my 12 second Neon SRT4 has a clutch problem now so I had to race the at the United Manual Transmission Racers Series with my 3 banger Geo Metro. The bad thing is that now the clutch is starting to slip with over 182,000 miles on the original piece. It would normally run 19.9s, but when I tried to launch at 4500 rpm it just sat in place with the clutch slipping badly, I lifted a bit and it started to go...ran a crappy 20.8 something! The next (last) timed run I launched at 2800 and the clutch did not slip but the motor bogged pretty badly for 20.58 pass. I dialed a 20.56 and killed the first guy on the tree, launched at 3500 and the clutch slipped a bit and then it bogged a bit....ran 20.77 on the brakes and my incremental times showed it should have ran a 20.53. The next round was easy too and then I left at 4000 rpm and the clutch slipped a bunch...ran a 21.00 and had a crappy light, but made some money AND moved from 6th place in pts to 5th! The top ten get money/prizes at the end of the year!

On a side note...I got nearly 57 mpg driving the 145 miles home!

[Old Tele man]

...ah, but the inevitable question is: "...what was your gas milage through the ¼-mile?" (wink,wink)

[texanidiot25]

A friend of mine does this with a Cadillac Brougham. It's consistently slow, and does quite well at bracket racing in full comfort.

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...ah, but the inevitable question is: "...what was your gas milage through the ¼-mile?" (wink,wink)

I would also like to know how much fuel you burned in a quarter-mile.

[comptiger5000]

I'm sure he burned less than I would in my Jeep. At WOT for 1/4 mile, I'd probably be getting less than 4 mpg. Then again, the Jeep should pull somewhere around a 15.2, so it's a good bit faster than the Metro, despite being twice the weight (and probably more comfy).

[ATaylorRacing]

Right after the race I filled up to drive home. My normal near 60 mpg fell to a bit over 42 mpg with the drag racing. If I had not drag raced it the mpg I should have gotten on that fill up would have been around 48-52 due to the type of driving I was doing during the week and on the way down at 65-70 mph. My 84 Plymouth Horizon with a bone stock motor, stock gears, and 1760 lbs normally gets 23 mpg in town and on the highway, when I drag race it it uses 5 lbs of gas for every 4 passes! My 12 second SRT4 Neon has gotten a best of 36 mpg on the highway, and when drag racing it IN THE 12s, it only uses 5 lbs of gas for 10 passes down the track! The Geo's weight changed 1 lb during the 6 passes down the track!

[RobertSmalls]

Here's a fun calculation:

fuel burn = BSFC * BHP * ET
350 g/KWh * 65HP * 19.9s = 94g = 0.21lbs = .035gal
That's .14gal per mile, or 7mpg. Not bad.

BSFC from the Wiki, assuming stock fuel map, 5500RPM, and full throttle. SWAG on the BHP figure for your Metro.

It sounds to me like your Plymouth is running a weee bit rich.

[ATaylorRacing]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

......It sounds to me like your Plymouth is running a weee bit rich.

I use an exhaust gas temperature guage on my SRT4 Neon and the 84 Horizon. This is a GREAT tuning tool and using it has saved me tons of melted parts from being too lean. At the finish line my Horizon is running right at 1490 degrees...which is the same as the SRT4 even though the SRT4 is boosted and runs over 30 mph more at the finish line. The wt of the SRT4 with me in it is 3045 lbs while the gutted out Horizon with me in it is 2000 lbs. The mpg difference is due to modern technology...and gear ratio. The Horizon WAS getting only 19 mpg until we changed to a beter set of gears. Both gear sets had come in the venerable Horizon/Omni line. The modern EPA gas mileage rating of the old 84 Horizon (CA model) with the 2.2 automatic is only 20 in town and 24 highway and it had a better gear ratio for te mpgs than I do.!

[bhazard]

Nice, I really wanna get my festiva to the track. Just got a chipped ecu for it so now Im running 16-18psi. It really hauls now. Feels at least mid 14's.

Great thing is, is that after I put the new ECU in, I topped off and drove 127.5 miles, at 50-55 mph and topped off again for 47.2 mpg, not bad for something that can run 14 second quarter miles (at least).

[procupine14]

Boy I bet that 20second quarter felt like it was forever! The cool thing is that your Geo is super consistent so seems really good for brackets.

Too bad about the clutch acting up.