I'm sure my 110 is Not leaded, it'* just like Intenses 109, I highly doubt that'* leaded right?

Sometimes the car is just plain having a bad day, or there was a combination of a bunch of little things that added up to a lot of time. The only time I was able to get to the track after I put the cam/heads/intake/ud pulley/ported exhaust manifolds on my STE I ran a best of 15.06...a half second slower than my best time BEFORE the engine work, and a tenth of a second and two mph slower than what it ran stock.. Why? Well a combination of a lot of things. It was 90* outside, I was running pump gas, my alternator went bad on the way home so I think it was putting a lot of load on the engine at the track due to it being on its way out, and my wastegate on my turbo got stuck half open (how I still don't know, found that out about a week later when I was clueless as to why the car wouldn't get more than 6psi), and a lot of other things. In fact the car wasn't even running consistant. I ran between 15.0'* and 16.4'* with the same approx. 60' times. A Civic blew my doors off!!! Just go over everything and make sure there isn't anything slightly wrong.

Other than that, times can vary 2 tenths easily from day to day, and from run to run depending on traction. KR, even small amounts, will make the car very inconsistant and obviously slower. Leaded race gas will mess up your 02 sensor making it a PITA to tune the car because your 02 readings are useless. Having your tire pressure low in the front is not going to hurt you (well, to a certain extent anyways), its just going to give you more traction, there is a certain point where the lower pressure isn't going to help your traction, so its just going to cause drag at the other end. The launch is the most important point of dragracing, and a few PSI isn't going ot make a huge drag difference at 100mph, definately not as much of a difference as it can make in the launch. I was running ~22psi when I was getting 2.0 60'* in my STE. However, in the rear you want to raise the pressure up almost to the limit. (I usually put them at 40-42psi). The difference may have been your tires, but I doubt it. If the 60' times were the same, the tires didn't make that much difference in topend pull. If you can learn to use the better tires to your advantage as far as traction goes, I think you will find that they help. The difference in height between those tires and your stock ones don't make as much difference as you think.

Shawn

As far as I know 109 is the highest unleaded race gas you can get. 110 is probably leaded (or wed be using it )

Anything over 104 is leaded. The stuff that Intense uses for instance is LOW-LEAD. It is supposed to be safe to use in cars with 02 sensors, but it does have lead in it because its easier to make high octanes with lead or something. That was what I was reading on some gas sites one day anyways.

Shawn

VP 109 motorsport racing fuel which INTENSE (and I) use is the highest unleaded fuel available.


http://www.vpracingfuels.com/vp_01_f...0C02E#unleaded

Thinking outloud here, but maybe the wider tires created drag as well. I remember talks of lowering the tire psi can cause problems at higher speeds because you have all that "extra" rubber flopping around making it hard for the car to turn. True? You tell me guys.

Weather or not that would cause bad times may not be so noticable now that I have added up what you all said. Shawn you're probably right about the tires not hurting me hardly as much as before. I bet its a matter of me learning the car with new rubber touching the road. I pretty much have to relearn how to launch my car.

One last act of desperation as to why my times stunk: Left lane times incorrect.
Why? Not once did I see my 1000' data printed on the slip and I raced on the left lane all day. Also, I raced a brand new Evo 8 and he had me for my first gear, but I pulled HARD on him in 2nd and passed the Evo. Near the end of the 1/4 mile my car shifted into 3rd and he gained on me slightly, but hell...he wont by maybe 2 feet at the most and we both pulled almost identical R/T'*. I'll have to check the 60 foots. But in conclusion my lane said 14.1 and his said 13.7 and my previous PB was 13.71.....interesting?

OK, so its unleaded, but it is really only 105 octane.... I don't think that 1 octane is going to make a huge difference.

Shawn