Jeremy kindly invited a few of us out to his company's (Economech Services) drag day, in association with Eagle Techonologies, which happened yesterday... a full report. Who came along? Jonathan, Mad Mike, Brett, and obviously Jeremy and I.

Preparations

Last week a few of us (okay Jeremy and I) were getting rather serious about getting our cars going - we had thought that a Lamborghini Diablo was going to turn up in which case we really wanted to beat it. Jeremy was doing the big weight reduction exercise and ordering all the racegas etc whilst I initially got a really nasty chip for my car (I wasn't going to let Jonathan beat me!!!) Then I rang up Lance to see how he was, I mentioned the drags and Diablo. A few seconds later drool was forming as it looked like I was going to take his monster down, all I had to do was fill up the NOS bottle and get some racegas. Okay we can deal with that!! To make things even more interesting I only told Jeremy that I was taking Lance's car - kept playing the other guys along hehehehe.

Sunday morning

I cruised out to Lances place and picked up the monster, heading back towards Greenlance McD's (where we were all going to meet) I decided to give it a burst away from a set of lights - on cold tyres .. the rear end started to let go and went a bit sideways on me, but man did she take off. That was with the NOS off so I was getting a little worried. A couple of bursts on the motorway proved that the car was damned quick. So I saunter into the carpark and wait for the other guys - should've seen the 'oh my thats Lance's car wheres yours??' look on a few faces!. A restrained cruise down to the strip and we're all setup for scruiteneering... As always the plate on Lance's beasty got a few comments (does that really have that much hp?) as well as the blue bottle in the boot.

We got through scruiteneering and lined up ready to go out. About an hour later everything was sorted and we could run.

Jeremy and Brett went out for the initial run - watching J's car go down the strip I knew there was going to be some traction problems and I started to get real worried about turning the NOS on, I really didn't want to blow anything up or hit the armco (I can imagine it's bad in your own car, but in someone elses about 10 times worse!), so a couple of runs later I'm up next against a Pulsar GTi-R.... easy win. The ole butterflies are going in the stomach as I move up to the line, everything is set, A/C off, foot on brake, start revving the engine and feel it bite in... yellow..go... hold on this isn't so good as the car starts to take off, it's taking a while to get moving... then whamm the turbos spool and the rear end starts to go sideways, I lift a little as I didn't like it too much then back on the throttle and point it down the strip and hold on. 13.8 something .. okay that wasn't bad, but it wasn't quick either.

Next run was against Jonathan, the big difference between stock turbos and big turbos was shown as he took off from the line, leaving me about a car length or two behind 1/4 way down the strip, then the big power of my car kicked in and slingshotted me past 1/2 way down and it just kept pulling. 13.5 vs 13.8 ... oooh that was too close for comfort.

Next run was against Mad Mike, now I can't let him beat me so lets try the Nitrous.. nervously I opened the valve, sauntered up to the line and flicked the arm switch. Nothing too eventful yet, brake on, accelerator down a little... yellow.. foot into it and the car takes off as before. Hrrm... this ain't right - I squeezed harder, click,WHAAAMMMMMM wwoooooaaahhh this thing instantly spooled the turbos, squirmed a bit and took off, bye bye.. hasta la vista... the instant spool up was so incredible and the fact that it didn't land up in wheelspin was something else. Needless to say I caned Mike (admittedly he had a bad start or so he says - sounds like the book of excuses has been transferred from Rowan to Mike). Went out with something like a 12.8 I think a full second quicker... I got back to the paddock with a huge grin on my face muttering words of 'I like NOS' (probably about 100 times over). Everybody saw when it kicked in as the car had a pretty poor start then took off in a cloud of black smoke (dumping fuel).

Ooooohhh... that was goooood.br>
We stopped for lunch and I started getting a bit more interest in the car. (funny that)

After lunch I lined up against Jeremy who was getting rather sad that his car hadn't broken into the 12's... same deal again.. line up and wait whilst Jeremy tried in vain to put some heat into the tyres. Did the launch thing and this time I kicked the NOS in earlier and felt like I had a much better start. 12.598 vs Jeremy at 13.01 wooooohoooo...

So now I notice this yellow Mustang that had run a 12.6.. me and the owner get chatting and decide (as you do) that we HAVE to race. There was no way I was going to let a Rustang beat me, so again the usual thing. Apparently nearly everyone was lining the track, and watching not that I noticed.

Saunter up to the line, this time I triple checked that the boost controller was in the right program, P3, triple checked that the NOS was armed, checked the Power switch was on, checked the O/D was off. Okay. I'm ready and staged. Foot on the brake... wooaarrgghh... this big V8 thing does this HUGE burnout .. I just pulse the throttle a bit to see how the auto reacts... he keeps doing these big burnouts I turn off the air conditioning.. he starts to stage. I bring the revs up and the car starts creeping, foot harder on the brake, yellow GO.. foot hard in it, NOS kicks in, and we have lift off, I didn't let my foot get off the throttle once.. just hard down.. the Mustang definitely gets the jump on me, about a car length or two ahead.. then Lance's car hooks up and fucks off (in his exact words). Bye bye.. start gaining on the Mustang he changes then it's all over.. I rocket past him. It was pretty close though.. I was seriously thinking it was all over about 1/3rd to 1/2 way down.

WOOOOHOOO.. I won I won. I was bouncing up and down in the seat screaming and shouting (hey, I just won the day)... I slowed down to wait for him and he nods and waves as we turn back to the timing tower. I get my timeslip a poorly written 12.707 at 114, hrrmm, thats slower than my previous times - it felt MUCH quicker .. much much quicker. Pulling into the pits everyone wanders over (wooohooo killed a V8) then he wanders over with his time slip 12.404 @ 110mph. so we reckon that I got a 12.101 (or it could've been 11.707 but I'm not that confident) as I had an easy car length over him at the line... Yehhharr so I got the best time of the day, I rang Lance and gave him the good news and decide to pack it in for the day. I'd done what I'd set out to achieve so that was it... I wasn't going to risk breaking his car or anything like that. Despite the many hassles from people to get me to break into the 11's. which I probably could've done, but didn't want to.

So there for any of the doubters/speculators. Lance's car IS quick. The number plate really does match the car's output.

Poor ole Jeremy couldn't break into the 12's, I was really hoping he would as he has done a heap of work to the car. Itwas putting out just a little bit less than Lance's car but couldn't get traction so I guess we'll have to investigate what can be done on the tyre front (the ever present 'put some big-ass hoosiers on it' cry kept ringing out).

Jonathan had a ball of a time, he kept reeling of consistent 13.8's. and he was a massively happy chappy (I can see big turbos in someones future).

Mikey managed a 13.4 which was slower than his previous time of 13.368.

Andrew (J's mate) in a Mazda 323 GTX did an impressive 13.8..

The other V8 there had a slipping clutch and sounded like shit, I think he only got to a 14.4

Bretts car was seriously sick, I don't even think it got into the 13's so it's back off to Advanced Imports to get the turbos rebuilt

Most importantly everyone had fun, so I can't wait till we get our battle of the sixes organised.

The one person who didn't have fun was an owner of a 993 Turbo.. he blew a clutch/gearbox/halfshaft or something mechanical on the line which was both funny sad and extremely expensive. It sounded very nasty though.. he brings the revs up for his first run, dumps the clutch...clatter clatter crunch .. rev.. clatter clatter..rev .clatter clatter rev.. 40 secs later he gets down the qtr! I made an intentional note of blipping the throttle everytime I went past them loading the Porsche onto the truck hehehehe...

Rowan Hick, member #001, rowan@600plus.com.