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August 26, 2005
Anatomy of a drag race: PT Cruiser vs Hemi Charger
One of the great things about drag racing is that it gives you a safe venue to get the speed bug out of your system. Another is that it lets you know how fast your car really is, which means the temptation to constantly prove it at the stoplight is lessened considerably. But perhaps the nicest thing about drag racing is that it is so much fun.
For those who've never raced, hobby drag racing is simple. If you're lucky enough to have a local dragstrip, head on over. There are often weekday events for regular guys (and girls) with regular cars. At Sacramento Raceway it costs just $15 to race on Wednesdays. What happens is that you get to do a few time trials. Then you "dial in" a time and it is marked on your windshield and side window. The dial in time is fast a bit faster than you think you can go, and it is used for "bracket racing" competition. Bracket racing uses handicaps. So if you dial a 14.8 and your opponent dials a 13.7, you get a 1.1 second headstart. However, it's only 1.1 seconds if both of you have the same rection time. If your opponent sleeps at the wheel and has a 0.7 reaction time and you have a 0.2, you just added half a second to your headstart. All this as a prelude to what was one of my most satisfying races ever.
I had lost in the first round of eliminations to a truck, crossing the finish line 2/100th of a second too late. So I was headed to the "loser lanes" 1 and 2 where eliminated cars could continue racing, without handicap, but still with reaction time included.
As luck would have it, my 2004 PT Cruiser GT was paired with a 2006 Dodge Hemi Charger. An all-Chrysler race. A Mopar race. A race between what is sold as the muscle car successor to all the great muscle car Dodge Chargers of the past and Chrysler's small retro paddywagon. A race between the almighty Hemi V8 and turbocharged 4-cylinder. As I drove up to the staging lane I felt history weighing on my shoulders. The Hemi Charger did some burnouts. I gunned the PT's turbo engine to treat the crowd to some blow-off valve hisses. I knew everyone considered it a mismatch. PTs aren't fast. Hemi Chargers are. Then again, the 2006 Charger is a big 4-door beast that's based on the Chrysler 300 platform. But it has a Hemi.
So my heart was pounding as I staged. Then the lights counted down and we were off. I'll include the numbers from the timeslip in what happened next. Makes it more dramatic. I caught a very good light, with a 0.176 second reaction time. The big Hemi Charger was no slouch either. He got off the blocks in 0.317, which means he was 141 thousandths of a second behind me. Though the Hemi Charger has an autostick and my PT a 5-speed, we did almost identical 60 foot times. I had a 2.268, the Hemi a 2.274. We passed the second timer with virtually identical times: I had a 6.317, the Hemi a 6.318. I power shifted from 2nd to 3rd, which means I never lifted my foor off the gas. The Stage 1 computer in my PT does a "soft rev limit" and so I can do that.
Despite the powershift, the Hemi now inched closer. I passed the third timer after 9.605 seconds, he did it in 9.576 seconds. So now he was just 112 thousandths behind me. At that point my speed was 75.884 mph, his 75.657. I powershifted from 3rd to 4th and felt the PT's engine straining harder as the big and not very aerodynamic body encountered ever more wind resistance. I passed the fourth timer at 12.438. The Hemi in 12.391. I was now just 94 thousandths ahead. The big Hemi inched closer yet, and we passed the final light, the end of the quarter mile. Who'd pass the finish line first?
I did. With a 14.878 to the Hemi Charger's 14.788. I won by 51 thousandths of a second.
The Hemi Charger did not return to race again. It must have been embarrassing to lose to a PT Cruiser. He ran a very good race. We both did. The small difference in reaction time meant I won. And it felt really, really good.
Posted by conradb212 at August 26, 2005 2:05 PM