Drag Week 2024

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Since we're just over a week out from Drag Week 2024, and I now know the car is together enough that I'm going to make it to the event (barring another major failure), it's time to share info on the event, and that I will be there, trying to survive, once again in Shocking Chevy.

Drag Week is a 1000+ mile, 5 day long drag racing adventure put on by Hot Rod Magazine and Motortrend.

This year's dates and tracks below:
Day 0 Tech & Test and Day 1 Racing — Sunday, Sept 15 and Monday, Sept. 16 - National Trail Raceway (Hebron, Ohio)
Day 2 Racing — Tuesday, Sept. 17 - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Day 3 Racing — Wednesday, Sept. 18 - US 131 Motorsports Park (Martin, Michigan)
Day 4 Racing — Thursday, Sept. 19 - Milan Dragway (Milan, Michigan)
Day 5 Racing & Awards — Friday, Sept. 20 - National Trail Raceway (Hebron, Ohio)

If you're in the area, you can come spectate, and if you're not, there is usually a live stream on Motortrend's Youtube channel. If you do come check it out in person, you are more than welcome to come find me in the pits and hang out. My plan each day is to be there first thing in the morning and make a single pass before getting on the road, but that was also my plan last year and breakage & charging issues prevented that from happening. Friday, depending on where I am in my class's standings, I will likely be making many runs and pushing the car.

I will, as much as possible, try to update this thread throughout the week. However, last year I got a total of 10hrs of sleep between Monday and Friday, so I make no promises.

[Alibro]

Since we're just over a week out from Drag Week 2024, and I now know the car is together enough that I'm going to make it to the event (barring another major failure), it's time to share info on the event, and that I will be there, trying to survive, once again in Shocking Chevy.

Drag Week is a 1000+ mile, 5 day long drag racing adventure put on by Hot Rod Magazine and Motortrend.

This year's dates and tracks below:
Day 0 Tech & Test and Day 1 Racing — Sunday, Sept 15 and Monday, Sept. 16 - National Trail Raceway (Hebron, Ohio)
Day 2 Racing — Tuesday, Sept. 17 - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Day 3 Racing — Wednesday, Sept. 18 - US 131 Motorsports Park (Martin, Michigan)
Day 4 Racing — Thursday, Sept. 19 - Milan Dragway (Milan, Michigan)
Day 5 Racing & Awards — Friday, Sept. 20 - National Trail Raceway (Hebron, Ohio)

If you're in the area, you can come spectate, and if you're not, there is usually a live stream on Motortrend's Youtube channel. If you do come check it out in person, you are more than welcome to come find me in the pits and hang out. My plan each day is to be there first thing in the morning and make a single pass before getting on the road, but that was also my plan last year and breakage & charging issues prevented that from happening. Friday, depending on where I am in my class's standings, I will likely be making many runs and pushing the car.

I will, as much as possible, try to update this thread throughout the week. However, last year I got a total of 10hrs of sleep between Monday and Friday, so I make no promises.

Sounds amazing mate. Good luck

[Aragorn]

I'll be looking out for you in the live streams

[ScythianNite]

how did tech go? hope you had a good start!

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Charging at an AC charger right now, so here's an update:

I did not get CCS working before leaving. For some reason, the CANBed Arduino I have set up to supply FOCCCI data isn't sending current requests fast enough. Otherwise, it seems to be ok.

Separate from that, the car is running well. Had a good clean pass today of 12.33@108, which is a best ET for the car and I. It did get loose on the top end, but several cars were. I'm still going to go through the steering in the morning and check things over. I think I can tune it into the 11s this week.

CHAdeMO charging has been working well, as has the new Bolt AC charger and DC-DC. The next leg is the longest without charging, but I think I'll be ok. Later in the week, the routes look rough.

I'm not sure if it's the terrain (or lack thereof) or my gentle driving, or some of the changes I've made, but she seems to be noticeably more efficient than before. I don't have an exact # on it yet, but I've been surprised by the SOC when arriving at multiple chargers. Likely a combination of things, but a good development! I'm going to try to get actual numbers throughout the week.

[ScythianNite]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on chademo availability in that part of the country at the end of the trip. Drag week seems like it's a real gauntlet and I think fast charging availability broadly is a big hangup for a lot of people in the US with or without the added difficulties of a converted car

[Aragorn]

Mondays Pass (4:42:46):

[Alibro]

Most people are scared to go on a road trip in an OEM Leccy car but to do a 1000 mile trip in a home built 1940's car while drag racing it every day!!!!!

RESPECT!

Would changing the tow angle help with the top end? I noticed it was moving around on you.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Morning of Day 3 update!

Yesterday, I ran another personal best, 12.146 @ 112.21. This was after a failed run, not sure if that was caused by a higher SOC or an attempted tune tweak. Today may shed more light on that issue. I have discovered that she likes burnouts.

The drive yesterday was tough. It was almost exclusively highway driving, which was just eating energy. Had a few locations where I needed a J1772 top off between CHAdeMO stops, plus a couple of CHAdeMO chargers that acted up. (As an aside, I know journalists hate on Electrify America, but in my experience EA is usually ok, its EV Connect that is hot garbage.). (As a second aside, these road trips remind me how annoying it is that charge providers find the need to reinvent the wheel on payment. Just give me a gas pump's functionality. Tap/swipe card, press buttons, get fuel. Why do I need a dozen apps?). We also had REALLY rough roads last night. Shook bolts loose, tossed the car all over the place, I wouldn't be shocked if a wheel is out of round now. Both Indiana and Michigan; what the hell?

Today's drive looks miserable. The route runs through rural southern Michigan where there is very little infrastructure. I'm just hoping these are slower roads that will help me stretch the range without being a hazard.

Overall, things are going well. I love this nonsense.

[Aragorn]

Strugging to find tuesdays run, the failed run is around 3:18 in the live stream, but i cant see the second pass, was it late, or have i just failed scrubbing thru the stream?

Wednesdays run (2:25:50):

[Aragorn]

Thursday (3:19:30):



Pretty consistently banging in those 12.1's

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Drag Week 2024 is a wrap! I finished the week, including 1041 miles of driving and 7 full drag strip passes.

Final average of the week was 12.1034 sec @ 111.182 mph, with a best pass on Friday of 11.756 sec @ 114.59 mph. The full final results are here: https://d2kde5ohu8qb21.cloudfront.net/f ... esults.pdf

Here are my times (numbers are ET, then MPH day by day, with the average at the end):

The week was awesome, and brutal, and overall a great event. I was able to sleep each night, and didn't need to use the generator once. Some days had plenty of CHAdeMO fast charging, and some I had mostly J1772, which took forever. I didn't get CCS working in time, but I do think I'm close to doing so. The last drive was fun, after a slow start due to a long time on a J1772 charger, I had a stretch with plenty of charging, hit the check points with time to stop and hang out, and made it into the track around 10:30pm, so plenty of time to sleep.

On Friday, I played with the tune and the car's setup. I learned that the car really likes a long burnout, and started work on both the motor tune and shock tuning. I'm still looking for videos of any of those burnouts (the live stream seemed to keep missing them) but I do know Hot Rod will have a piece out on social media at some point soon.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

And here is the best run from Friday, 11.75 @ 114

https://www.youtube.com/live/g1eTRSv8c_ ... TP&t=20788

[EVSwap]

Congrats on your 11! That's so cool that Freiburger remembers your car. It does look a little unstable at the top end, but that's probably 1940s aero more than anything. Once you get CCS working hopefully that will make 2025 less stressful.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Congrats on your 11! That's so cool that Freiburger remembers your car.

Thanks! yeah it's awesome that he and Lohnes get it to some degree. Keith Turk, the tech director, is also exceptionally supportive of my program, so that is way cool. I grew up fans of these guys and hearing them say nice things about me and the car is still sureal.

It does look a little unstable at the top end, but that's probably 1940s aero more than anything.

The top end stability has a few causes, and I'm slowly improving it. First, my steering box was loose. I tightened it on day two, and it was much improved. Second, the front suspension geometry is still wonky from having V8 springs up front. I have to get some softer springs, drop the nose a bit, and put some adjustable shocks up there. Finally, National Trail (the 1st and 5th days) seemed to be loose on the top end. On Day 1, there were several cars getting loose up there, and on the 5th day, I still felt it wanted to pull me to the middle, and then shove me to the outside. Some tracks do that I guess. And yeah, the aero isn't helping.

Once you get CCS working hopefully that will make 2025 less stressful.

The night that I had to sit on J1772 while staring at CCS plugs (multiple times) was infuriating. I think I'm close to solving my CCS issues, and then yeah, everything gets a fraction easier. I'll likely still limit it to 50kW, but just the charger availability is so much greater.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

My Drag Week 2024 summary video is up! Watch my ugly mug blab to camera, as well as each full pass, including some on/in car cameras (when I remembered them and they didn't die either from long waits or overheating)

[Alibro]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353056/

Any connection?

I just watched the entire video and I'm blown away by your commitment, the expertise was never in doubt but the effort and lack of sleep was off the scale.
Well done mate, you should be very proud of your achievement.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353056/
Any connection?

No. (The number of times I have had to clarify this to non-car friends is somewhat shocking.)

I just watched the entire video and I'm blown away by your commitment, the expertise was never in doubt but the effort and lack of sleep was off the scale.
Well done mate, you should be very proud of your achievement.

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

[lsh3rd]

Awesome stuff, I too am blown away by the commitment and continuous improvement of this vehicle. It's great to see the car break into the 11s.

I see the schedule for next year has been released. I will do my best to see you on 8-18-2025 at Atlanta Motor Speedway!

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I see the schedule for next year has been released. I will do my best to see you on 8-18-2025 at Atlanta Motor Speedway!

Where have you seen the schedule? I don't see anything out from Hot Rod. That might be Power Tour? Drag Week is usually in September, and Atlanta's drag strip is gone.

[lsh3rd]

I saw it here:
https://schedule2025.com/hot-rod-drag-w ... xperience/

It appears to be your event. AMS is actually an oval track, so I wonder if they added a drag strip to it. (After a Google search, yes, they have)

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I saw it here:
https://schedule2025.com/hot-rod-drag-w ... xperience/

It appears to be your event.

Yeah, I think that's fake - looks like maybe AI. Few reasons:
- Not seeing any release from Hot Rod, and it's not been picked up by Sick the Mag or Drag Drive Repeat
- Except for the first one, all Drag Weeks are a loop of 4 tracks, with day 1 and day 5 repeated
- Theres too many tracks, and they don't make sense for that sort of loop.
- All those tracks appeared on Power Tour or a Drag and Drive in the last 2 years. Tracks get repeated sometimes, but not usually all of them.

I also don't expect we'll see the 2025 track list until the 2025-2028 rules package comes out, and it has not yet.

In good news, there will be a drag and drive in GA next fall - Sick the Mag has confirmed Sick Smokies will be in "the GA and TN mountains" next October, likely running on 1/8 mile strips. I'm considering going on that too.