Taught my 20 year old son how to drag race my car last night...
07-30-2013, 03:12 PM
#22
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
And it was wonderful that the track let you do it.
07-30-2013, 03:13 PM
#23
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
08-03-2013, 09:59 PM
#24
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
First ever race, first ever trophy
Yep, it actually happened - he made it down to the final three cars and brought home a semi-finalist trophy in his first ever race.
We went to the Test and Tune again last night to let him run the car solo and practice his lights. His last two were the best of the night with a .046 followed up by a .009 and his best today was a .025.
The original intent was to set the car up to run 10.2s for me in Pro and then high 10's for him to use in Trophy, I but I ended up having to improvise. The transmission didn't like having that much timing pulled out (I was launching with only 4 degrees) so I had to add some back in as I didn't get a clean 1-2 shift on any of the first 5 passes he made last night. What I ended up with was a mid 10's tune that was slow enough for him to handle but still fast enough for me to use in Pro which kept me from having to switch it back and forth between each round.
He ended up getting a lot of experience all in one trip as several different things happened. The car got loose on his second pass when his burnout was a little short and as I drilled into his head no less than a 100 times "If you start to lose control, just lift and coast the rest of the way" and sure enough he handled it like a pro.
Later he learned what it was like to have to leave second on the tree by being the faster car, what it was like to leave first and then in both instances how to fender race safely and avoid breaking out. In his final round he ended up cutting his worst light of the weekend (a .153 I think) and lost on a double breakout.
My dad instincts definitely kicked in big time after his first round of competition as some dangerous idiot in a diesel-powered 1970 Chevelle (and no, that's not a typo) with a 9.90 dialin got WAY loose but kept in it. At first I thought it was just a little wheelspin off the line but after the thick plumes of black smoke from the diesel cleared I could see he was trying to catch my son and in the process dangerously weaving back and forth and almost crossing over the middle line. I know that technically he didn't do anything illegal because he didn't cross over, but seeing that moron do the exact wrong thing by driving to drive through it really got me riled up. Fortunately for my son he was the one being chased at the time and had no idea what had happened until I told him about it afterwards.
All in all though I thought it was very impressive for his first time out.
Oh, and how did I do you ask? I lost by .009 on a double breakout in the first round and got to watch him keep racing as a result...
Thank again for reading.
Christopher
Best three reaction times
Down to the final three cars (it was almost an all Corvette final)
And one very happy young man!
We went to the Test and Tune again last night to let him run the car solo and practice his lights. His last two were the best of the night with a .046 followed up by a .009 and his best today was a .025.
The original intent was to set the car up to run 10.2s for me in Pro and then high 10's for him to use in Trophy, I but I ended up having to improvise. The transmission didn't like having that much timing pulled out (I was launching with only 4 degrees) so I had to add some back in as I didn't get a clean 1-2 shift on any of the first 5 passes he made last night. What I ended up with was a mid 10's tune that was slow enough for him to handle but still fast enough for me to use in Pro which kept me from having to switch it back and forth between each round.
He ended up getting a lot of experience all in one trip as several different things happened. The car got loose on his second pass when his burnout was a little short and as I drilled into his head no less than a 100 times "If you start to lose control, just lift and coast the rest of the way" and sure enough he handled it like a pro.
Later he learned what it was like to have to leave second on the tree by being the faster car, what it was like to leave first and then in both instances how to fender race safely and avoid breaking out. In his final round he ended up cutting his worst light of the weekend (a .153 I think) and lost on a double breakout.
My dad instincts definitely kicked in big time after his first round of competition as some dangerous idiot in a diesel-powered 1970 Chevelle (and no, that's not a typo) with a 9.90 dialin got WAY loose but kept in it. At first I thought it was just a little wheelspin off the line but after the thick plumes of black smoke from the diesel cleared I could see he was trying to catch my son and in the process dangerously weaving back and forth and almost crossing over the middle line. I know that technically he didn't do anything illegal because he didn't cross over, but seeing that moron do the exact wrong thing by driving to drive through it really got me riled up. Fortunately for my son he was the one being chased at the time and had no idea what had happened until I told him about it afterwards.
All in all though I thought it was very impressive for his first time out.
Oh, and how did I do you ask? I lost by .009 on a double breakout in the first round and got to watch him keep racing as a result...
Thank again for reading.
Christopher
Best three reaction times
Down to the final three cars (it was almost an all Corvette final)
And one very happy young man!
08-04-2013, 02:41 AM
#25
Race Director
Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: Peoria/Phoenix AZ
Posts: 16,556
Received 2,062 Likes
on
1,506 Posts
C6 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019
So is he taking over now or are you building another car? 
Congrats to the next generation.
Congrats to the next generation.
08-04-2013, 08:21 AM
#26
Safety Car
That's great Father and Son time,I let my 20 year old son drive my 86 C4 some years back and he launched and putted down the track and then said dad can I drive the 94 c4 ,the 86 scares the hell out of me I had detuned the car which runs 9's.I said ok and he entered the 32 car street class with the 94 that night and won. I was shocked and said well son the red 94 is yours now ,blew him away.
Last edited by REDC4CORVETTE; 08-04-2013 at 08:23 AM.
08-04-2013, 09:08 AM
#27
Tech Contributor
Father teaching son how to drag race in a 9 second Vette....sounds like a good story for Vette magazine! Chevy is trying to get the young guys, not just us old guys, interested in Vettes; who knew the drag strip might be a venue to do it.
