Heaven's Landing 1/2 mile drag race now in the books.

Hanging With The Big Dogs - and everything is copacetic!

Heaven's Landing is a private gated community airport about two hours North of Atlanta. The "WannaGoFast" two day event has been held at the airport in May for a number of years now. Admittance is by application and about 135 cars were selected for each of two days this weekend. In addition to the application cars there are about twenty "sponsor" cars that ran as a group several times during the day. Many vehicles were trailer-ed in.

This event includes very fast cars. For instance, the record this weekend, as of the time I left in mid afternoon, was 219 mph. That was a "Dial-a-Boost" Lamborghini with, reportedly, 1,800 hp. Very few cars made the 200mph club but many were way North of 150 mph. Most if not all of these cars were forced induction vehicles. These included all the usual suspect Vettes, Camaros, Mustangs and Porches and a surprising number of Cadillacs as well as about half a dozen Lambos. I will provide the results once they are posted by WannaGoFast.

As it turned out I was half of the apparent Ferrari team. I personally spotted two other Ferraris but I believe only one of them was racing. It was rumored to be a hybrid. My little slow Mondial was a bit of a hit among both drivers and many people from the large spectator group. People were forever taking pictures, asking me questions, and complimenting me on how good looking it is! On a scale of 10.0 my day was a 9.9. The weather was a perfect May in the North Georgia Mountains. Cloudless, calm, bright blue skys and 70F by about noon. The track ambiance was delicious. I arrived at 7:45 this morning, signed in through my drivers window at the gate and drove to the tech area.

Turns out the "Tech Area" was simply the long line of about 135 cars that wound itself along the runway that was on the right, then up left behind a couple of hangers and then doubling back towards the entrance gate with the runway now on the left and up to the staging line facing the wrong way. Two by two we turned left, left again, and lined up with each other at the start now looking down the runway. Spectators had complete access to everything but could not go into the actual staging areas.

This was clocked speed event not a timed event. Accordingly, there was no actual staging as in real drag races. In our case we simply pulled up along side the starter guy, more or less in place, and he activated the yellow/green tree and off we went. We were not racing each other. Instead we were seeing how fast we would be going at the end of the 1/2 mile track. In my case that was not very fast.

I am not certain whether my Mondial was the slowest car of the day or second or third slowest. When I think hard I can not identify anyone who was slower. The final tally will enlighten us all. However, the reason my day is rated a 9.9 instead of a 10.0 is that I missed my estimated speed - that is the speed I expected when asked how fast I thought I might go - by 0.3795 mph. I wrote I expected no more the 115 mph. Would grudgingly accept 110, and would swoon in ecstasy should I make 120 mph. My actual best speed was 114.6205 mph. [someone check my math].

However, there are surprising conclusions I am forced to relate. Specifically, I had an agenda at the track. I planned to run three consecutive runs shifting first at 7,700 rpm. Then at 7,000 rpm. Then at 6,500 rpm. Incredibly, each of these runs was faster then the previous one. This forced me into a fourth run shifting at 6,000 rmps. THAT run was more then one full mph faster then then the rest!

I was dumfounded. I staged up for a fifth run but the starter guy got all bolixed up and it was a wasted run. The day was warming up, I doubted I would get faster, I was getting tired, bored and perplexed and so I returned home. About 45 minutes drive in the mountains. That drive was delightful because I was following one of the Lambos and he just squirted lightly along over the landscape. It was fun using my new shift knowledge to causal effect. Simply running between 4,500 and 6,500 rpms just perusing the time away sort of day-dreaming.

The race results have obvious implications. The spread between my slowest run and my fastest run is only 1.6687 mph at the end of a 1/2 mile effort. And the benfit goes to the LOWER rpm shift point. Accordingly, I conclude any shifting in MY car beyond about 6,250 is not only futile, but is counterproductive and potential harmful.

Finally, there was my hope to establish whether Purple Mondials are faster then other colors. I speculated mine is faster because many many informally clocked 60-120 mph runs did not very much match published data. Accordingly, I hoped this 1/2 mile run would also include a split record at 1/4 mile. It did not. I suppose there may be some interpolation math that could estimate it. And I might explore that. But for now the answer is unavailable.

None-the-less! A good day was had by all! And I topped it off with a stop at the local winery to pick up a couple of bottles. That winery makes an entirely adequate light red that is actually worth $30 per bottle. Now looking forward to next year. Hmmmmm.

 

Lots of the really fast cars did tire warm ups. However, for most cars a good 'hole shot' adds nothing to final speed. Its been about 15 years since I last drag raced a stick shift and even though I did not intend to make a hard launch old muscle memory kicked in on my first run. It was not a true smoky burn out but the car did a couple of mild fish tails.

My seat of the pants impression was this car would easily do smokey burn outs all day long as reliably as my old Z-28. For instance the Mondial uses the same CV joints as the Testa Rosa and all of mine are new. I DID wonder about rear wheel bearings because I have no reason to think they have ever been repacked with grease. My local wrench regreased the front bearings but I overlooked the possibilty for the rear even though it was a perfect opportunity since the half shafts were already out of the car for the CV joints.