The Feel Good Drag

"Forward" "Little more" "Woah"

Pre-stage lights, stage lights, amber lights, green light. GO!

Wheelspin, shit, less rev's more clutch, stopped spinning, foot flat, 2nd gear bang, 3rd gear bang, 4th gear over the line shut off, run down, brake.

Thats pretty much the best way I can describe my first ever attempt at a 1/4 mile drag and the funny thing is the length of time it takes you to read that probably isn't far off how long it took me to run down the 1/4 mile.

Me and a mate of mine Pasty decided that after cleaning the cars early Sunday morning we would go watch some drag racing action at a local show that was going on.  We had a few mates over there already so we fuelled up and headed down.  on arrival it was in full swing and there was some pretty mental metal launching full pelt towards the horizon on the ex-military run way.  We watched for a bit before deciding that we really needed to race after the guess work we'd put into "which ones quicker" ever since I got my grubby little mits on the Civic.

Now his car is a 2.0l 16v Cliosport 172 cup.  Yes long name but the main part is the 172 being the BHP in short.  Mine supposedly running 185 BHP from the factory but both being older cars by todays standards we knew wear and tear and the likes would mean they're not running their full potential.  Both cars are relatively standard performance modifaction wise.  I have a catback exhuast system, Pasty has an air filter and cold air feed respectively.  We'd played with each other on the roads and it had always been close, like really close but we knew there was only one proper way to find out and so we signed on for the track.

We rolled up to the queue and we discussing what we thought the outcome might be and in all honesty we were clueless and both quite nervous!  Neither of us having ever run a 1/4 mile before so we were well aware things might get interesting.

My first run was bad, not massively bad but I didn't quite understand the whole start line thing and by the time I'd got to grips with it the light was green and I dumped the clutch in excitement and sat on the spot spinning.  I ran a 15.5 that time and Pasty totally messed up his start running a 15.7.  We both left the track with massive grints and instantly went back to queue for the second go.

Second time round was better, only just but both of us improved running a 15.5 and 15.4, I ran the 15.4 so once again I was a happy boy for sleighing the Clio twice in a row.  3rd run now had to be done.  I was kind of getting the hang of it by now but on launching I got over eager again and lit the wheels up slightly losing those valubal tenths.  I ran a 15.3 which I was massively pleased with for a near enough stock 1.6, Pasty ran 15.4 and he was also happy even though he'd been beaten the third time running! 

Our runs were up and we were happpy with our day so we decided to head home happy and with fully functional cars!  All in all it really was good fun and I think i've got the bug because I'm after that 15.0, little less pressure in the tyres, better launch and if theres no headwind, i can't see it being unachievable.  But we'll see, for now I'm a happy boy!