We decided to shake the Mini down at the IDRC West Coast Nationals at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, CA last weekend 4/16-17. Historically, Palmdale is a tough track due to the desert heat, elevation, and cross winds and not a very good place to test a car for the first time. Most cars run 0.5 to 1.0 seconds slower at Palmdale due to these conditions and getting a car to run well here is always a challenge. But I was here many, many years ago when the "Silver Bullet", piloted by David Shih was the first Honda in the "10's", as he overcame the challenges and the rest is import drag racing history.

We arrived Saturday morning, after driving through the night from Phoenix. The conditions were typical for Palmdale, hot and dusty. We were not as prepared as we should have been, but being the first Mini to race at a sanctioned import event, we were determined not to disappoint.
We did six passes in total, the first few we used to dial in the car. A couple of problems immediately became apparent. One, the tuning was slightly off, and needed to be adjusted, and two, we were going to have problems with gearing due to my "conservative" tire sizing. I call it conservative since I'm the boss. Unfortunately, we did not have extra sets of tires with us, so we could only address the tuning.
The car responded with a 13.009 on the fourth pass and followed with a 12.957 on the fifth pass with a 109.091 and 109.367 MPH respectively. Considering that our very first pass was a 13.560, we we heading in the right direction. On Sunday, we came out a ran a 12.811 at 109.694 under similar conditons. At that point we decided to shut it down and enjoy the rest of the day. I felt there was no need to continue since we were unable to address the gearing.

Two exciting thoughts come to mind when I step back an reflect upon this weekend. As a racer, I was pleasantly surprised and relieved how consistent the Mini responds and drives and as a manufacturer, the results proved to us that the car and our program both possess much more potential which will further motivate us to push the performance envelope.

Hubie Fuh
SPI Powerexcel

Link to final run: 12.81 at 109.69
http://spipowerexcel.com/newimages/palmdale1281a.wmv

 

Congrats!

What was your 60-ft time? I take it you had the stock pulley?

Edit: Did the announcer say you were running nitrous too?

 

swweeeeeeeett!!!!! 5out5

by the way how do i take a look at the products you have for sale for the mini... i cant really figure it out on your wesite...

thanks
Carlos

 

Nice and fassst.

 

Great Job Hubie!!

 

Nice job Hubie. I bet the Honda boys took notice !

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I have added Hubie's run to the database:

http://www.ross-tech.net/andy/mini/d...artermile.html

 

There were a lot of Hondas out there running good. But I must say that we were the best looking car going down the track.

warchief- our website is currently under construction, so the best way is to give us a call or send us and e-mail and we can get more information to you.

 

yee-haw! 2.001 60' is very hot.

what's all that rev up and down noise during the run?

seems like there is more in there, eh? 345hp makes 109mph seem a bit skimpy.

 

But doesn't your kit void the warranty?

 

Little late now I suppose, but it might be nice to know whether cars are on slicks or street tires.

 

All that noise was a Civic staging right next to where I was holding the camera. You are completely right with that mph being skimpy. This is due to our conservative tire sizing, we were worried about traction and how the car would react so we went with a 22" tire. Just for reference a stock 205/45/17 is a 24.26" tire. Because of this we were shifting into fifth gear at the end of the run. But if we were to have run a proper sized tire would have most likely trapped 115 or higher. Also with a bigger tire would have cut a quicker 60' time.

 

Congrats congrats You guys have the only PS Mini I'm envious of Can't wait to meet you when you come to town for Maximus's install

 

Congrats man. 12.81 seconds is a badass time. Unbelievable really... CONGRATS!!!!!!.

 

I bet the tires won't change the MPH more then ~1-2, the ET should come down for sure though! Usually you can short shift and dog it until 3rd and still run close on your MPH. :smile: Nice job though! I take it this is the fastest mini around?

 

Well... it's a list ordered by ET. Just for comparison, slicks are more significant to ET than many of the other mods that are listed, like intake and exhaust.

 

Those are some great numbers! I would take that skimpy MPH figure if my car ran a 12.81!

 

Awesome run!! I know that feeling of breaking past that next lower barrier...it's a good one

 

for you tyros out there, a little HS physics leads to:

V=(P)(t*t)/(M)(d). V=final velocity, P=power, d=distance, M=mass.

interesting because it shows why V is linearly related to Power (10% more hp should give 10% higher V), and inversely related to Mass, (10% less weight should mean 10% higher V (for you, TonyB)).

another one is:
V=at, (a=acceleration), so you can see why a lower ET leads to a lower V.

 

You bet. He could cut a 2.4 60 ft and still run the same MPH but a much worse ET. Slicks and gears will do wonders for ETs but not a lot for MPH.:smile:

The ET and MPH point to 250whp and 233whp respectively.

To get 6MPH higher TS will take another 40whp...

345whp points toward low 11s in the low 120mph ranges..

 

part of the equation you are missing is.....

the track is crap and it's at 4000 feet of elevation:smile:

 

Gee what does that mean...4000...does that mean with proper tire size and being here in AZ he'd run in the mid to high 11s..hmmmn...

car as is would run 12.2 or better with a 3000 ft drop eh? LOL...SWEEET!!!

 

if he can get it to "hook" ...... yes

 

Actually, Palmdale is closer to 3000ft, but we do expect to run better closer to sea level and with better preparation on our part

 

Now this is something to look forward to.

Low 12's I hope next time:smile: