Taking my wagon to the drag strip!

So there's a drag strip just south of Phoenix (Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park aka Firebird) and they have open drag nights on some Fridays, including today. My daily driver has right around 300hp, is RWD, and is a bright red wagon with 195,000 miles. Naturally, that means it's time to take it to the drag strip and see how it does!

The factory spec for my 2000 BMW 540it is 0-60 in 5.8s and a quarter mile of 14.2s. If I can get an ET anywhere in the 14 second range I'll be happy. The main thing holding me back is the slushbox, as it's heavy, not particularly quick, and sucks a decent bit of power (the manual 540i 0-60 time is 5.4s).

I do have pretty big rear tires though, they're Continental Extremecontact DW's in 275/35/18, so I should have a fair bit of grip, especially if I deflate the tires a bit before making my passes (I keep the tires at 40psi normally).

Have any of you guys taken your wagons to the drag strip? Or am I just crazy?

I have taken most of mine to the dragstrip. I also brought a red wagon once, the Volvo, and the announcer thought it was great and drew attention to the fact that I still had carseats in it as I outran the Mustang in the other lane.

I have!

A couple of years ago, I daily drove a 1980 Malibu Wagon. It had arguably the worst small block chevy ever produced, a 267. My dad and I hopped the thing up with stuff like, a four barrel intake, electric fan, headers, egr delete, and knocked around 2 seconds off the 0-60 time. It was a ball of fun. It ran 17s. I used to go down the track and it was so slow, I stuck my tongue out at my Mom half way down the track, and the best part was, she saw it. I would love to do a turbo LS in a wagon someday.

Wagons are the best!

tuna55 said:

I have taken most of mine to the dragstrip. I also brought a red wagon once, the Volvo, and the announcer thought it was great and drew attention to the fact that I still had carseats in it as I outran the Mustang in the other lane.

I'm sure I'll get a lot of mom-wagon comments, especially from the domestic car crowd that usually goes to the drag strip. Stock vs stock I should be able to outrun most non-Cobra Mustangs from before 2005.

TheV8Kid said:

I have!

A couple of years ago, I daily drove a 1980 Malibu Wagon. It had arguably the worst small block chevy ever produced, a 267. My dad and I hopped the thing up with stuff like, a four barrel intake, electric fan, headers, egr delete, and knocked around 2 seconds off the 0-60 time. It was a ball of fun. It ran 17s. I used to go down the track and it was so slow, I stuck my tongue out at my Mom half way down the track, and the best part was, she saw it. I would love to do a turbo LS in a wagon someday.

Wagons are the best!

Any wagon with a Chevy small block sounds like a good time to me! Even if it isn't the fastest thing ever, you can do so much with it and the small blocks are a dime a dozen if you wanted to swap up to something bigger like a 350.

My V8's displacement is laughably small if you convert it to cubic inches... 4.4L is 268ci, similar to what your Malibu had! Though mine makes about 290-300hp from the factory since it's a DOHC engine with variable valve timing and a relatively high compression ratio of 10:1. Eventually I want to swap in the E39 M5 5.0L engine, which would give me 400hp, an 11:1 compression ratio, and revs to 7000rpm.

Though I'm thinking about putting in a 150 shot of juice in the meantime to give my stock engine some more pep. There's a guy on Bimmer Forums who's had nitrous on his 540i for many years with no problems.

Any wagon is a good wagon, regardless of speed.

My Saab Turbo X Sportcombi manual with a tune eeked out a 14.9s pass (sad really, I don't know why it was so slow);

My E91 328ix auto managed a blistering 15.8;

and, my 1997 Subaru Impreza JDM yo swap burned the strip with a 13.5.  I think it has a bit more in it now that the ECU is working better.

I spent a lot more time at Speedworld back in the day, but have made quite a few passes at Fireturd...  Don't be surprised if you don't hit published performance times.  

Most magazines "correct" times to ideal conditions, and those conditions just don't exist in Phoenix.  I've seen density altitudes as high as 4000' at summer events...  In the winter, the track conditions at test/tune nights usually suck.

First timer drag tips:

Drive around the water and don't do a big burnout... it just overheats most street tires.

Leave on the last yellow... if you see green, you're late! ;)

TheV8Kid said:

I have!

A couple of years ago, I daily drove a 1980 Malibu Wagon. It had arguably the worst small block chevy ever produced, a 267. My dad and I hopped the thing up with stuff like, a four barrel intake, electric fan, headers, egr delete, and knocked around 2 seconds off the 0-60 time. It was a ball of fun. It ran 17s. I used to go down the track and it was so slow, I stuck my tongue out at my Mom half way down the track, and the best part was, she saw it. I would love to do a turbo LS in a wagon someday.

Wagons are the best!

Oh my God! I had that exact car in high school 1988-89. That 267 was all of 125 bhp. what a turd. I think the v6 they had in there was faster at the time. Ah the memories! And there were a lot of them since it took so long to get there :). I can't believe these are so sought after now. Well, good for them. They are pretty much legos.

Rodan said:

I spent a lot more time at Speedworld back in the day, but have made quite a few passes at Fireturd...  Don't be surprised if you don't hit published performance times.  

Most magazines "correct" times to ideal conditions, and those conditions just don't exist in Phoenix.  I've seen density altitudes as high as 4000' at summer events...  In the winter, the track conditions at test/tune nights usually suck.

 

First timer drag tips:

Drive around the water and don't do a big burnout... it just overheats most street tires.

Leave on the last yellow... if you see green, you're late! ;)

Haha I wish I had read your tips before I went to the strip. I wanted to look cool so I did a bunch of burnouts, whoops. I'm trying to kill my crappy rear Continentals anyways, they've had a horrible vibration since day one that refuses to be balanced out.

It was like 81º tonight, with a fairly low humidity of 15%. Slight breeze too, pretty pleasant overall for a September night in Phoenix.

I got a whole bunch of runs in, and my best ET was 14.96 with a trap speed of 92mph. The factory spec is 14.2 seconds, so I'm pretty happy with what I got, considering I'm a total noob at this. For what it's worth, the car didn't really care. It never got all that hot and it ran flawlessly. Not bad for a car with 195,000 miles on its original engine and slushbox!

I think it's awesome how I can drive to work, get some runs in at the drag strip, and then go get groceries right after with comfortable AC and a fairly modern infotainment system.

Any drag slip that starts with a 14 is pretty darn good.  Used to be damn fabulous 15 years ago.

My 82 Camaro ran mid 18's with it's 145 horse 305.  I have it in the mid 13's now.  Yay, small block Chev.

In reply to gunner :

I had a 78 malibu wagon with the V6. I believe it was rated at 90 hp( 3.3, 200ci version ) .  It was incredibly so. regretted never swapping a v8 in it.

Thats pretty good! 14s are pretty damn quick.

Congrats on going to the dragstrip and being satisfied with your results! I feel like getting a feeling of satisfaction at the dragstrip is by far the hardest thing about it. 

2002 subby outback wagon, I can not remember what she pulled in 2015 at the challange. But I have a stick and the 2.5 and awd. Going to running her again next month.

The worst I have for a stripe pass was a 89 toy pickup 4x4 with a 4.0 v6, 5 speed and 31's. The best pass was high 20's and i caught the mustange napping and at the 1/8 mile he walked. But i was beating everyone off the line at least that night.

I have run the quater 3 times, Once in the truck around the late 90's at union grove, the 2004 challange in a 82 delta 88, and the 2015 challange in the subby. whats really bad is i have a drag strip about 15 mints north of me...sigh.

My wagon might be the only project car ive owned that hasnt been too the dragstrip. I think about it sometimes then realize i dont want to go run 18-19 second quarter miles. The dragstrip is fun in just about anything. my 81 marquis ran 15.80's and i had more fun then i had in my capri running 12.9's.

 That's a great 60' time! Nice pass and congratulations. 

Streetwiseguy said:

Any drag slip that starts with a 14 is pretty darn good.  Used to be damn fabulous 15 years ago.

My 82 Camaro ran mid 18's with it's 145 horse 305.  I have it in the mid 13's now.  Yay, small block Chev.

Haha well that makes me feel better. I think it's pretty decent for a daily driver wagon that's almost 18 years old. Full interior and zero weight reduction. I might hit the strip a few more times just for fun, but I don't intend to compromise my car's comfort for drag racing. That's what I have the Mustang GT for— I just wanted to get some practice in a well-sorted automatic car before I try the drag strip with a sketchy manual car.

Fitzauto said:

Thats pretty good! 14s are pretty damn quick.

Yeah, I'm happy I was able to get it into the 14's my first night of drag racing. It was a lot of fun, I loved mashing the gas pedal without being afraid of losing my license, haha.

Vigo said:

Congrats on going to the dragstrip and being satisfied with your results! I feel like getting a feeling of satisfaction at the dragstrip is by far the hardest thing about it. 

I guess it's because I went in with realistic expectations. I knew that the factory spec was 14.2, so I was expecting something in the 15's, given my lack of experience. The fact that I got it into the 14's is more of a testament to BMW's excellent engineering than my actual skill.

dropstep said:

My wagon might be the only project car ive owned that hasnt been too the dragstrip. I think about it sometimes then realize i dont want to go run 18-19 second quarter miles. The dragstrip is fun in just about anything. my 81 marquis ran 15.80's and i had more fun then i had in my capri running 12.9's.

The next time I go to the strip I'm taking my 96 Mustang GT convertible... it's a total dog in stock form, should be fun to see nothing but 15's and 16's, haha. I don't really get too worked up over quarter mile times, I think the experience is fun regardless. There was a guy in a stock Miata running 20's last night, and he was having a blast.

Javelin said:

 That's a great 60' time! Nice pass and congratulations. 

Thanks! What's generally considered a good 60' time? I'm still kinda new to drag racing.

dannyzabolotny said:

dropstep said:

My wagon might be the only project car ive owned that hasnt been too the dragstrip. I think about it sometimes then realize i dont want to go run 18-19 second quarter miles. The dragstrip is fun in just about anything. my 81 marquis ran 15.80's and i had more fun then i had in my capri running 12.9's.

The next time I go to the strip I'm taking my 96 Mustang GT convertible... it's a total dog in stock form, should be fun to see nothing but 15's and 16's, haha. I don't really get too worked up over quarter mile times, I think the experience is fun regardless. There was a guy in a stock Miata running 20's last night, and he was having a blast.

I guess its just weird too me because the car i drag raced every weekend when i was 18-19 is the fastest car ive owned. Ive never had a bad day at the dragstrip, even when my capri was running mid 14's because i had no clue how to set up a chassis and crap tires.  I figure any day i can enjoy my car is a good time! You will have a blast if you take a car you dont care about!

Streetwiseguy said:

Any drag slip that starts with a 14 is pretty darn good.  Used to be damn fabulous 15 years ago.

My 82 Camaro ran mid 18's with it's 145 horse 305.  I have it in the mid 13's now.  Yay, small block Chev.

Wow. I thought that my 302 Fairmont (140 hp, new, but it had a dead miss) was bad when it was stock. It went 17.10. Then I put a 4-barrel on, and went 16:10. Then my father-in-law and I built and installed an RHO-spec 302. 13s, right?  Wrong. I stagnated at 14.1 and 98 MPH for years. On the street, I could beat cars that ran 13.6 all day long. Never at the strip. Then, the 302 started making noise, and I completely jumped over the 13s and most of the 12s. The latest build is faster, but the last 347 went 12.2 at 113. If it had a 150# driver instead of a 350# one, or one that could drive at the drag strip, or both, it probably woulda gone mid 11s. What was my point?  Must not have been important. 

Thanks! What's generally considered a good 60' time? I'm still kinda new to drag racing.

Totally depends on the type of car.  FWD/RWD/AWD, auto, manual, power level..  For your car 2.15 is good. In general FWDs struggle to do better than 2.2 on street tires. Very powerful RWD cars with a lot of rear traction and limited slips can do in the high 1s, so something like a new automatic Corvette can do 1.7-1.8.  Powerful FWD cars on slicks can do ~1.8s, sometimes better if they're very powerful or a full on race effort.  Stock manual-trans AWD cars can usually do 1.8-1.9 depending on how fearless the driver is about their driveline.  Very powerful RWD  and AWD cars on slicks can get into the low 1s, 1.3-1.4. 

Your car has a decent amount of rubber but still open diff, and while it's RWD and V8 it is an auto and not a particularly big v8 which means your power level at converter stall rpm (2000-something rpm) is nothing crazy. If you were not spinning off the line that generally means you can put down more power and get a better 60' with the traction you have. Then when you are riding the limit of one-tire traction, getting a limited slip will allow you to launch even harder.  Whether you have that power available (were you flooring it right away?) is another thing. With a small v8 and a stock torque converter you will probably not be making enough power at launch to spin two good street tires on a well-prepped surface and most 'easy' engine mods do nothing for 2000-rpm torque and generally increase higher-rpm performance. So long story short, 2.15 is good for your car and unless you both weren't spinning the tires AND weren't flooring it, i wouldn't expect much in the way of easy improvements from what you already got (as far as 60' times).