Took the beast to the track

[boostedvenge]

Hello there! I think this is my first post, so I believe it's only fitting to put it here. I recently acquired my grandfather's LeSabre since he passed away this past October. It's a 97 LeSabre Custom w/ the 3.8L motor and auto tranny. Again, since it was my grandfather's car and he was a country man that loved racing, I found it fitting to take the car to the local 1/8th mile track. 2nd time down the track I made my bext pass of 10.797@65ish mph (don't have the slip in front of me). Now, is there anyway to get this a little quicker? There isn't a tach in the car, so when I torque braked, I couldn't see how high the revs were. My 60' times were HORRIBLE (like 2.65 I think), but I figure that's normal for a 3400lb car.

now, my question is this: Is there anyway to get this time into the 10.6's or even 10.5's? I ran her with a 1/4 tank of gas, and just me the driver (I'm about 230ish). The motor is BONE STOCK! Thanks!

 

[ParkAveUltra]

These aren't the best choice of vehicles to be racing, since their design is pretty much for the opposite. They have good low end torque and may seem kinda quick, but really, they aren't. That's for luxury, intended for merging and getting up to highway speeds in a resonable time. An '88 F150 4.9L will do the 1/4 in 17.5 stock (manual), and that's an old truck made for work. A stock 88 Mustang 5.0L will run 14's stock and it's 3400LBS and it'll do it day and night with no worries. But, If you plan on racing your LeSabre often, your first bet would be the transmission. They will only hold up so long under full throttle shifts behind stock power, let alone modified. Like any vehicle, to increase HP, you need to let the exhaust flow, let the intake breath cold unrestricted air, bigger throttle body, bigger injectors, up the fuel pressure... list goes on, but why bother when you can get a supercharged version with 240HP stock which has already been beefed up to handle the extra power? Personaly I think it's a waste of money trying to make these cars fast, and encourage you to just keep the car in great shape, and go for class by keeping it quiet, reliable, shinny and maintained. Just a bad platform to start with if going for speed. I would like my Park Ave Ultra to run 12's all day, but that's just not going to happen, unless I win the lottery... but then I'd just buy an Acura NSX.

 

[Buffman]

looks like you need some better suspension and stickier tires to get that 60ft time down

 

[92Master]

ParkAveUltra: I dont think he wants to make his car into a racer, he just wants to get his 1/8 time down by 2 or 3 tenths of a second.

boostedvenge: I think a decent exhaust system and CAI(like PAU mentioned above) will get you where you want to be. Oh, and welcome to the forums

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[ParkAveUltra]

Yes, I understand, I just don't want him to hurt his inherited LeSabre over 1/8 mile racing. Just not worth it. A tenth or two of a second is nothing when you're running passes this slow, so why strain a nice cruiser. I understand that your grandfather was a racer, but I don't imagine he owned his LeSabre for racing purposes. I'm not hating or preaching to you, it's your choice what you wish to do with the car, but I think you would be pretty upset if you broke his car.

 

[shienhausser]

he could just get that 1/10th or two with better traction period.

 

[Cadillac_AL]

When I was at the track last summer the Mustangs were running 7.5 - 9.5 so a Lesabre going 10.7 isn't that bad. Instead of torque braking try flashing the torque converter my just mashing the gas pedal. You may have to experiment with which yellow light to leave on but if you wait for the green then you already lost a few 10ths. I saw a lot of stock street cars burning their tires in the burn out box but I thought it was totally unnecessary on the slower cars. Once you get the racing bug you will have to get a Camaro. Peace.

 

[shienhausser]

I brake tourque to 1500 rpms, then ease into it. I ran a 9.4 with an intake only with only a 2.3 60' ft on balding tires.

if I can launch it with the 280 ft-lbs i had back then , then he can launch it with the lesabre for sure.

Also, the clock doesnt start until he leaves the line, so he could sit there for 4 seconds until he got ready and he would still get 10's.

what kind of tires are on the lesabre?

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[MrBuick (Magnum)]

People said my Roadmaster was slow... well, look at Buffmans. It's a direction mine will be taking. If this TCI calculator is close to accurate, that thing is doing 16.3 in the 1/4 mile. http://www.tciauto.com/Products/TechInfo/calculators.asp#2

CarCraft says my Roadmaster (they actually say a Caprice cop car, but some of us know they share the same drivetrain.) Is running 16.4 at 135mph... .

But the best part is, they say the car weighs 4200lbs... Which is correct, but at for that kinda time, it would have to weight near 5500lbs...

Opps, side tracked. My point is, it might be a low 16 that day, but with some practice, good weather, and some small tweaks, it could be going mid 15's. Which I think is pretty good, when you consider what some of the 60's Muscle cars ran(stock).

I know I know, today's cars are rockets! But for a 15 year old car, that was ment for grandpa, thats pretty decent. One of the guys who won a bracket racing championship, did it in his 17 second minivan!!! At my local track, theres a 4.6 thunderbird running 15.99, and he wins ALOT in brackets.

Food for thought. I added one part to get a laugh outta Buffman.

 

[t1264rk]

I have a normally aspirated 99 lesabre with a rebuilt engine, motor crapped out at 75000. I have cold air intake, ported exhaust manifolds, 3 inch exhaust with bigger down pipe and no cat, ported heads, intake and throttle body, along with a colder thermostat, and a little bigger cam and computer tune, I wasnt trying to build a race car, but the car is a little more fun to drive, and sounds pretty good at idle.

 

[ChuckDee]

I echo ParkAve's statements. Not to preach or anything like that but under the circumstances (grandpas) car, it might be better served just to cruise and enjoy the ride for as long as possible. Who knows, maybe you can pass it on to your grand kids someday.

-Chuck aka fly guy