Moé Moé Rabu

Tonight was the first time I’ve ever been to WSID (Western Sydney International Dragway) and it’s the first proper race event I have entered. It was a pretty surreal experience, starting from paying the entrance fee right until the final line up. I met up with some other PGA members once I gotten through the scruiteneering stage, had a chat and we finally went to line up. Below is my car all prepped and with my entry number on.

Now I have never done a proper burnout in a car, so doing one on a burnout pad was pretty awesome. The purpose of a burnout pad is to remove any pebbles or dirt from the tyres for better grip. Getting to the starting line, I was up against a fellow PGA member. Below is the timeslip.

What you need to look for is the ET time. This was my best time and was rather good for a first go. Though with the advice from fellow PGA members, I lowered the tyre pressure in the front wheels. The theory is lower tyre pressure, more rubber on the road, means more grip. After trying it the result is below.

The ETA time went up. Mainly because my R/T (Reaction Time) was god awful. The car I was racing against was a supercharged Toyota MR2. The guy had a bad start and I was pulling away from him in second gear, but after that, he passed me. The third time around I removed the air filter, seeing if more air would make a difference. Below is the result of the third run.

Again my ET time went up, however my R/T has improved. The reason behind this is that with my tyre pressure lower and removing the air filter, my top speed has decreased. This third run I was up against the same PGA member from the first run. For the fourth run, I put back the air filter and went up. Below is the result of the 4th run.

A tragic result. With an ET time of 20 seconds you know something went wrong. Unfortunately my clutch gave in and started to slip the WHOLE way. Pretty much when I launched the engine kept revving but with the clutch slipping, I couldn’t get the power to the wheels. By the time I got to the waiting area I popped up the bonnet and a wave of burning clutch smell took over. Luckily I still have a working clutch and was able to get home.

So despite nearly destroying my clutch completely, I had an awesome night. The feeling of doing a burnout and approaching the line. Whilst waiting for the lights I could feel my heart beating and it made me really excited. Definitely something I would do again, but of course after a few more modifications to the car before that, and more importantly a new clutch. Although I may have destroyed most of my clutch, the Pulsar is still drivable, but I will have to be more considerate as I really need to start saving. But being jobless it’s going to be a long way away. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to break into the 15 second range!