OK. I read all of it, and it all makes perfect sense. But, how do they determine your finish times? Do they stick some kind of transponder or something on your front bumper?

 

you break a system of lasers down the track.while it varies from track to track, most tracks will have 3 lasers at the starting line, then one at the 60' mark, one at the 330' mark, 2 at the 660' (8th mile), one at the 1000' mark, and two at the 1320' (quarter mile) mark. the lasers measure the time between each point when your tires break the beams.

 

So the lasers I assume are almost at ground level, and the tires breaking the beam means they are that low to the ground where only the tires could break it, and not the bumper or anything?

How did they do it before they had lasers?

 

i dont know how they did it before lasers...im only 28...

the lasers are a few inches off the ground, so even the lowest cars clear them. next time youre at the track, notice the reflector boxes in the middle of the track. everywhere that there is an orange or red box, there will be a corresponding hole cut in the retaining wall, and behind that wall there is a laser setup. i believe that technically, the lasers shine across the track and reflect back, and when you interrupt the path, it triggers the timers.

 

Cool. I keep thinking about getting a 95 Z28. I can find those for cheap. I'm just worried about the chasis condition. You know our weather up here isn't that great. If you make the car TOO fast, isn't it possible to damage or tear up your chasis?

 

you need a tremendous amount of power, and have to be able to put it to the ground almost perfectly, to damage the chassis. i HAVE seen a car with so much power, and such good traction, that it bent the unibody, but that was a 1000+ hp car, running in the 8s.

 

So even a salt-infested 12 year old LS1 chasis should be OK to play with and race?

 

isnt a 95 Z28 an LT1?

and how "Salt infested"?

my mirada (the white car in the sig) was street driven in western PA, year round, until 1999...including years of heavy snow use. i DID have to have unibody reinforcements welded in, but that was precautionary.

ive seen cars that were completely rotted out running in the low 12s, especially in ohio and west virginia. there is nothing that some slight frame/unibody reinforcements cant fix, and in most cases, things that reinforce the chassis also improve its dragstrip capabilities.

 

I'm pretty sure the 93 and up generation was LS1, and the LT1 was the generation before it, although i'm an amatuer. Then there was the LS6, which I believe was either the vette chasis or the SS configuration of the Z28. My friend was a huge Camaro fanatic, and is the one that got me into them.

My uncle has a '78 firebird that he is looking to get rid of, but he told me he doesn't trust the chasis because it's all rusting away. I'll have to find the pics again. I'll post them here. I'll see if he can take some pics of the underbody and you can tell me what you think.

 

im pretty sure that 93-97 were LT1, and when they slightly changed the front end in 1998, they went to the LS1, until the end of the line in 2002.
before that, 3rd gen had tuned port injection motors, and early on in the 3rd gen they had the crappy cross fire injectionengines.