VR Ute

[vlad01]

Guess that's not very power "bond" then.

[brindo]

Drags today are done and dusted, and we had a shocker.
A cold day should have made for a decent run but it was not to be. Traction was really bad for everyone and 40mm rain on Wednesday would not of helped.
I had bought the cheapest 3” cat I could find, and another straight through tailpipe, so both of those were fitted, as were the Hero Drags. Full tank of 98, but dropped tyre pressure to 18 psi.
First run was only a 9.9, lots of wheel spin in 2nd gear and we now have axle tramp which we never had before. Bushes in the diff are still rubber but the control arm is polyurethane. Upper control arms are tubular.
So main thing we changed was the tyre pressure. So we either drop it more, or go back up to 22-24 psi.
Best time for the day was 9.26 @ 78.21 mph with a 2.42 60 foot.
Won two races, lost one missed 3rd gear so didn’t make the finals.
Still a great day out all the same.

[v6bucket]

The axle tramp will be your shocks, I used rubber bushes in my manual LJ Torana for 25 years on slicks, 12.1@109 on a prepped track, 7.79 on a no prepped 1/8th.

[vlad01]

The only thing I found to eliminate axle tramp is solid engine mounts as well as hard poly bushes at the rear (to brute force it) and/or the right tyres.

I never found any brand of shock to make any difference so far.

Some tyres that are sticky and have a harder compound at the same time do it more than those that slip easier or are soft enough for the tread to bend over to their edges on take off.

On my daily, I only got axle tramp when the tyres are on their last 5% or less, where there is no give and they have exposed the special sticky emergency compound when the tread is gone. That grips like crazy and because it's got no give being so thin to the belt underneath, the rest of the drive train and chassis twists up, eventually slips, re-grips, twists and repeat which is what tramp is.


The only shock I found listed for drag racing actually has a almost no dampen on lift, but normal or something normalish on compression dampening. So on take off, the front can lift faster and easier to throw the weight to the back tyres. I noticed this when talking to Pedders over the phone, and they explained what the weird shocker I was looking at was for, much of their listings doesn't tell you the specs on what it is, just a bunch of part numbers and what model it suites. I believe this special shock is the front only.

[brindo]

Another drag meet yesterday and a sub 9 second pass still eludes us.
No changes to the ute other than setting the tyre pressure back up to 24 psi. Axle tramp is gone, but so too is the traction, and back to spinning the tyres on the first/second gear change.
Bitterly cold as well, but a really diverse field with, amongst others, a couple of LS Commodores, XR6 and XR8 utes, Dodge Ram, a decently quick Crossflow XE, a Nissan Navara, and a Hyundai Kona which would prove to be our undoing. Qualifying times way down at the 9.3 seconds mark, so dialled in at 9.25.
First round broke out but the other competitor red lit, so we were still in. Dropped the dial in to 9.10 after that.
She was the only one to win all her races – all the others were 2/3. So she made it to the finals, only to be up against the Hyundai Kona. Those cars are incredibly consistent, have no traction issues, and are impossible to beat. The driver’s reaction times were perfect all day and an 11.5 dial-in is a tough 2.4 second wait. Ran a 9.122 which was closer to the dial-in but it was lost in the reaction times.
Came away very happy as Runner-Up for Street, with a best time of 9.110 @ 79.14 mph. Still quicker than the LS Commodores, with only the XE Falcon pulling a quicker ET in Street.
Best 60 foot time is still only 2.13 seconds, with most in the 2.4 seconds plus.
I think once these Raidens are done, we bite the bullet and look towards a set of smaller slicks, keep the tyre pressure up, and cross the fingers with the clutch.

Capture.PNG

[VTXU8]

Guessing the Kona was a 1.6l turbo awd or 2.0l turbo? They are quite quick off the mark with help from it's DCT.

[brindo]

Not sure what was in it. Assuming it was a NA petrol? Not fast but impossible to beat.

Screenshot 2026-07-06 092954.jpg

[Holden202T]

one thing i have found is the more power i get in my car the less consistent it has become lol

my dyno guy has always said he reckons a Holden HQ, 202, column auto would be the best bracket car, cause it would just do the same thing pass after pass!

ps. half a second is hard to sit on the tree for let alone seconds!

[VTXU8]

Not sure what was in it. Assuming it was a NA petrol? Not fast but impossible to beat.
Screenshot 2026-07-06 092954.jpg

Looks the hybrid version.

[brindo]

You could be right about the hybrid.

She also had to race the Nissan Navara. Most people would think straight up that's an easy win, but she has to sit waiting on the start line for a full 3 seconds watching it drive off towards the finish line, clutch pushed in, rpm up, without moving forward. Its not easy.

The good thing about the local track too is that they don't enforce the 20 second rule for staging.