Well guys, im finally doing it. i live about 15 minutes away from Maple Grove Raceway, where the NHRA Keystone Nationals are held every year, and ive finally convinced myself to test my car out on the strip. On August 24th, I am taking my Tempo to the track. Every friday they host Friday Night Grudge Nights, where locals can take their cars and race them for under 50 bucks. Usually, my track is taken over by sport compacts and an occasional camaro or mustang. well, im not expecting any victories, any hi fives, or any congratulations. im out there to push my car to the limit. see what it has right now. ill be up against 10 second eclipses and hondas, but i dont care. i figure, i can really get a feel for it, and also find out its performance. Im expecting maybe 28 sec on the quarter mile. im giving it an oil change this weekend, and filling up on high octane gasoline from now till then. i am also buying octane booster, buying a K&N filtercharger recharge kit, checking the gaps in my sparkplugs, and any other last minute neccesities. if anyone would like to add their imput into this, let me know! ill keep you guys updated and let you know the results after im done on the 24th.please wish me luck!
Brave move! I've been wanting to take my car to the track for a while now, but after watching a few races with a friend I don't really want to take my tempo there anymore. Guys in cars who are running 13-14 seconds get smashed by Mustangs and such, and then get made fun of so bad they usually leave and never come back. Anyway I get free admission to watch the races because my cousin races a turbocharged 5.0L mustang, and he's allowed to bring a friend to watch for free.
A couple questions.... What is a normal quarter mile time for a stock 4dr HSC tempo? Also my tempo does 0-100kph (0-60mph) in 13 seconds even. Is this on par with the norm?
Wow expecting a 28 sec run that seems a bit slow, but let me know how it goes. when filling up your tank, try to time it so that you have less than a 1/4 left when you actually head to the track. Also eliminate any dead weight in the car. Since you're and auto there aren't really any driving tips, just brake torque a bit and then let her fly. I also live near a track, but I'm just too lazy to reinstall my battery under the hood and rework my air filter. It only costs $20 here (also on fridays). Hmm, well I guess there's also a track where I'm moving to so I'll eventually go to one. Best of luck and try to post some timeslips.
Filling the car up with the higher octane gasoline is a waste in a tempo, not to knock the car, but I've learned a LOT about octane ratings recently. The octane rating on gasoline is just a measure of it's resistance to detonation, it's not a measure of power, an engine that is designed to run on 89 octane gas won't get a performance boost with higher octane gas, the cars that benefit from higher octane gas are the ones that have knock sensors and can adjust their timing according to make more power. I.E. merkurs, eclipses, supras, turbo stangs/turbocoupes. The higher octane gas in the tempo would definently be a waste of money unless your running higher compression or boost. well enough of that, on to the preperation part. you want to start with high tire pressure in all your tires, make a run, if you lose traction off the start, lower the pressure some, keep doing that till you can keep traction, a little bit of sqeal, but no spin. take out anything extra you can, I.E. speaker boxes, seats, spare tire, jack, etc. weight will help a lot, a 2600 pound car running 14 second 1/4 is at 187HP while a 2700 pound car need another 7hp to propel it to that speed. so if you can drop 100 pounds from your car that's gonna give you the same end result as if you had added 7 HP, and adding 7hp to a 92hp engine is a lot. well, I can't think of anything else, if you have any questions feel free to ask, or e-mail me Qolat@yahoo.com
__________________
Tiernan Pearson-Got boost?
1994 eclipse- 38 hp per cyl
1990 laser- 65 hp per cyl
1965 chev trk- 9 hp per cyl
change of plans, im going tomorow night, the 17th actually. thanks for all the tips. i already knew about the octane, i tried the high stuff once and it actually made my car perform worse, so i keep the low stuff in. the spare tire is already out, trying to lose all possible weight i can. i dunno if it will be a 28 or not, but considering its a 3 spd auto, i dont have hopes to high. i dont know what the normal 0-60 time is, ive never calculated mine. if anyone knows what they think it would get on the quarter mile or 0-60 let me know. ill keep you guys updated. i know about the whole embarrasment factor too, but i figure once i get the thing into the teens in the quarter mile, ill start to earn my respect. i mean, how many tempos do u see out on the race tracks? not many. i just bought a jacobs ignition off of Olympic for my car, so when i put that in i plan to go back and see if its improved anything. today i took my air box apart and cleaned it all, it was very dirty and dusty. i reoiled my k&n, removed spare tire and jack, emptied glove box of everythign but registartion and insurance papers, washed and vacuumed it. i also degreased my carb and cleaned out intake hoses. at first when i read about the ram air i was very skeptical. but im kinda getting interested in doing it now, but im still a bit confused by the process. if anyone can help me out with that please do. i think that would help out at the track. well, ill keep u guys updated. ill try not to let any tempo enthusiast down, this is for every1 here at tthp and fordforums!
In 1995, just before I went off to college, my dad and I went to the Saturday night bracket racing at the drag strip in Albuquerque NM. All of the 'regulars' were there, two black Buick GNs, several 5.0 Stangs, and a bunch of old iron (Chevelles, old Camaros and Mustangs). However, there was one guy there driving a 1995 Mercury Sable GS. The car was very brand new, it still had the temporary tags on the car. When he first came up, everyone in the stands laughed, but he won his race against a 5.0L. The next race, he won again... I think against a very mean pickup. By the end of the night, the crowd was cheering him on and he ended up winning the Street class.
well my 89 tempo 5-speed stock would run just a lil faster than my friends escort LX, and the escort ran a 19.8 in the 1/4 and also here's the stats on a 84 5-speed
0-60 1/4 mile
1984 Ford Tempo GLX 13.6 18.9
so I figure a slushbox has about another 10% more parasitic drivetrain loss, that should put the car in the low 20's
__________________
Tiernan Pearson-Got boost?
1994 eclipse- 38 hp per cyl
1990 laser- 65 hp per cyl
1965 chev trk- 9 hp per cyl
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Preping for the strip
This is a little long
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