what a day at the drag strip...

I have a good news and a bad news.
First a good news, I had a ton of fun at the california speedway drag strip yesterday and had the record setting (of course it was my record) runs. Also had a chance to meet great viper guys who helped me alot. It was a private drag event and about 80 cars showed up. Lot of MBs, BMW, vettes, mustangs and hot rods showed up. I was a bit disappointed to see only 3 vipers including mine. (2 GTS's, 1 SRT) This was the best drag event I've ever been to because there were NO waiting line. I heard there were guys who had more than 15 passes... anyways I had total of 9 passes and my best run was 11.4 @ 124mph. But I had some horrible runs due to miss shifting and bad wheel hops. my worst ETs were the first two passes at 12.8 and 12.4 but right after that I was consistently running 11.4-11.8@122-124. And yes, the car is modded. it's got K&N intake, RT high flow cats w/ 3" corsas, fidanza alum flywheel, quaiffe diff. w/ 3.55, 170 thermostat and DC pcm upgrade. the car dynoed 474whp at the DC performance's dynojet. Oh yeah, I did run w/ BF goodrich drag radials on SSR 18s.

Now the bad news, On the last pass at the burn out box, I blew the rear end (as I dont know what broke) and I had to towed the car home. I'm debating whether I should take the car to the dealer or to the unitrax. The reason for asking is my car has quaiffe diff w/ 3.55 upgrade from unitrax. Should I have the dealer find out what broke then get it repair under warranty if it's covered or just have the unitrax check out the car then go from there. I'm trying to minimize the down time as much as I can. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

gripforceSRT10 said:

I have a good news and a bad news.
First a good news, I had a ton of fun at the california speedway drag strip yesterday and had the record setting (of course it was my record) runs. Also had a chance to meet great viper guys who helped me alot. It was a private drag event and about 80 cars showed up. Lot of MBs, BMW, vettes, mustangs and hot rods showed up. I was a bit disappointed to see only 3 vipers including mine. (2 GTS's, 1 SRT) This was the best drag event I've ever been to just because there are NO waiting lines. I heard there were guys who had more than 15 passes... anyways I had total of 9 passes and my best run was 11.4 @ 124mph. But I had some horrible runs due to miss shifting and bad wheel hops. my worst ETs were the first two passes at 12.8 and 12.4 but right after that I was consistently running 11.4-11.8@122-124. And yes, the car is modded. it's got K&N intake, RT high flow cats w/ 3" corsas, fidanza alum flywheel, quaiffe diff. w/ 3.55, 170 thermostat and DC pcm upgrade. the car dynoed 474whp at the DC performance's dynojet. Oh yeah, I did run w/ BF goodrich drag radials on SSR 18s.

Now the bad news, On the last pass at the burn out box, I blew the rear end (as I dont know what broke) and I had to towed the car home. I'm debating whether I should take the car to the dealer or to the unitrax. The reason for asking is my car has quaiffe diff w/ 3.55 upgrade from unitrax. Should I have the dealer find out what broke then get it repair under warranty if it's covered or just have the unitrax check out the car then go from there. I'm trying to minimize the down time as much as I can. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

11.4 sec in the 1/4 is pretty good for your mods . good job out there!

Wow those are some good times. Interesting turn of events since i thought the quaiffe was basically bullet proof.

Good numbers but sorry to read what happened to the Viper. I had a friend to out there today. He called me this morning and said there was over 400 cars, He made one pass and called it a day.

Great numbers! P.S. a bad day would be the rear breaking while heading down the track........

what were the 60 foot times? sounds like you were hooking up pretty good while it held together.

Seems I've read taking it to a dealer is a last resort. Once they know you're racing it, Dodge maybe abandon you for warranty work altogether-or I think that's the way advice was being given to one other soul.

But I may be wrong, we'll see what others have to say.

As always, it depends on what your relationship is with your dealer, and what the dealer's rep is for being 'understanding' in situations like this regarding letting a warranty cover things under severe use..

If you don't know what broke coming from an expert in Gen2 and Gen3 breakage I will just about bet the Quaife is not what broke although it could have been damaged in the process of what did break. It was your CV joint as I have already gone through two sets which did do some minor damage to the diff's when they broke.

Do you know if you bought the Unitrax beefed up CV joints or not as I just got a quaife and Unitrax beefed up CV's joints for SRT's in for my car (soon to be installed) and would be very disappointed if you broke these with the mods you have as I have a Supercharger, Doug Levin Intercooler, DC Tune, Corsa Track, Racelogic launch/traction control, SVS short throw shifter, Woodhouse engine/trans mounts, lowered the car, put non run flat PS2 rubber on it, comp coup oil pan, etc and am making at least 200 more rwhp than you.

I could have gone the Mark Williams route and paid the extra money and time for them to build but I heard some good things about the Untirax beefed up CV joints and figured this was something I could get quick and can eaily handle my cars power? Any comments by others using Unitrax SRT CV joints ?

As far as quick turn - one thing you could do is call X2 builders (Viper salvage yard) and ask them to pull a set of CV's (once confirmed is your problem) send these to Unitrax while your car sits at home safe and sound, they will in-turn ship out the beefed up units within 48 hours and you can have your dealer or any good Viper builders out by you then install them.

See this related link and my posts along the bottom of the thread where I gave my whole background / history / experiences with Half shafts and CV joints and what a pain they can be. Well at least most of it!

http://forums.viperclub.org/srt10-s...s/607207-good-viperations-mark-jorgenson.html

Thank You,

Jim

CV joints? Like in my 2.2 Turbo Daytonas? I've got Unitrax 1,000hp rear axles with U-joints. The U-joints look like the Cummins driveshaft U joints. The stock axleshafts also have U-joints. The stock axleshafts have a tendency to bust in the 11 sec. range.

Ted

I had the same mods as you, dynoed 500hp and 522 tq at the wheels, ran a best 11.32 with a 1.60 60' and ended up snapping both half shafts within 10 days of each other. Sounds like thats what it might be.

Just to clarify the gen III SRT-10 (2003-up) use CV Joints and the older Gen II RT/GTS's use Half Shafts. This is an SRT-10 Gen III if I am reading correctly so I am fairly certain he broke a CV joint.

Jim

Crazy1 said:

Just to clarify the gen III SRT-10 (2003-up) use CV Joints and the older Gen II RT/GTS's use Half Shafts. This is an SRT-10 Gen III if I am reading correctly so I am fairly certain he broke a CV joint.

Jim

Click to expand...

Thanks, I was wondering if that's what was up. Seems that the Gen1/II have weak axles but strong Ujoints? and the Gen III's have weak CV joints?

My 1,000hp Unitrax axles have what look like stock Ujoints, but the axles are huge compared to my stock ones. I've got the driveshaft plate and the axleshaft U-bolts/driveshaft loops on my car as well.

If I ever get my other rims and BRG radials, I may have a chance to break them, but I don't think there's much chance of breaking them again with PS1's on the car.

Ted

SSSSE YA:
I guess your friend was at the different event. The one I went was called 'Alternative Motoring Private Track Event' that held on Oct. 26th Fri. The fee was $100 but it was money well spent. Only 80 cars showed up and I will be going to the next event on Nov. 30. I hope to see better result in cooler Nov. weather.

ILLSMQ:
On my 11.4 pass, 60ft was 1.67. I set the tire pressure at 19 when it was hot. Also, I heard the track was nicely prepped as well. The pass was made at around 4 pm when the temp got little cooler at 78