Crazy1
Enthusiast
I wanted to let those who may be considering the Paxton supercharger for their SRT's know a few important tips as well as the AMAZING potential this simple package provides.
First the potential -
with my Uncompleted, un-tuned SRT Coupe with the Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger, stock internals, running the standard psi aided by an SVS short throw shifter and a RaceLogic traction control system I just raced an ex Top Fuel Drag Racer in his 427 Pro built Cobra replica and BEAT HIM!!!
Basically, he came by me in downtown Saint Charles as I was just cruising nice and slow enjoying my Sunday and he punched his car as he passed me breaking his tires loose in the process as if to say don't mess with me.
I always the one to accommodate a good race win or loose jump in lane right behind him and unleash my own fury breaking my tires loose (race logic set to allow 20% slip at that point). As the cobra approaches Randall road with me right behind him I signal to let him know that I am turning right on Randall and if he wants some to do the same.
Sure enough he turns on Randall and I quickly jump into the lane beside him and get next to him as we both roll along waiting to get out of the terrible construction zone that is going on near North Avenue. Finally the construction is gone, we are both rolling at maybe 20 mph (more to the Cobra's advantage than mine with TC) I hear him drop down to first ready to go (did I mention his car was so loud I could not hear my car, my radio that was blasting or anything else). I then drop down to first, he hits it, I hit it and boom I jump about a car or two ahead of him as we both bang through our first three gears at which point he either breaks his tires loose, misses a shift or just plain has a flat spot and I pull away a good 5-6 car lengths before he shuts it down on his end and I see is swearing to him self.
I throw my hand out my window above my car and open my hand to say so what did you think of that ? Eventually I slow to a cruise again and he comes up along side me and I stare right at him and he signals that he wants me to follow him which I assume is to go for another run. I wave to him and say OK lead the way, I dont mind kicking your ass again.
Instead of leading me to a place to race he pulls in to Dominick's parking lot and as I get out says I eat Vipers all day long - I can beat you. In my mind I know he is going through loss withdrawal and I say I am sure you do and I wouldnt doubt it (we were so close and one error eitherway would have meant a loss).
He then goes on to tell me he used to race top fuel dragsters, built it himself, shows me his amazing 427 engine that he said makes 870hp (rwhp, crank - I didnt ask). He said it has Nascar heads from Roush(that he was not suppose to have), Lunati Cam, so on and so forth. It was an all out pro build top to bottom - no doubt about it. He also said the car weighed only 2500lbs. He said his biggest problem is traction (which I did believe) but dont think it would have made a difference in our particular race since we raced from a roll and he was not spinning any worse than I was when we hit it. After all I could run much stronger as well with sticky tires. He had far bigger and better rubber than I did with my crappy run flats anyway. I also dropped the race logic down to about 15% wheelspin just before we raced while we were standing at the light (I have the in car adjuster) because I did not want to have it cut the car down too much which would probably work against me. If I set it any lower than 10-15% since it likely would have cut my power too much and I would have been toast.
When I opened my hood and showed him that I was basically bone stock except for my Supercharger and traction control - he was suprised to say the least! He may eat Vipers left and right but they are not supercharged, turbo charged or otherwise built up which I know are a whole different animal. Ron of SVS or Trent(soon to have a crazy twin turbo beast of his own in my area)would have eaten this guy for lunch so I let him go on his statement of eating Vipers all the time but knew better.
One thing of interest he said was that he had his car out at the strip last fall and ran a 9.56 (which I assume was on some real slicks or drag radials). Needless to say that tells me my original hunch and hope to be in the low 10's with my car is likely in reach or already there.(I will be at Route 66 June 20th with many other friends, the ferrari club, some models from Soak magazine and so on for those who want to see first hand)
Overall, this race was a very cool experience and shows the AMAZING base platform we all have with the SRT and some nice bolt ons that the Z06's only wish they could have. It was also very cool that there were numerous people who kept pulling into the parking lot to get a glimpse of these two very cool cars. The Cobra was slick and in some ways it really felt like I was racing my ancestor because the car was Blue with silver stripes and was the king of American muscle back in it's day.
Second the tips (for Paxton installs)-
#1. You need a computer controlled fuel system if you dont want your car to go boom over the long run. My fuel management computer is on the way and for now I am still using the Paxton AFM and dual fuel pump boosters - but these are terrible, garbage in my opinion.
#2. You need a real fuel system with quality fittings. Over the weekend I was burning a lot of fuel (several trips to the gas station) and smelled some fairly strong gas odors in the cockpit. Right after pulling the car in to show my father the engine I pop the hood and see a very tiny stream of fuel vaporizing out of the crappy Paxton supplied booster pump fitting. I ended up cranking this way down to stop the leak but boy this could have been a disaster. (I had a Vette burn to the ground in the past with similar issues). Overall the rubber hoses, T splits and fittings Paxton supplies need to be replaced by solid quality fittings.
#3 Dont use either of the Paxton supplied AFM fuel system washers if you live anywhere where it gets cold. Initially we ran my car on the dyno with the 6:1 and 8:1 afm fuel management washers and my air fuel ratio even with the 8:1 was upward of 13.5 in colder temps and very dangerous. I can only hope many of you are not running your cars like this as Paxton only provides 6:1 and 8:1 washers with the standard install.
We had a tremendous temperature change from one day of testing on the dyno to the next and the air/fuel changed from 12.5 to 13.5 with just a 8-10 degree temperature change so this is another big factor not to overlook. The car ran at 12.5 with temps around 70 degrees and 13.5 when closer to 60 with the 8:1 washer installed - still unsafe for me either way.
The car made closer to 690rwhp at about 60 degrees vs 650rwhp at around 70 degrees. We knew this "dumb" system for fuel management is both dangerous and also leaving a lot on the table when looking at the hp and tq curves from the dyno. In the end I am currently running a specially ordered 10:1 washer to keep the air/fuel in a safe zone until we get the real fuel management system on the car. With this the car also got real fat down low in the rpms so this is still no permanent solution.
I cant wait until this is tuned, I get my headers on and build my rear end to take all the crazy HP and TQ the car will be delivering.
The remaining upgrades still to be completed in the next couple weeks include:
Headers (will add 50hp/75 Ft lbs of TQ and take 50lbs off car)
Corsa Cat back
Removal of x pipe (heat in the car is sick at times, will improve note and save 25lbs)
Better Tires (What Can I buy for my stock rims ???)
Quaife Rear end (stock 3.07 likely due to power and torque I already have)
1000HP Half Shafts / loops (Know I need these having replaced three sets on my other Viper which is mildly modded)
Lowered 1" with shorter caps
Replacement slotted Brake Rotors (Save 40lbs, improve stopping)
First the potential -
with my Uncompleted, un-tuned SRT Coupe with the Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger, stock internals, running the standard psi aided by an SVS short throw shifter and a RaceLogic traction control system I just raced an ex Top Fuel Drag Racer in his 427 Pro built Cobra replica and BEAT HIM!!!
Basically, he came by me in downtown Saint Charles as I was just cruising nice and slow enjoying my Sunday and he punched his car as he passed me breaking his tires loose in the process as if to say don't mess with me.
I always the one to accommodate a good race win or loose jump in lane right behind him and unleash my own fury breaking my tires loose (race logic set to allow 20% slip at that point). As the cobra approaches Randall road with me right behind him I signal to let him know that I am turning right on Randall and if he wants some to do the same.
Sure enough he turns on Randall and I quickly jump into the lane beside him and get next to him as we both roll along waiting to get out of the terrible construction zone that is going on near North Avenue. Finally the construction is gone, we are both rolling at maybe 20 mph (more to the Cobra's advantage than mine with TC) I hear him drop down to first ready to go (did I mention his car was so loud I could not hear my car, my radio that was blasting or anything else). I then drop down to first, he hits it, I hit it and boom I jump about a car or two ahead of him as we both bang through our first three gears at which point he either breaks his tires loose, misses a shift or just plain has a flat spot and I pull away a good 5-6 car lengths before he shuts it down on his end and I see is swearing to him self.
I throw my hand out my window above my car and open my hand to say so what did you think of that ? Eventually I slow to a cruise again and he comes up along side me and I stare right at him and he signals that he wants me to follow him which I assume is to go for another run. I wave to him and say OK lead the way, I dont mind kicking your ass again.
Instead of leading me to a place to race he pulls in to Dominick's parking lot and as I get out says I eat Vipers all day long - I can beat you. In my mind I know he is going through loss withdrawal and I say I am sure you do and I wouldnt doubt it (we were so close and one error eitherway would have meant a loss).
He then goes on to tell me he used to race top fuel dragsters, built it himself, shows me his amazing 427 engine that he said makes 870hp (rwhp, crank - I didnt ask). He said it has Nascar heads from Roush(that he was not suppose to have), Lunati Cam, so on and so forth. It was an all out pro build top to bottom - no doubt about it. He also said the car weighed only 2500lbs. He said his biggest problem is traction (which I did believe) but dont think it would have made a difference in our particular race since we raced from a roll and he was not spinning any worse than I was when we hit it. After all I could run much stronger as well with sticky tires. He had far bigger and better rubber than I did with my crappy run flats anyway. I also dropped the race logic down to about 15% wheelspin just before we raced while we were standing at the light (I have the in car adjuster) because I did not want to have it cut the car down too much which would probably work against me. If I set it any lower than 10-15% since it likely would have cut my power too much and I would have been toast.
When I opened my hood and showed him that I was basically bone stock except for my Supercharger and traction control - he was suprised to say the least! He may eat Vipers left and right but they are not supercharged, turbo charged or otherwise built up which I know are a whole different animal. Ron of SVS or Trent(soon to have a crazy twin turbo beast of his own in my area)would have eaten this guy for lunch so I let him go on his statement of eating Vipers all the time but knew better.
One thing of interest he said was that he had his car out at the strip last fall and ran a 9.56 (which I assume was on some real slicks or drag radials). Needless to say that tells me my original hunch and hope to be in the low 10's with my car is likely in reach or already there.(I will be at Route 66 June 20th with many other friends, the ferrari club, some models from Soak magazine and so on for those who want to see first hand)
Overall, this race was a very cool experience and shows the AMAZING base platform we all have with the SRT and some nice bolt ons that the Z06's only wish they could have. It was also very cool that there were numerous people who kept pulling into the parking lot to get a glimpse of these two very cool cars. The Cobra was slick and in some ways it really felt like I was racing my ancestor because the car was Blue with silver stripes and was the king of American muscle back in it's day.
Second the tips (for Paxton installs)-
#1. You need a computer controlled fuel system if you dont want your car to go boom over the long run. My fuel management computer is on the way and for now I am still using the Paxton AFM and dual fuel pump boosters - but these are terrible, garbage in my opinion.
#2. You need a real fuel system with quality fittings. Over the weekend I was burning a lot of fuel (several trips to the gas station) and smelled some fairly strong gas odors in the cockpit. Right after pulling the car in to show my father the engine I pop the hood and see a very tiny stream of fuel vaporizing out of the crappy Paxton supplied booster pump fitting. I ended up cranking this way down to stop the leak but boy this could have been a disaster. (I had a Vette burn to the ground in the past with similar issues). Overall the rubber hoses, T splits and fittings Paxton supplies need to be replaced by solid quality fittings.
#3 Dont use either of the Paxton supplied AFM fuel system washers if you live anywhere where it gets cold. Initially we ran my car on the dyno with the 6:1 and 8:1 afm fuel management washers and my air fuel ratio even with the 8:1 was upward of 13.5 in colder temps and very dangerous. I can only hope many of you are not running your cars like this as Paxton only provides 6:1 and 8:1 washers with the standard install.
We had a tremendous temperature change from one day of testing on the dyno to the next and the air/fuel changed from 12.5 to 13.5 with just a 8-10 degree temperature change so this is another big factor not to overlook. The car ran at 12.5 with temps around 70 degrees and 13.5 when closer to 60 with the 8:1 washer installed - still unsafe for me either way.
The car made closer to 690rwhp at about 60 degrees vs 650rwhp at around 70 degrees. We knew this "dumb" system for fuel management is both dangerous and also leaving a lot on the table when looking at the hp and tq curves from the dyno. In the end I am currently running a specially ordered 10:1 washer to keep the air/fuel in a safe zone until we get the real fuel management system on the car. With this the car also got real fat down low in the rpms so this is still no permanent solution.
I cant wait until this is tuned, I get my headers on and build my rear end to take all the crazy HP and TQ the car will be delivering.
The remaining upgrades still to be completed in the next couple weeks include:
Headers (will add 50hp/75 Ft lbs of TQ and take 50lbs off car)
Corsa Cat back
Removal of x pipe (heat in the car is sick at times, will improve note and save 25lbs)
Better Tires (What Can I buy for my stock rims ???)
Quaife Rear end (stock 3.07 likely due to power and torque I already have)
1000HP Half Shafts / loops (Know I need these having replaced three sets on my other Viper which is mildly modded)
Lowered 1" with shorter caps
Replacement slotted Brake Rotors (Save 40lbs, improve stopping)
He would of freaked, thinking it was bone stock and you just handed him his ass with it.
