Front wheel drive cars that come with low power from the factory (say a Honda Civic) that get big motor swaps such as a K-series with major power adders such as a turbo will need upgraded drive train components or some parts will start breaking with the added stress from the increased horsepower and torque. Hopefully traction will be the first to go, so then slicks can be added to the equation to get some grip. Then watch out for those little driveshafts, because those stock suckers are pretty weak. Then transmissions and clutches can go if abused properly.

Rear wheel drive vehicles have some slight advantage over FWD cars since the front brakes can be utilized to hold the car still during a burnout. This results in nice smoky goodness and hot rubber. But still, some things will break when massive amounts of power and torque are added. Drive shafts can break along with clutches, the rear end/carrier/diff/differential, and of course the transmission but when these go out it’s just an excuse to upgrade to bigger and better stuff.

These results obtained April 14, 2010 with a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer SS 6.0 liter LS2 all wheel drive (AWD) midsize suv. 100% bone stock, half a tank of 91 octane premium California shit gas. Full interior and spare tire intact.

Temp: 65 degrees F
Relative humidity: 47
Absolute Barometer: 29.74

1500 rpm left lane-engine bogs. Bad reaction time because of the bog. Bad ET too: 14.61@94mph. Weak sauce! Will try a little less gas next run.

1000 rpm left lane: no bog, but the truck isn’t shooting out of the hole hard enough. 2.201 60 ft time, 14.351@96 mph. Next I’ll use more juice: 1200.

1200 rpm right lane: hard launch with a 2.201 60 foot time but slower elapsed time at 14.484. Looks like 1100 will be the launch point for eliminations tonight.

Round 1 vs Dodge 6.1 liter hemi powered Challenger (dial in: 13.24).

Win! .198 reaction time (sucks) vs the other guy’s .068. Lucky me-I think he missed a shift since he ran a 14.446. I hit a measly 14.389@81.69. Yeah I got on the brakes hard so I wouldn’t break out and loose. 1100 rpm launch seems to be the sweet spot for tonight. My new dial in:

Hope this guy isn’t next with his dark red 12 second mustang with slicks on! They’re probably street slicks aka drag radials since this is just the street class.

Round 2: Lose! Even though I pulled one of my best reaction times ever of .062, I was way off my dial in with a 14.38 on 14.24 dial in. The other guy had a slightly worse but still highly respectable RT of .089 of a second. The margin of victory was only .0014, that’s 1.4 thousandth of a second. What happened? I was concentrating so hard on cutting a good light that I launched at the wrong rpm. I revved it up to about 1300 or so which resulted in worse 60 foot times as well as slower ET. Competition in the street category is pretty intense since most of these racers have had plenty of practice.

It’s ok, I’ll be back another Wednesday.

While 400 pound feet of torque with 395 hp combined with 4.10 gears is usually enough to cause major traction issues in a car, the TBSS gets off the line just fine. Here’s a list of features that allow the Blazer SS to hit 2 second sixty foot times:

1. The TBSS is a heavy weight. This Chevy truck weighs in at 4600 pounds (AWD)
2. Good sized rubber grips the pavement. The OEM tires are 255/50/R20 Goodyear Eagle RS-A. These tires are listed as high performance all season meaning they can even be driven in snow, but they are good enough to use at the drag strip for a stock TBSS.
3. All Wheel Drive delivers killer traction. Two Wheel Drive Trailblazer SS owners can also hit similar (sometimes even quicker) 60 foot times in stock form so AWD is definitely not the biggest factor in hooking up.
4. is so very heavy ringing in at almost 4600 pounds in the All Wheel Drive trim

Back to the launch. Simply rolling up to the line, waiting for the light to drop and stoping the gas pedal off idle was definitely not the best way to get a decent ET (elapsed time) with this SUV. Faster quarter mile times were achieved by loading the transmission slighty by holding the brake so the truck doesn’t move at the line and revving the motor between 1100 and 1800 rpm.

Reaction times also improve when launching an automatic at the dragstrip with this method. Holding the brake and revving the engine just high enough to shoot out of the hole without peeling out seemed to net the best times from the stock TBSS (14.2 for the first day out on a stock 2007 AWD).

Proper tire rotation is essential to extend longevity. Your tire configuration and drivetrain will determine the right rotation and this information is usually found in the owner’s manual. Staggered tire setups (smaller width tires in the front with wider tyres in the rear) should not rotate tires from front to back. It may be possible to flip tires to “rotate” them for more even tire wear if the tires are directional, however some extremely high performance tires are not meant to be flipped as they have a designated INSIDE and OUTSIDE.

There is also an oil change special at Midas for 19.99 + oil disposal fee (4-5 bucks). Not a bad deal if you don’t have the tools to change your own oil.

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