Test and Tune at National Trails Raceway

Know of a cool race, show, or cruise-in? Trying to meet up with other Neon owners? This is the place to look!
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03SRT-4
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Test and Tune at National Trails Raceway

Post by 03SRT-4 »

National Trails Raceway will be holding their annual Test and Tune on April 2nd and 9th. The fee is $10 and it runs from 11am to 4pm. Just wanted to let everyone know and see if anyone is planning on taking their cars out. I am as long as my stupid job will give me the days off.
- Mike
03SRT-4
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Post by 03SRT-4 »

Oh yeah for those of you who don't know, NTR is located about 20 miles east of Columbus on old U.S. Highway 40, one mile north of Interstate 70 at the Kirkersville exit.

If anyone needs specific directions go to the NTR website, or you could email me. I live about 15 minutes away so I am prettly familiar with the area.

NTR http://www.nationaltrailraceway.com/
- Mike
cincinnatiautobahn
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Post by cincinnatiautobahn »

I wish I was closer to NTR its alot better drag than edgewater down here lol you goin to the Mopar Nationals? thats the only time I go....
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Post by Vinny »

National Trail only has one test and tune per year?

And yeah, I can't wait for the Mopar Nats. My Dad is trying to bitch out for the 2nd year in a row, but I'll talk him into it
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03SRT-4
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Post by 03SRT-4 »

No there is another one in the fall sometime. So I guess it would be semi-annual, my bad. Anyway yeah I am definatley going to make it out for the Mopar Nats this year. Last year I had to work, and before that I was in the army so I haven't been for a while. Would definetly like to meet up with some of you guys there.
- Mike
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Post by Vinny »

Even semi-annual seems odd to me, our local tracks (Edgewater and Tri State) each have two test and tunes every week. I guess I'll glad I don't live in Columbus.
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03SRT-4
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Post by 03SRT-4 »

No I checked their website and there are only two scheduled, the two in april and then two more at the end of October. There are other tracks in the area that do them, but this is the best track and by far has the largest turn-out.
- Mike
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Post by Vinny »

Oh, I didn't know there were other drag strips in that area. Well, I did hear something about an 1/8 mile once, but that don't count in my book.
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03SRT-4
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Post by 03SRT-4 »

The only othet one I have ever been to is the one that is outside of Marion, which for me is only about 45-50min drive. It is a 1/4 track though. The one you are talking about is the one in Mt. Vernon which is only an 1/8 track. My buddy was telling me the other day that there is a new one, but I forget where. I will have to ask him again.
- Mike
71Roadrunner
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Post by 71Roadrunner »

I may go for the test and tune and I always go to the Chrysler Classics and the Dunlop Neofest, but I have been fairly pissed with the Mopar Nats. ever since they f'd me on my pre-registration (I registered for the show and they took my money and I never got my stuff to get in, then when I called them they said it was sent out and to wait for it which I did and when it was the week of the show they stopped answering the phones. I showed up at the Nats. and got in without having to pay (again) and I went directly to the main tent and even though they had all my info and me and my car in front of them, they refused to give me the stuff I was entitled to and had paid for until the end of the last day and that was only because they knew they would be out of everything, so I got screwed out of everything, except getting in. They said the only other way I could get the stuff I already paid for would be if I paid for all of it all over again. WTF!!! They said they would refund my money once I did receive my stuff in the mail and sent it back, which just screamed scam to me and I never did receive any of the stuff in the mail.). I went for the last part of the show last year on sunday and the cop at the ticket booth let me in for free since the show was pretty much done and there was no one there to sell any tickets.

The problem I have with Trails is the fact that I've always heard that it's a slow track and it does sucks for all cars. It's a slow track, but mainly for forced induction cars. N/A cars seem to run just about what they should, while turbocharged cars are off considerably. A great example was at the Dunlop Neofest where every single stock WRX, from brand new to a few years old (one of which was a friend of mine in his stock '02 WRX), ran in the 15.80's when they should be running 14.5-14.6. That's well over a full second slower than what they should be running. I had him let the car sit for a couple hours and I continually iced down his intercooler to the point at which it was ice cold to the touch and then I completely covered it in ice and had him run it with the intercooler buried in ice and it dropped him from 15.8 to 15.3 and that was the only stock WRX to run quicker than a 15.8. Still yet, he is at least a second+ off from what the same run at a good track with the same iced intercooler would be.

We went to the NOPI World Drag Finals in Norwalk last year and I've always heard that Norwalk is a great track. We were both going to run there and I wanted to clean my car before running, so he ran as soon as we got there after a 2 hour drive to get there. His very hot run was a 14.7 which is already over a full second quicker than Trails and that's without a cool down. He did put on a bigger better exhaust (not all of it though) between the run at Trails and the one at Norwalk, but that isn't worth a full second plus anywhere at anytime. I was giving mine an hour or two to cool down as I cleaned it up before I was going to run. Needless to say the pros ran long and they shut down the one open session I was going to run during an hour early and eliminated the last open session all together, so I got screwed out of running at all and he got screwed out of a decent cooled down run.

We both hope to go to Trails as well as Norwalk for their test and tunes. We want to see if the nicer weather may make a difference at Trails and we want our proper chance to run at Norwalk to see how well we can do and how good the track is, even though it's already proved to be the far superior track to me.
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03SRT-4
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Post by 03SRT-4 »

You are not the first person that I have heard that from. A couple of my buddies have experienced similar problems (although not full seconds off that is crazy). I personally have never run my car there so I have no first hand account of this. I am hoping to run my car there this year though, which will be the first time ever in my SRT-4, and then somewhere else this year so I can have a comparison. Maybe I will see you there. I drive a yellow 03 with black rims, black tint, with some vinyl viper stickers above the front wheel wells.
- Mike
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Post by 71Roadrunner »

It seems the more modified the turbo cars are the closer to running what they should they are. Are you running the toys as well? Stage 2 w/toys cars tend to run pretty good, but still not what they should. They should run in the 12's, but at Trails they're usually stuck in the low 13's at best. Before I had an SRT-4 and when they first came out, I watched a couple with manufacturer plates running stock and a couple running Stage 1 at Norwalk and the Stage 1 cars were running 12.9-13.1 and the stockers were running 13.7-13.9. They were all '03's since they just came out and there were about 2 yellow, 2 red and 1 or 2 black ones.
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'88 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z, 2.2L Turbo II, 5-Spd. (Modified) Sold
'87 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z, 2.2L Turbo II, 5-Spd. (Stock) Sold
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