Rock Falls with the Continental

[Brucelinc]

I have never seen any track as busy as it was in Rock Falls yesterday.  To add insult to injury, it took until 3 in the afternoon to get ONE LANE of the track dry enough to run on.  I had been there since 9 in the morning and only got one run.  I was happy with the trap speed but not with the ET.  I have a tune that runs a bit better than this.

However, my biggest problem is soft and slow transmission shifts.  I have contacted Brad to see if he can firm things up.  My old MKS would easily chirp the tires on the 1-2 shift but my Conti lacks the quickness and firmness.  Listen to the shifts in this video and you can hear what I am talking about.

https://youtu.be/99-lG-74KmI

 

[TSS]

I do hear what you are talking about. Still a good run though! Real good run.

 

[Brucelinc]

With my old MKS, it would snap my head back and chirp the tires on the 1/2 shift.  With the Continental, I actually feel my head dip forward at the shift like power is cut.  They both use the same transmission so I am hopeful that we can get the Conti to shift more quickly and firmly.    With the Continental's gearing, it has to shift one more time during the quarter mile than the MKS and each time it shifts, I feel like it is cutting power.  That hurts ET.

I do think the Conti is making more power than the MKS, though. 

 

[StealBlueSHO]

Not a bad run at all really... 12.8x is nothing to smirk at. That will still clean up most street cars.

 

[Brucelinc]

Not a bad run at all really... 12.8x is nothing to smirk at. That will still clean up most street cars.

Agree...and it impressed a lot of people there.  I just know there is more in it if we can sharpen up the transmission shifts. 

 

[bamsho]

Awesome job Bruce.  Yeah I think there is more in your car.  Esp if you can launch harder.

 

[Brucelinc]

Awesome job Bruce.  Yeah I think there is more in your car.  Esp if you can launch harder.

This was the first time I ran at Rock Falls this year.  I wasn't sure if the car would hook, spin or wheel hop.  It had wheel hopped pretty badly at Brainerd when I launched hard and that is why I was pretty gentle with it.    Even launching gently, I got a quite a bit of wheelspin - especially when the turbos spooled up - but fortunately no wheel hop at all.

Brad indicated earlier that he might be able to take the transmission section from an SHO and load it into my transmission tuning.  I think quicker and firmer shifts - like a tuned SHO - would help a lot.

 

[14SHOCAR]

From the sounds of it between gears 3 - 4 you have some sort of dip in performance. Also was it in sport mode? Did you try running it without sport mode? Was traction control on?

 

[Brucelinc]

Traction control was off.  I use sport mode at the track.  I have tried regular drive and it is not as good because it shifts at a lower rpm at WOT.

That lag you mention in 3rd gear is a well known issue with the 2.7 in Fusion Sports as well as in 3.0 MKZs.  Tuners have improved it but it still there. 

 

[hawkeye93]

Nice run, Bruce.  I wanted to go last weekend, but couldn't make it.  I was even in Wisconsin; the wife & I were in Green Lake, WI for our anniversary.  Sounds like I dodged a bullet, judging from your description.

Hope to see you next summer, either at Rock Falls or Brainerd.