There’s nothing like a drag strip to serve you a piece of humble pie.
I’ve just been enjoying driving the car this summer. Something that has bothered me since the car was drivable is a persistent exhaust leak on the passenger side. I pulled the pipe on that side and tested it. I found 11 leaks. This is bad. Especially since the oxygen sensor is on this side. It needs to read correctly for the engine to run right.
After I patched it all up, I decided to reset the PCM by unhooking the battery. I wanted to make sure the computer relearned with the newly patched pipe.
Unhooking the battery in the past has resulted in at least a week of poor performance. I thought maybe this time would be different, considering the oxygen sensor would be getting a correct reading.
I was wrong.
I drove it to work all week and it gradually got better. Wide open throttle was still not working right when the weekend came. Nevertheless, we loaded the car up on the trailer and headed to the Medford Dragstrip. I raced there a few years back with the Dart, where I clicked off some impressive 19 second times.
Based on drag race calculators, I was assuming the Barracuda would be between 14 and 15 seconds in the quarter.
I pulled up to the waterbox with a blown Chevy next to me, rattling my windows. I did a quick burnout- my only one of the night. I eased up to trip the pre-stage light and then the stage light. Okay, now to watch the tach and raise the rpm a little, and… oh no! the lights are already dropping! Am I at the right rpm? Bam! The Chevy launches. I better get going, I let out the clutch and took off. The car felt lazy, but not too bad. I was surprised to get my time slip and see 17.636 @ 82.29 mph. I knew it wasn’t running 100% yet, but I didn’t realize it would be that slow.
I was able to make seven passes that night, which is awesome. I never did get faster than my first run. Racing a stick shift car is a lot harder than I thought it would be. There’s just so much to think about at the line, and not much time to do it.
We still had a lot of fun, though.
The factory PCM has been a hindrance in this car since we’ve got it going. It’s always had some weird hiccups even after a number of miles. I assume it’s looking for missing emissions devices. Nobody really modifies these OBD 1 computers, so I don’t have many options.
What’s next? Well, I think it’s time to start looking for that Hemi.
Mechanical Engineer, Mopar guy, reluctant defender of the universe.
David Belau 
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