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"I started on the ZRX in the summer of 2000 with the typical mods, a Hindle pipe and K&N filters, which made it look and sound much better and picked up a few hp as well. I had trouble getting a feel for the power increase on the street though fear for my license and insurance costs mostly. This led me to the local dragstrip, which for me is Gainesville Raceway, one of 4 tracks owned and operated by the NHRA, and a fantastic facility. I had never drag raced before, and the people I met there were very kind and patient, and made me feel welcome, even though I had no idea what I was doing. I hot lapped all night and got down to an 11.30. I continued to show up for test-n-tunes once or twice a month, and as I practiced I started to adapt the ZRX a bit to shave my times. First was a front strap which immediately cut my 60 foot times by over a tenth. Then a set of ZX11 cams and pistons another 2 tenths then a 4-inch over JMC swingarm 2 more tenths -then a 1080 kit (JE), street/strip head porting, Mikuni RS38s and Dyna ignition/coils and I finally scraped into the nines. I was totally hooked then I had shaved over a second in about 8 months and I needed a competition license. I started fouling a plug, and over a winter tore down the motor to find a scuffed piston and cylinder. Why spend $700 on pistons and boring when you can spend 3 times as much on a Superbike Mike 1195cc big block? Made sense to me and resulted in 9.60s @ 140ish. I also installed an MRE lockup for a ZX11, which needed a bit of adapting but worked well allowed me to leave harder and not loose any top end to slippage. Then I started having shifting problems I had used a ignition cutout initially, and switched to an electric cable shifter, and the dial-in process resulted in a quite a few missed shifts, and did-in my somewhat tired transmission. So I looked around and found a ZX11 6-speed in good shape for $100, and sent it to MRE here in Florida for undercutting. While I had the cases apart I thought Id pull the crank balancer and get the crank balanced by Falicon. The week before a good friend Kevin Cadby (a very talented drag racer and tuner) and I planned to do the work, I found a set of like-new Carrillo rods on Ebay and picked them up for $360. The billet block & pistons looked great, and we balanced the rotating assembly to within a half gram. The extra gear and few extra hp, along with an extra 2 of swingarm (to 64) got me a 9.33 @ 146 on the first day at Gainesville. Then I tried some hotter cams, cutting my clearance too tight at one point and broke a valve. I sent the head to Cope Racing, who repaired the chamber and installed 1mm oversize Ferrea valves. Mike Keyte also resleeved the block. The motor then made 168hp / 95ftlbs, and 172/96 on Nutec fuel. This got me a 9.23 @ 148 on a perfect day in Rockingham. Then on went the NX nitrous kit I bought used from Jay Stedmann, and MRE nitrous manifolds, milled to match my head. It took quite a while to get everything mounted and wired correctly I found a never-installed NOS 5-dial progressive controller on Ebay for $250, and Jay included a Holley regulator, fuel pressure gauge and safety switch, and ignition cutout (which I havent needed yet). After about a month of experimenting with the jetting and progressive box, I just dipped into the 8s this week with an 8.97 @ 158mph. The kit had been sitting on my coffee table for almost a year, and it was worth the wait. I am now running 24N/22G jets, taking out 12 degrees of timing, coming on at 40-50% around .7 sec after WOT, and ramping to 100% over about a second. So there you have it from a low 11 to a high 8 second street ZRX in 2 years I love it. Next goal: 8.80s @ 160, I have the APE cylinder studs and copper head gasket already
Dean Sabatinelli" http://www.streetfighters-usa.com/streetfighter_1999_zrx1100.htm |
