Hey guys,

Just here to introduce myself. My name is Mike Haelwood, I was born and raised here in Bakersfield California. Our local drag strip is Famoso Dragway famous for the March Meets (look it up, huge history in the drag world).

My first car in high school was in 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a built 351 w. It ran low 14's at the time but never really had it dialed in for the drag strip (276:1 gears, open diff and street tires). 2nd car was a 1990 Mustang GT motor was all stock with the exception of boltons (air cleaner, headers, sub frame connectors, underdrive pulleys etc,).  I did install 3:55 gears and a pair of MT slicks. took it to the track 1 time after all the upgrades, not really dialed in and "I" wasnt dialed in to the car and ran low 14's.  never went back to the track cuz I ended up getting married in 1994. yall know how the rest of that story goes. 

Now that I'm 45 years old and going thru my midlife crisis I decided to buy myself a 2013 Taurus SHO and get back into drag racing and am having a blast with it.  this is not my ultimate drag car of choice but im definitely having a kick ass time with it.

1994 is the last time I raced competitively but taking the SHO to the track last year for a few "get to know the car" sessions, I realized it's like riding a bike, reaction times were great (.09's to .16's). not bad for being rusty.

I even have my 18 yr old daughter wanting to get into drag racing and have me teach her evrything I know.

I look forward to learning a lot from this forum. I've been reading this forum and find you guys to be pretty informative. hopefully yall will find my drag racing knowledge helpfull.

Dealing with cars i dealt with before, a lot of self tuning was always involved, which isn't always a perfect science for me.  i love these new EB platforms and late model fuel injection and how everything is self tuning, with the help of torrie of course.

Heading to Famoso this weekend for the Summit Series races 1&2.  at some point I will post some pics and vids of the car and time slips and updates of improvements.

Welcome to EBPF and thanks for the formal intro

   Glad you've joined us!  Hope you enjoy the car and your time here.  Sounds like your drag racing intro was a lot like mine...started bracket racing with a '69 Olds 4-4-2 and ended up as a crew member on Lew Arrington's "Brutus" funny car!  Hope you can get your daughter hooked on drag racing, it's a great sport with great people.

Welcome from "HOT ATLANTA" I was station in San Diego, love N. ISLAND

A Warm Formal WELCOME!!

Glad to have you here!

Nice intro!  Thanks!  Look forward to your input here

Welcome, welcome, welcome!  Very nice cars in your history.  Have you stayed in/around Bakersfield pretty much?  I've lived in the same general vicinity here in MD pretty much the whole time.  Like it here.

Sounds like you have a lot of lost time to make up on the dragstrip   Even better to pass the skill & knowledge on down to the next generation.  Look forward to your upcoming pics/vids/stories   Pics of your old rides are very welcome too!

Welcome and Congratulations!  We'll be watching for your daughter's time slips! 

   Welcome!

welcome-ran my 71 340 duster against some 351 mach1's as where in same class, my best et was a 13.9, but usually low 14's. always a good race as both cars were real light. me having a tourqeflight tranny gave me a small edge. but anyway envy you having a daughter who likes racing. have fun with your sho.
mikev

Welcome aboard Mike

Agggghhhhh..... not another Mike! 

LOL! Us Mike's are multiplying around here faster than 4DR can hurtle his new ride down the strip. 

Anyhow, glad to have you here

Thanks for coming out of the woodwork and actually registering!

Great intro story for sure, and I'm sure a lot of us can learn from your background and experiences.

The community collectively looks forward to your involvement, and enjoy your new ride!

The "other" Mike

Welcome and thanks for joining!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the SHO.  The SHO is pretty full proof as far as driving it down the strip.  Once you get your brake boost rpm figured out your good to go.  Usually 1800-2300 is what I'm seeing from people.  My car likes the higher being non-PP.

Quote from: SHOdded on March 28, 2014, 05:01:20 AM
Welcome, welcome, welcome!  Very nice cars in your history.  Have you stayed in/around Bakersfield pretty much?  I've lived in the same general vicinity here in MD pretty much the whole time.  Like it here.

Sounds like you have a lot of lost time to make up on the dragstrip   Even better to pass the skill & knowledge on down to the next generation.  Look forward to your upcoming pics/vids/stories   Pics of your old rides are very welcome too!

I will have to do some digging and see if I can find pics of my past rides.

I was born, raised and still live here in Bako.  hot as hell here during the summer but built my biz here, so no plans to leave.

This is a town with a huge race heritage. we have a 1/8 mile dirt track, a new high bank 1/2 mile pavement oval, Famoso 1/4 mile drag strip, a road coarse kart trak and 2 road coarse tracks (Willow springs raceway and Buttonwillow raceway). all located in our county.  I might be forgetting one lol

Quote from: bpd1151 on March 28, 2014, 11:36:06 AM
Welcome aboard Mike

Agggghhhhh..... not another Mike! 

LOL! Us Mike's are multiplying around here faster than 4DR can hurtle his new ride down the strip. 

Anyhow, glad to have you here

Thanks for coming out of the woodwork and actually registering!

Great intro story for sure, and I'm sure a lot of us can learn from your background and experiences.

The community collectively looks forward to your involvement, and enjoy your new ride!

The "other" Mike

What can I say, Mike is a great name!

Quote from: Needmoreboost on March 28, 2014, 02:37:08 PM
Welcome to the forum and congrats on the SHO.  The SHO is pretty full proof as far as driving it down the strip.  Once you get your brake boost rpm figured out your good to go.  Usually 1800-2300 is what I'm seeing from people.  My car likes the higher being non-PP.

Before the tune, I could push it closer to 3000 (2700 - 2900) with no issues. after the tune, I figured out real quick 2300 is about the max and about 2000 for now, appears to be the comfort zone.