1988 jeep comanche vs 1999 sonoma sls

[comancheman318]

i need to know some info before i race my brother...he has a 99 sonoma with a 4.3 and i have a 88 jeep comanche 4.0...he always wants me to race him but i never really wanted to cause i was afraid of the outcome...i know his truck runs 0-60 in 8.8 and 1/4 in 16.8...but i havent found anything about what my truck runs i am gonna settle it this weekend...so i need to know my chances...thanks

[The Dartman]

Stay away from that Chevy!! 16.8 for a six cylinder is pretty fast!!

To put it in perspective, my brother has a 1995 Dodge Extended cab truck. He raced (and won) several times when his Olds (ick!) was down. His best pass with a 360 MAGNUM/automatic was only 16.9. Again this is a 360, not a six. Provided your two trucks weigh considerably less, the above number is still pretty fast for a 6 banger truck.

To further put his times in perspective, I also had a 1969 Dodge Polara 383 2 barrel that ran a best of only 17.05 in the 1/4. I also had a 4 cylinder Buick Skylark which ran a whopping 21.0's in the 1/4 and 12.8's in the 1/8 (I got to the semi's though!). There's junior dragsters out there running in the 9's in the 1/8 mile!!

Anyway - see what Hp your six is rated at from the factory. Next find out how much your truck weighs, and finally what gear ratio. With these figures you should be able to use one of the available ET calculators on the net to arrive at a approximate ET. Do a search in your favorite search engine for "drag racing et calculator". You should find something, since I found two without even trying.

I would personally guess your ET at about 18.20.

[360duster]

If you have the high output 4.0 eliminator package you might have a chance but not with the std. 4.0 unless he is a bad racer.I raced one of those sonomas once in my 82 360 4bbl. ram & i barely beat it.had to play catch up the whole way.

[comancheman318]

my factory hp for my comanche is 177hp and torque is 224 ft/lbs my truck weighs 3040lbs and the rearend is 3.07....my brothers sonoma is 180hp 245 ft/lbs torque his truck weighs 3270lbs. and his rearend is 3.42....however...he did install flowmaster dual exhaust...i removed my catalytic converter and put a single glasspack.... also...a little extra info...there is a bridge by our house coming off of a redlight...and we see how fast we can get to the end of the bridge...he usually gets 63-66...i usually get 63-65...but it is much less than a quarter mile...i dont know how much more top end his truck has...thanks for the info...

[The Dartman]

By the way - was that 16.8 an actual 1/4 mile pass? Not an accelerometer or Et Caclulator like I mentioned above? These is a big difference between these times and actual "on the track" times. In fact, one ET calculator I found said that a 3200 pound truck could run 15.5's with only 160 HP. Not accurate at all!! My 340 Dart Sport ran only a 15.40 with a 3.55 gear /auto / 340 (purple shaft) with factory rated HP at 235. The same ET calculator said that a 13.15 in a 3400 pound car and driver was the result of only 290 HP. My actual HP is about 325, but my desktop dyno software sez that my motor is making 420 HP. Quite a descrepency I'd say.

[comancheman318]

i looked at an et calculator and it said the same thing...it said my truck would het 15.1 and his would get 15.3....i knew that wasnt right...but his 16.8 is what the factory list as his 1/4 mile time....and a few years ago i saw in a magazine that a jeep comanche ran in the 16s...but i couldnt remember exactly...is there any other info you may need to tell me anything else...i do have one question about my truck though...there is a button that says power trans and comfort trans...i leave it on power...just cause i think its more power...i notice the shifts are held longer when the button is on power....what is this button actually for...thank you

[The Dartman]

As for factory rated Et times - they are a bit over rated. When these cars are drag raced, they are stripped of everything possible (spare tires, etc.) and have a power tuning (timing, gas, air pressure and more tricks) done to them to get then to run their fastest. Remember that they are after just 1 quick pass, and can and will do anything to get the lowest possible ET. In other words, these ET ratings are by no means an "off the showroom floor" time.

For instance, a 1992 Dodge Steath Twin turbo was supposed to run 13.70's. A friend of mine bought one and almost immediatly went to the drag strip with it. The quickest time he could muster was a much slower 14.19. Thinking that he was just a novice (I can bang gears with the best of 'em) I took the car for a couple passes myself. I ran a 14.12 and a 14.18 on my two runs. Another example would be the Dodge Viper, when it came out they were rated at a 12.80 ET in the 1/4. That same year at Monster Mopar Weekend in St Louis' Gateway Intl Raceway, Ronnie Sox (of Sox and Martin fame) drove a showroom stock Viper to a best pass of only 13.0's or so.

You guys really need to head out to your local track and just grudge em out to see who's fastest. And I do recommend going to a track for several reasons: It's safer, you get actual 1.4 Mile times and MPH, and you can race against others for money or trophies. My Local track has a $10 Test and tune race or you can race for a trophy for about $25. I want to stress the first issue the most though. Cops will not take it easy on anybody found street racing for the simple fact of safety, and you could lose you license for a long time. Just say no to street racing!! I myself did some when I was younger, but looking back you can tell exactly how dumb a lot of it was. Like the time I was going 130 MPH over the I-74 Bridge between Iowa and Illinios on Christmas eve. Ouch!!