Couldn't hit the 13's with my 2011 SHO non pp

[91hybrid]

I took my recently purchased 2011 non pp SHO to the track tonight. Was hoping to get her in the 13's but I shifted to 4th not thinking. My car on the track scale weighed 4325 with everything in the car and a 1/4 tank of gas. DA was 2600 ft during the last pass so, not the greatest with a 5 to 10 mph head wind. There was a guy there with a 2010 SHO basically like mine. He was having problems. It ran 16.1 at 89 mph. And finally broke into a 15.9 I think on his last pass. His car was very consistent, but about 10 mph slower than mine. John

[bmc10sec50]

Was it a warm night?

[91hybrid]

During the last passes it was about 80 ish. When I first got there it was 92.

[bmc10sec50]

That explains it. Wait till it cools down then go to the track.

[mjhpadi]

And quit shifting the car, let it in drive and launch around 2000.

[91hybrid]

Was power breaking at 2000. Ran the first two passes in drive. So why let it rev past 6k when it's power in stock form drops off so severely? Best "drive" pass was 97.37 mph Best "shifted" pass was 100.82 mph

[91hybrid]

So basically I am realizing that the stock tack sucks and can't sweep fast enough. I was trying to keep my up shift rpm to come in at 4200rpm to maximize the area under the hp curve. Shifting it manually achieved this on the stock tach, however after doing the math with the transmission and axle ratios I've come to the understanding that letting the car shift at 6150 will achieve an up shift rpm of 3950 in both 1-2 and 2-3. When shifting at 5500 rpm the up shift calculates to 3550 rpm for both. This is below the hp at 6150, thus reduced the area under the curve. The tach never once showed it going below 4000 rpm. So any future passes will be with the car in drive as suggested. I am once again reminded that ford factory gauges suck! Apparently the mph listed above is a function of other inputs to the process. Thanks.