Tomorrow I am finally getting the car up to the nearest dragstrip and am going to take some runs. This will be the first time I've ever ran at a track so I'm a complete newb to anything and everything about it. I'd appreciate some advice, and maybe a few things to be aware of before I run. TIA!



http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

Hmm..well try and avoid the "waterbox" if at all possible, it will just make your launch worse. Once you get up to the "burnout box", just pull up on the e-brake, and give it enough gas to spin the front tires a little bit to clean them off. No need to do a full tire screetching burnout on street tires, just get the tires cleaned off. It only takes a second or two of tire spin to do this. Once you are staged, wait for the green light, as there is no need to work on your reaction time, this has no effect on your 1/4 time. I personally like to "pump" the throttle really fast, sort of like a studderbox in a way, then gently lift up on the clutch to get the car moving when the light goes green. Dont dump the clutch and floor it, it will just leave you spinning tires and with no traction. Get the car moving a little bit, then floor it, then shift as fast as you can between gears. Depending on your engine setup, power goes away after 6000 rpm, so shift around that area. Thats really about it. Its all about your 60 ft time..The more you can lower that number, the faster your 1/4 time will be. Its estimated that for every tenth you take off your 60 ft, it will drop your 1/4 time by 2 tenths. For all of the drag racing runs i've done, this holds very true. FWD on street tires, really makes for crappy 60 ft times, which results in crappy 1/4 times...unfortunately. Oh yeah, one more thing, take any and all weight you can out of the BACK of the car. This will help with weight reduction, but more importantly, weight transfer. When you launch, the car wants to rock backward, and this lifts up on the front end, which pulls up on the front tires, which makes for very poor traction. 1/4 tank of gas or less, helps with this too.

Good stuff, Xtreme. If you have adjustable suspension, adjust hardest in back and softest in front. Take air out of your front tires. Don't know what your are running for tires but tire pressure is something that changes depending on tires, track conditions altitude, etc. You might want to start off around 18ish and work from there. Bring a gauge with you (your buddys will love you for it!). I always wait until I start seeing my warning light on the gas gauge. Less wait. Launch, well there are all kinds of ways, you are goign to have to figure that out to YOUR set-up. The one thing you don't wan to do as Xtreme says, is to dump the clutch. You may feel cool with the tire spin, but you'll look like a fool sitting there spinning :9 .

Have fun and the first time is always just figuring out your car.

MB

Well I've got a feeling my 60' time is going to be pretty ugly for one, I've got 18's on the car and a rather low profile tire 225/40. I do have a set of stock 16's at home, but unfortunately the tires are extremely old, dry rotted, and have flat spots. The good thing is I'm almost out of gas, so I'll be able to just fill it up enough to be able to get there and make some runs. Thats a positive.

It's definately going to be a learning experience, but fun nevertheless. I'm really interested to see what I can do, especially after all the money and mods done, although I'm not getting my hopes up.


http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

With those crower 2's & P&P work, you should have no problem winding up to 7000. Leave your cams where they are and try it out, but like Matt said, don't launch too hard. And unfortunately, that's the hardest part, the rest is a breeze.

Well we got off work and were getting ready to head out, but we checked the weather first and a giant mass of green n yellow on the doppler was covering the entire area of northern Indiana. Unfortunately, less than an hour later it started to rain so we got screwed!


http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

Welcome to the world of racing!

MB

Well, it didn't rain this weekend and I got to take about 8 or 9 runs. I only fouled twice, my first time and again later on...but here are my 2 best slips...I'll scan them in on Monday at work, but for now I'll just type them out.


RUN1 RUN2

Reaction--------.3778 |.6530
60 ft-----------2.4192 |2.4478
ET @ 594 FT-----9.7662 |9.8139
1/8 ET----------10.4381 |10.4809
1/8 MPH---------66.96 |67.47
1/4 ET----------16.2422 |16.2670
1/4 MPH---------85.38 |85.55


I did have some better reaction times than those, but my best RT was .1919 The low comp pistons are definately killing me on the low end, I was barely hitting the top of 3rd by the end of the 1/4...for that being my first time at a track running my car though I was pretty happy with what I got.


http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

Just for evidence sake...here are the slips.






http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

If you go again before the end of the year.. let me know.. you can borrow my 16's for a run down the track instead of those 18's on the front. That would also give you a killer "rake" and prevent some weight transfer to the rear. Hell it would be cool just to go hang out at the track with another 2gnt guy.