Hey, im going to the drag strip next week. LACR. and i would like to ask some more experienced drivers how they obtain their best times? I have 17" wheels (i know that isn't good) and a 5-speed. Ok, shift points. when it the best rpm to shift? 5.5k, 6k or 6.5k(redline). I was shifting at 6.5k and I don't think that really helped me. Also what about lauching? what rpm should you have your car at to obtain the best start? on the strip i have gone from idle, to 3k rpm. off the strip (just practicing long after) I lauched at 4k rpm, and it looked good. I know that max hp comes in at 6k and torque comes in at 4.8k rpms.
Please somebody help me. my best time was a 17.4 secs (3000 feet above sea level so if on sea level it should shave off .5 sec) with 17" rims. I was thinking of going back to stock rims for the strip.
sugguestions anyone (experienced people only not faker please)

 

Each drag strip is different. You really have to decide yourself. Use your time slips wisely. After each run write down on the back side what you did during that run. At the end of the day you should be able to tell what gave you the best times. Remember that as the temp. drops you will gain a little more horse power but you will lose traction.
Any "experienced" driver will tell you it takes lots of practice to get everything just right.
Small tip that pays off lots: Practice your reaction time! Anything worse than a .500 is terrible. A .200 is pretty good for a occasional racer. Ideally you want to have a .001-.000. At my track they have a prize for anyone who cuts a pefect light!
As for your launch, you want to leave the line with as much power going to the ground as possible. Remember their is no prize for the racer who burns up his tires. If your spinning your losing. A very small amount of slip is ideal. (Watch the top fuel cars when they show the slow-mo replay. The tires are slipping, not spinning.) This is called a "drag launch". It is quite difficult to master with a front drive car but is possible. I had it down to a science on my CBR600f2 motorcycle.
I would recomend that you put your stock tires back on because your 17's have a lot of extra metal to turn and you will be broke when you find out at the end of the day that you just burned off half of your tires in one day!
Let your car sit and cool between runs. I don't mean like an hour or any thing but let it sit for 15-20 mins turned off with your hood open to let the heat escape.
Turn off all power accessories, stereo, fan, even your lights as these all cause drag on the alternator. As well take out anything that is not neccesary. Speaker boxes, passenger seat (if possible) and any tools you brought. Removing the spare (at the track) would help as well.
Well hope that helped some and may you have many safe and fast runs!

 

Ummmm do they do it different up there in canada? Everywhere that I have went has had a .500 as perfect, anything less was a false start. I've never heard of having reaction times starting at .000. ???

 

Depends on the type of drag racing. Some use .000 as perfect and some use .500

Most now use the .500 as standard, but there are some throwbacks to .000 In which case, just add .5 to the RT's from the .000 tracks to compare RT's

Best advice I can give you is.
Work on your reaction time, and lauches. Treat empty stoplights as practice runs.

Practice with getting a bit of wheel spin on the street. Most drag strips have traction compound and rubber layed down, and that should translate into a perfect lauch at the strip. Also practice shifting 1-2-3-4 as fast as possible. Once you get 'good', you can practice trying no wheelspin, or staring with a little wheelspin and pulling the engine back till you grab traction. That will help you at the track if/when you messup with too much throttle.

I've found that a 2500 to 3000 RPM "stage" with a rapid clutch slip style engagment gives the best results with 17" wheels. With the 15" wheels, 2200 to 2500 works better becuase the stock tires suck for grip and the 15's spin easier due to lighter weight.

 

As this is not a GENERAL MEMBERSHIP issue...moving to Off Topic.

 

This is all good stuff. My best run at track was 16.6 (stock), with 17" wheels. What about his question about shift points. At what RPM's do you guys suggest shifting at?

 

For our engines, take it 6500. (Cut off is actually 6750). Our torque curve is so flat, it will slow you down if you shift early.

If you are paranoid about bouncing off the rev-limiter...don't be. It's there for a reason. If you are STILL paranoid...go for 6300 as a shift point.

 

thanks a lot people. I will be trying a couple of runs and tell you guys the results. Hmmmm... I have been shifting at 6,500 rpms last time, but didn't do so well, I may try shifting earlier. maybe at 6k rpms. I will do several runs and experiment. funny thing though, on my best run, i had my sunroof open. What do you figure? Plus I want to get into 4th gear. I think 3rd gear limits up to about 79 mph. I've seen time slips of over 85 mph on the track for tiburons, so im guessing that they shifted into 4th gear.

 

Yes, you should be into 4th by the 1/4 mile mark. Go to 6500 or higher. The higher you take it the faster you will be. Shifting lower just puts you farther down in the engine's power band.

Our engines (like most) have more HP that Torque. Since HP is torque over time, the higher the RPM's...the more power you are making. Shift as LATE as possible. it is okay to bounce off the rev limiter if it happens just as you shift...

 

The local track here lists 0.500 as a perfect start, less is a disqualification. So it's not a "Canada" thing.

In most cases, you want to be off of the clutch pretty fast. It depends on the specifics of the vehicle. A bit of slip is generally recommended for FWD cars, but in my RWD Supra, I get the best launches with a straight dump. (As evidenced by a series of 60' times.)

[*]Launching: Power is the key here. If you can get into your power band with the wheels stuck to the ground, that's best. If the engine is lugging AT ALL, you're better off with some slight spin. Most small displacement cars (Less than 4 litres) develop better power at higher RPMs. The Nissan 240SX is about the best low-RPM grunt 4 cyl car that I've driven, and even it does better above the 3000 RPM mark. If that means that your tires are spinning a bit, then so be it.[*]Clutching: Don't slip your clutch too much. It can help keep your revs up, which is important during launch, but if the clutch gets too hot, it's going to suck during your later shifts. At launch, the clutch is your trade-off between tire spin, and traction. Every other shift, the clutch chould be fully engaged as soon as possible -- without missing the gear. [*]Powershifting: This is a technique that takes lots of practice, and works best on engines that start to run out of breath a while before they hit redline. Essentially, what you are doing, is trying to get through the gears without ever letting off on the gas pedal. With a turbocharged car, this can subtract seconds from your ET, because you don't lose boost during shifts. You'd better have good synchros in your transmission, and be really fast with the shift, though![/list]My personal best 1/4 strip time (in a FWD) was a 13.6@103. I thought I had botched the launch, because I had nearly a full second of wheelspin. Later, looking at the timeslip and scratching my head (It was the first time I had broken 100 mph trap speed) I figured out that the reason I was so much faster that run was that I had the engine close to it's peak torque (near 4500 RPM!) through the launch.

The tires can't put more power to the ground than your engine can make. If you can put down 100% of 100 whp, it's still not as good as putting down 80% of 140 whp. (Although in full spin, tires typically put down about 47% of the power you're making.)

Okay... I'm starting to ramble... Good heavens, is that the time?