quarter mile tips for first timer...

[lumina01]

looking to run my car down the 1/4 mile soon and was wondering if any1 has any tips, tried searching but could only find stuff like "take your spare tyre out".
car is a ls1 a4, stall it up to about 2000 or not?, do u just leave it in drive?
will b running on 19's, wat psi should they be at?
cheers

[Emackulation]

I would say to place it in 1st gear, stall her to 2000 and go for your life. Not sure on psi in the 19's, maybe about 35-37psi? I beleive we NEED a Drag Tip's thread also.

[KiWi1]

mods????

If its stock, or slightly modded,

Im assuming your running street tyres, dont do a big burnout, you dont have slicks or 350rwkw. just enough to get the water off, couple of secs.

Just get the rear slightly squatted, no need to stall it hard, just cooks the tranny. It just helps to take the load off shocking the street tyres off the line *instant FAIL*

Leave it in "D" try both Modes, ECON and POWER, to see if it improves your MPH or ET. Pending your consistent off the line, you may see a difference in half track ET & MPH, and also across the line.

Also, you dont have to go on the GREEN LIGHT, your not racing for $$$ your there to enjoy yourself, and see what your car is / may be capable of.

Pending how many runs you get, try different things. Got to learn and start somewhere.

Enjoy Bro.

P.S

Drag Racing is addictive and costly :P

Simon

[lumina01]

mods are otr cai, maffless tune, exhuast/extractors and 3.9's in the diff.
cheers mate

[Emackulation]

Should go pretty hard

[naf33n]

dunno if it works for all cars, but my mates uses the hand brake in his automatic monaro, he stalls the engine up to lets say 3000rpm(dunno if that the correct rpm its just a guess)
he said he doesnt use the brake because to get the rpm up to that the rear wheels would be spinning, where as with the handbrake it doesnt let it spin.


dunno if this is the best way or not, just seems to work for him

[minux]

With those mods depending on how sticky the track is a short stall and tramp it.

Its an Auto so let it work, using 1,2,3 manually is pointless and usually costs time.

[burkey18]

leave it in d... its more efficient then tryin to run through the gears

[greenfoam]

Most important thing for making fast time is to shallow stage, where you only JUST get into the stage beams far enough for the stage light to light up, don't go any further. This gives you a run up on the beams and is worth some serious time off your ET. Put your car in performace gearbox mode (power button? whatever it's called on a VX) and drive though in drive, will be good enough. It takes some time to master manual shifting a sloppy auto at the right time and your better off in drive first time out. If the track is good and sticky you will be able to launch with the car stalled up, but if you try that and more than a couple feet of wheelspin then you are better off just letting it idle and then stomping it. Also you want to stomp it on it around about on the last yellow light, depending on how fast of slow your car leaves the line you might be able to go on just as the last yellow first shows signs of lighting up (this doesn't affect your time but will let you beat a faster car most times if you beat him on the light). That's about it, oh yeah for low profile tyres you want the same PSI in them as you run on the street, they just get worse with low pressure, no street tyre goes any good with less than about 28 psi in them and 19's will want much more (I run 38 psi at the drags on 15's for 2.0 60 foots) much to the amazment of the hardcore guys that run slicks at 12 psi :P

PS if the track IS good you should be able to stall it up so hard that the car is almost snapping in half and your brake pedal almost busting and still get no wheelspin, but not many tracks are that good unless they have put in a big effort in track preperation that day

[lumina01]

cheers guys
what about fuel, full tank, half tank, does it even matter?
anything that should be done to the car b4 i go?

[greenfoam]

Anywhere from 1/4 tank to half tank when you arrive lets say 1/3rd tank . They might ask you to have a big hose clamp on the oil filter with the tail of it jammed against something so the filter can't spin off. Depends on what rules the track runs under. And they also will/might want a catch can on the end of the coolant overflow (I just poke it in the washer bottle:P ). And they will want the car empty with no loose objects and you to be wearing a long sleve shirt and full length pants and a good helmet. Then sign your life away and that's about it

[lumina01]

Calder
Date Event
June 11th Open Practice
June 13th Legal off street drags
June 18th Open Practice



open practice? a night when you can get or try get as many runs as u can or?

[Blown V6 Hatch]

The biggest tip i will give you is go out there and have fun, thats what it's all about!

[AttaBoy]

I wouldn't be doing on 19", put some stockies on the rears.

[jules]

maybe an obvious point, but make sure the auto trans and engine are properly warmed up before giving them a thrashing.

[Cane_It]

personally I let the other guy hit full stage first, which gives you a couple of seconds to full stage and then watch the lights and nail it on the last yellow.

greenfoams covered most of it, you'd be better off running 15s on the back, it will help your acceleration as bigger wheels = taller gearing more suited to top end rather than aceleration. dont go stupid on the burnout, just enough to warm the tyres up enough to make them a little sticky. You'll most likely find the strip to be slipperier than the street, drop rear tyre pressure down to around 25psi on the 15s, this will help the car hookup and reduce wheelspin off the line. drop tyre pressure too low and the car will feel floaty and you'll lose time and top speed.

win lose or draw, have fun, its great.

fire the car up and leave it running when you're I think about the 4th car from the front, it should just be warm enough to run when its your turn then. if its a stock auto leave it in D.

[jules]

fire the car up and leave it running when you're I think about the 4th car from the front, it should just be warm enough to run when its your turn then. if its a stock auto leave it in D.

i probably sound like your mum, but anyway you need to warm up the auto as well - revving the engine while in the queue won't do it. you can break stuff if you really plant it with cold fluid.

[immortality]

i probably sound like your mum, but anyway you need to warm up the auto as well - revving the engine while in the queue won't do it. you can break stuff if you really plant it with cold fluid.

if you drove to the track then unless it's been sitting with the engine off for a couple of hrs the transfluid will still be warm