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Going to the track for the first time


mhenne4

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Not much to driving these. 1/4 tank is good, avoid the water box but after going around it back up as far as you can without touching the water, bring up the rpms and spin the tires to clean them...roll up to the staging beams..light the first pre-stage light, roll ever so slowly to the barely light the second pre-stage light (if you're looking for low ET,if reaction time is more important roll a little further forward) hold the brake and bring up the cars rpms (1800-2200..find your cars sweet spot) on the last yellow, mash the gas and slide your foot off the brake! Keep the car straight and smile!!

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Open hood between runs... I usually do two three runs then let the car cool siwn for 30-60 min. When you take the car for the first run of a batch, drive around without wot not to heat engine but just to warm it up a little and to warm up tires a bit... I don't know how Darrell is able to spin his tires, mine don't at all...

Remove spare tire and empty car from all stuff... Every 10 lbs is 0.01 sec, so do the maths.

As Darrell said, drive straight. If one moves right left during 1/4 mile, even if it is 2-3 times one foot out of straight, that is 5 unecessary feet and is about 0.04 by itself.

Also when you stage, make sure to have wheels perfectly aligned forward to avoid spinning and having to drive the car back to center.

Finally leave car to Drive, don t use paddle shifters to upshift... However, at the end I put it on M and downshift to help prevent brakes to heat up too fast...

BTW, it is good to male sure your brakes are warmed up too so that you can hold the car at a higher rpm (I like launching at 2,200, but if brakes are cold the car will start moving forward before 2000 and my run will suffer).

There you go, enjoy and please report back and try to film or have someone filming... Always fun to watch videos of SHO spanking others!

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I usually drive around without WOT, not to heat engine, but just to warm it up a little and to warm up tires a bit... I don't know how

 

Darrell is able to spin his tires, mine don't at all....

 

 

Darrell is able to spin his tires because he has the absolute lightest tires ever known to be placed on a late model SHO......

 

It's just freak'n insane how light Darrell's tire/wheel combo actually is..... i'm guessing part of the reason for his outstanding 1/4 mile times is due to his set up!

 

:boink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:bolt:

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Be sure to concentrate on the last yellow light, as soon as you see it light up, leave. Don NOT wait to see the green light come on, if you do, you will be leaving late. The Christmas tree is hard to master but can be done with some runs under your belt. I always try to leave when I see the next to the last yellow light go out but that is tricky, sometimes leading to turning on the red light.

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Darrell is able to spin his tires because he has the absolute lightest tires ever known to be placed on a late model SHO......

 

It's just freak'n insane how light Darrell's tire/wheel combo actually is..... i'm guessing part of the reason for his outstanding 1/4 mile times is due to his set up!

 

:boink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:bolt:

 

I can't believe you just went there!! LOL

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In case you did not know, to completely disable traction control on you PP car, with car stopped and foot on brake, press and hold the traction control button for 5 seconds, on your dash "advance trac off" icon will appear and TCS will be completely disabled. You will have to do this every time you if you turn the car off between runs.

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Very funny Mike... I was not even bringing that subject of lighter wheels. The only time I tried burning my tires, I needed to press foot brake and regular brakes while pressing gas pedal... Tranny didn't like at all. In fact, I had to have it rebuilt... Works very well since rebuilt ( 11 months ago) and I never tried spinning tires since... At least, it was rebuilt under warranty... That is the advantage of having a Taurus, they don't bother asking questions, as opposed to a Mustang that is always suspicious if something breaks...

But now that Mike mentions the lighter wheels, without arguing if it helps the 1/4 mile, it might explain the spinning and hopping... The only guys that had car shut down for too much wheel hopping are Bob and Darrell, both with lighter wheels... As for being faster on 1/4 mile, not helping that much, beside that the car is lighter and every 10 lbs represents 0.01sec.

Fair enough Darrell? Until you offer me new wheels, I don't want to bog you too much.

; )

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Good job on the runs... However you surely did not hit the gas on the third

Yellow light. You were waiting for the green light werem't you? Not a problem in test n tune night but in bracket racing, it s a different story. But you had a good time? Did you win some races? Were people jaleous of your AWD? Received good comments on your car? Were you tempted to put wings on your car and take off at the end of the 1/4 mile? Lol

Good job and keep on practicing!

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Good job on the runs... However you surely did not hit the gas on the third

Yellow light. You were waiting for the green light werem't you? Not a problem in test n tune night but in bracket racing, it s a different story. But you had a good time? Did you win some races? Were people jaleous of your AWD? Received good comments on your car? Were you tempted to put wings on your car and take off at the end of the 1/4 mile? Lol

Good job and keep on practicing!

 

Yea I was learning the light. I was getting better at the end of the night. I had a blast. Some people definitely weren't expecting what they got when I did my run. Lots of compliments and a few ruined nights for some.

 

I'm hooked, I'll be going back next week for more runs =P

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Dang, nice runs for your first time. I told you, the tree is harder then it looks. An old drag racer once told me: "If you see the green light, you're slow and waited too long to leave." It really is good advice, you should never know if you turned on the red until the end of the run...of course, unless you look in the rear view mirror to check your competition and see the big red eye starring at you! lol

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update.

 

I went for a second time tonight. Got a corvette kill and we ran a second time (see video #2) and now the slip confuses me.

[ATTACH]1197[/ATTACH]

 

So I'm on the right and the Vette is on the left. My 1/4 mi time is 0.11 faster, but the track gave the win to him by 0.04.

 

Please help my nooby ways.

 

 

Vette Run # 1

Vette Run #2

post-277-142532288638_thumb.jpg

post-277-142532288638_thumb.jpg

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The win is the first one to cross the line at finish in bracket racing... So you had the best ET by 0.11 sec, but your reaction time was slower by 0.15 sec. So he crossed the line 0.04 sec before your car. You have a faster car but you are

a slower driver lol! I have been having that debate on youtube with a video against a

camaro SS in which I started late and all the Ford haters say that I lost... If it was a test n tune, it is in fact an individual race... So the best way to avoid confusion is to do like Scrming, kill them on both lines! Good job!

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PS You still need to work on the lights... You need to press gas pedal to the floor subchronizing with the third yellow light lightning... Also, you need to change your comment in youtube about the lol to the slip... GM fans will be on your case for years!

I loved the laugh in the first video, and even when drivers say they missed a shift, our car never misses shifts, never miss a launch neither... So let s see better RT from you next time would you? Lol

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Nice Runs!! And cool videos!!

 

Now that your getting the hang of the track and launching your car, it's time to really start working on that RT!! As Steve points out, you need to leave on that last yellow.... If your RT is still a bit high, you can try staging a bit "deeper", meaning after you turn on the second set of staging bulbs you roll forward just a little bit more... With some practice you should be consistently in the .1xx range...

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When I stage, I always try to barely get the second light to light to have the best trap speed and ET, so in that case I need to count in my head and hit the gas 0.1 sec before third light... It is easier when staging deeper because you just need to floor it when you see that third light (no anticipation)... My RT are still always between 0.002 and 0.2000... Never had a perfect tree yet, rarely redlight and go over 0.2000 only when I focus longer on my launch...

Good luck and thanks for posting the videos!

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