Newbie Guide to Drag Racing

[Hank Scorpio]

Proper drag racing technique
Ok, this is for those of you who haven't raced on a sanctioned drag way, or for those of you learning. This is based on my years of drag racing experince.

Arrival:
1. Arrive early, tech lines are long and hot. Get there early and you will start sooner when your lane is up. This is important because you will spend less time idling waiting for you turn, running all that time you spent cooling your motor. Colder motor = colder air= faster car.
2. Don't try to BS that saftey tech's they are there for a reason.
3. Be honest and ask questions, if your new don't feel bad you won't be treated wrongly.

Prep:
4. You more than likely DONT need racing fuel. I see this every time, a Stock Civic getting 110 unleaded fuel. New's flash, more octane is harder to burn. If your not running a HOT turbo motor, you won't need it.
5. Hood up, let your motor cool
6. Don't look stupid pulling off your backseat, or front hubcaps or what ever. Just run your car. If it's fast then maybe pull your back seat, but if you only run a 19 don't expect losing 10 pounds will drop you a second.

Stage:
7. What ever you do, DONT ROLL THROUGH THE WATER. Unless you have a treadless drag slick, a posi and drag front tires (or vice versa for you FWD's) you MUST go around the water. Thats an instant give away for the other guy that your a newb'.
8. Skip the huge "John Force" burnout. Most radial tires will stick less w/ excessive heat. The rubber curl's up and creates ball bearings which = no traction.
9. Roll slowly, light the first light and wait for the other guy if your "that cool." If not, stage both lights and focus.
...btw if you stage the second light and the first one goes off, STOP, any more and your going to have to back up (ie look like a moron).

The Tree:
10: The "tree" as it's called has the staging lights, three yellows a green and a red. Red is bad. Green is bad. Last yellow is the only light you care about. When that last yellow lights it's time to go. Leave on the last yellow, a 1.- reaction time is not good.

The Hole:
11: Myth- Auto's are slow. Reality- No they aren't. They are much faster at shifting and much easier to launch. Bring up the RPM to stall speed and baby it out of the hole. Sticks will ALWAYS leave to hard and spin the tires. No traction = no acceleration. Rember that, your only as fast as your tires will let you go. You'll learn how hard you can leave with out spinning.

The Track:
12: FLOOR IT

Shutdown area:
13: The track is ussualy clearly marked where it ends and where you can turn. Get off the track and back to your lane.

Tips and Tricks:
Keep an eye on quick lanes for the night, try to get them.
Cold air equals faster car, if it drops 10 degrees between runs, keep that in mind on your Dial in.
Traction Traction Traction

But always, be safe and smart. Be realistic, don't think you will be a master in one run. My first run ever, I smoke the tires to the 660 marker (660 feet) and ran a 16.6 at 82 mph. My second run was much improved at 14.4 at 97 mph. Traction counts.

Have fun, and oh DONT SET YOUR CAR ALARM. God that is annoying!

[boostdemon]

Shift points:

As much as video games will lead you to believe, shifting at redline isnt always using the maximum power. Lots of this has to do with flow dynamics directly related to the cam you're using. If you know that you're power dies out after 6,000 rpm... why wait for 7 to show up?! get into the next gear and get that torque back. Additionally if you have a motor that will take it (good springs and nice big turbo), why shift at 7k rpm when you're still pulling hard... keep on it.

with an m46 and 3.73 rear you can do 115-120mph in 4th. not going to need your OD so dont bother

[linuxman51]

shoot in my 740 with the m46 and a 4.10 I didnt make it to redline in 4th going down the track (Speedo indicated 100 or so going thro the traps tho, it was getting there). If you're rollin a T cam, you should probably shift (or let the tranny shift) somewhere around 4800 to drop right back into the meat of the powerband.

I twisted mine on out to 6300 with the K cam, but as it turns out, I shoulda just let it ride at 5500 cause the turbo was falling behind anywhere above that...

[Hank Scorpio]

Ya Dana, thats HELLA old (From clubvolvo) I should probably read it again.

On the new computer controlled (cough FWD cough) cars, it doesn't matter when you tell it to shift, its going to shift at redline.

I found with the m46, wind out the first couple gears, but no need to hold it in 3rd for ever (when I had the VX). Very FEW cars are at the top of their 1:1 gear going through the traps around here.

[linuxman51]

also it might not be a good idea to put it completely off the stall either, esp if you sit there for more than a second before the tree drops, you stand to spin more (and once you get em hot they wont hold). My best 60's were with almost no tirespin at all, a squeek and then gone..

[towerymt]

Been drag racing once. There was a "gutter" parrallel to the start line that was the water box, so no way to drive around it. Had to get the tires wet, then had to do a burnout to dry them off. I still have bits of rubber stuck to my mudflaps & fenders...from over 4 months ago.

[EricF]

also it might not be a good idea to put it completely off the stall either, esp if you sit there for more than a second before the tree drops, you stand to spin more (and once you get em hot they wont hold). My best 60's were with almost no tirespin at all, a squeek and then gone..

This is especially true of the FWD cars, with my chipped 850, I could hold it at 20 psi at the stall speed... Obviously this is just a smoke show when you let off the brake, and a bent rod if you're less lucky than I was.

FWIW, on 205-50/16 Potenza S-03's on my 850 with pretty decent tread, I found my best launches came around 1900-2000 rpms, I would gauge around half throttle or a little less, and 4-5 psi. This produces nearly no launch wheelspin, but due to my boost control, tires spun once boost came on fully.

Also on the shift point issues, I HAD to shift at 5k in my 850, for reasons unknown (never solved that problem). And though peak power was at 5200-5400 in those cars, and it dropped off a lot before shifting at 6k, due to the ratios, every time I shifted that early, it would drop back down just below the meaty part of the powerband in the next gear, and that really didn't prove to be too helpful to my acceleration.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you plan to shift earlier than redline, make sure that in the next gear you don't end up dropping too low in the powerband. The M46 ratios are close enough, though, that I think this isn't too much of a problem (actually in terms of MPH, the shift points are almost identical to the "close-ratio" getrag factory option box in my E30).

I'll stay with that, and just suggest with launching technique in a safe place outside of the track before you go, learn what works best, try it at the track, and from there fine-tune. You won't get it right the first time ;)