OK next Wednesday (hopefully) I'm gonna race my car for the first time. It's an M6 with the hot cam kit, heads P&P by Lloyd Elliot, AS&M headers, high flow cat, cutout open, CAI, pcmforless and my suspension is LCAs, SFCs, PHB and STB.

First off what should I pull?

Second off is it good to smoke up the tires to warm them up before racing? What's the best way for a small smoke show to warm 'em up?

What exactly should I do at launching? I have stock gears (3.43s) and a stock 10-bolt rear. What do you guys with similiar set ups drop the clutch at? 3 grand? 2500? I have no idea. Also, what is a good shift point? Should I look at my dyno, see when my peak HP is, and shift then?

Thanks in advance.

 

You are from MA? If so you will probably be going here: http://www.newenglanddragway.com

#1. No open cutouts on Wednesday night.
#2. What type of tires? Wednesday night is street tires only, no slicks. Plus they don't treat the track so traction will be questionable at best.

Manual tranny and street tires? 40 pounds in the front tires, 20 pounds in the back, roll through the water, put it in second, press the brakes, rev to about 3500-4000 and as soon as they start to smoke at all release the brakes and pull to the line.

Light the pre-stage bulb and wait for the other driver to light his. Then stage. As soon as the stage bulb lights, stop. Bring up the rpms to about 1000 (idle).

There are three yellow bulbs and a green. At the point where the third yellow bulb is fully lit you want to be releasing the clutch quickly and in the process of raising the rpms to between 1300-1500. This quick release (not dump) eases you out of the hole and provides a higher likelihood of not spinning the tires. The process of having the rpms coming up as the clutch engages minimizes the possibility of bogging (in case your tires actually hook up).

The above is my best guess based only on my experience. You may still spin and you may bog. You will then need to make adjustments to tire pressure, launch rpm, clutch technique to compensate for the track conditions. Get there early as the track is usually better earlier, plus you don't want to be at the end of a very long and slow moving tech line.

Ask for a Racer Handbook. It has all the rules for the track.

 

yes you wanna heat the tires up a little (3-5 secs should do it) assuming you know how to smoke em in a 6spd (its kinda hard to explain, but rev it to about 3 grand pop the clutch and hurry up and jam the brake. the quicker you jam the brake the more you can fool guys so theyll think youve got an auto, i.e. your car wont move at all if you hit the brake fast enuf, so idiots will be like WTF ). as for the launchin, you cant really ask wheres the best rpm to launch b/c all cars have different tires and mods, so your gonna have to practice that one to get in the rhythm of where you can get a good jump but dont spin em too bad, HTH.

 

I will be going to NED. Are cutouts allowed on Friday?

I have regular street tires.

 

the only trick to get decent 60 times on street tires is to slip ur clutch on the launch .. dont be scared to slip it a bit when ur comin out of the hole .. hold ur rpms around 2000 or 2500 .. bring out the clutch to the sweet spot and hold it there for about 0.5 to 1 second then release it the rest ot the way... i did that with my stock clutch many times (but i had a street twin sittin in the garage) .. it held fine and worked pretty good .. i cut 2.0s on worn out 17s all day on a dirty unprepped track with a crappy suspension

 

Wanna be a little more specific? I told ya, I'm a newbie!

 

The rules are posted here: http://www.newenglanddragway.com/tra...ndex.shtml#toc

You want to let the tech people know it is your first night. Also, watch some of the cars run before you do. Be careful, there are a lot of idiots on Wednesday and Friday nights. I don't think cutouts are allowed on Friday nights either. You can always call the track and ask. The sound carries quite a way. We even run mufflers on points days. Its all part of a "good neighbor" policy the track has with the towns of Epping and Brentwood. It is not as rigid as the policy at Englishtown, and hopefully it won't become like that track. Down there they have a decibel meter and if you go over the limit you get booted.

 

Wow 1500 rpms, I launch at 3000 on Drag Radials does this method work better?

 

It depends entirely on the car, driver abilities, track conditions and tires. It is very difficult to cut a good light when you are trying to match rpms during an upward movement.

I switched to an automatic a few years back but I can honestly say I had more success with the stick car when I was bracket racing in 1999 than any other season. Behind my desk I have 10 winners trophies and four runner ups from that season out of 22 events.

Everybody develops their own methods. I switched to an auto because I thought I would be more consistent. In the last three years I have had two tranny rebuilds and one replacement after it blew up last fall. Now I have a converter that slips too much.

I was suggesting the method that worked best for me.

 

So you would bring it to 1500 and slip the clutch? i am interested because I am bogging on all my launches but if I bring my rpms up I spin way too much

 

The technique was a way to minimize spinning/bogging while maintaining consistent ET's. Teh starting line was the most challenging part in terms of consistent reaction times. I learned that running a 12.50 on a 12.50 dial is just as difficult to beat as a good light. The race happens twice in each round, the start and the finish. I learned to shift very consistently and drive the top end to make up for the starting line challenges with a stick.

Just now, two years after knee surgery (skiing), are my lights finally coming around to wherer I have confidence again plus the car is starting to become more consistent. now if I can only figure out how to stop breaking $0.30 parts...

 

one more quick question for ya, with your m6 what rpms were you shifting at?

 

SO I don't dump the clutch, but quickly let it up?

 

I do not know your exact mods. I determined my shift points by starting at 5600 (powershifting), and making several passes. Then trying 5800 and trying several passes, then 6000, and so on until performance dropped off. Then I went back down to the best number.

You need to track accurate weather information during this process too as well as engine temps and be careful to watch your incremental numbers because we are usually not perfect on every pass.

With cam and heads I was generally shifting at 6000 and 6200 with no more than a 200rpm rise between shifts. I liked to leav a little in the bank and if I needed to slow down to avoid a breakout I could granny shift 2-3 (most of my racing was on a 1/8 mile track at that time.