I might be going to the drag strip for the first time this weekend and i have no idea how to drag race. How would i get a good launch, would i just have to floor it right before the light turns green or how would i do it

 

plenty of info if you search around, no line lock needed

 

A friend of mine has a great deal of information on his website... His name is Michael Beard:

http://www.staginglight.com/guide/index.html

 

hi , i would say as a newbe i would watch others . that would be the first thing you can learn alot by watching. with no info on tires you got if there stock type stay away from the burn out box drive around it and back up just so your not in the water box. bring the car up on the convertor and let go of the brake this will clean the tires now roll slowly into the stage lites just turn the top one on hold your foot on the brake and bump the car into the 2nd stage lite just comes on . hold the brake on firm and push on the go pedal just to the piont before the tires spin wait for the tree to go on and let of brake and floor it when the last amber comes on . this should work . the only to do better is to race often and remebr most of all have fun doing it .

 

Well i went to the track friday night and got a best time of 13.83 with a reaction time of .755. that's with the traction control on and 40 psi in all tires. i made 2 runs like that and got similar times. i tried raising the tires at the end of the night to 35 psi and only slightly imporved. I also only used the water box for 1 run but it shaved almost 3-tenths off of my time. I tried lowering my rear tires to 15 psi and i started running in the low 14s. I think after that my intake temps were pretty high because it got hot as hell inside the car. i went there with a neon srt and an evo. I only got to race the neon and beat him 3 out of 4 times, but his and the evo's best times were 13.6s. anyway i smoked a vw gti and a couple of other guys, but some civic ran a 13.5 and smoked me Overall id say i had a good time

 

"traction control on and 40 psi in all tires"

What kind of tires? 40psi in all tires isn't even a good idea for the street, let alone the track. What was your 60-ft time?

"I tried lowering my rear tires to 15 psi"

Unless they are slicks.... do not run 15psi. Again, what kind of tires? What was the 60-ft?

"i tried raising the tires at the end of the night to 35 psi "

Why not try using your normal street pressure (32-35psi), and then lowering tham 2psi at a time, watching the 60-ft times to see where the sweet spot is.

Running with traction control on is generally not a good idea.

 

What he said plus. With the TC on you will run at least 2 tenths slower.
And if treated properly an LS1 will never heat soak. Don't let the car sit and idle in the lanes and pop the hood while in the pits.

 

The tc was on for the 2 or 3 runs because i forgot to shut it off; And someone at the track told me i would get better times with lower tire preasures and everyone else was lowering theirs into the teens, so i tried it. Im not sure exactly what kind of tires they are but i do know that they are some kind of goodyear all weather tires. With my tires at 40 psi on my first 2 runs, my 60' times were around 2.1 seconds, everything after that was around 2.3s. Next time i go im gunna try my first run with 35 psi and tc off, and ill try using the water box. I think with that i can get into the 13.6s

 

Generally and "back in the day" with street tires of BGF drag radials....

I would set my rears at 28, the fronts to 40... back into the water box and do a short burnout on street tires and a longer one on drag radials.

For me and my eyesight, I would stage as shallow as possible and launch on the last yellow.

It didn't take long for me once I started racing to treat it like an addiction and the front sway bar was gone in a few weeks and the drag radials were a "must". I focused on reation time since that was what I could most control without spending a fortune to improve my chances of winning rounds in bracket racing.

The bottom line is to have fun! Practice, in my opinion, makes the most improvement in the least amount of time if you want to be consistent and enjoy the comptitive aspects of bracket racing.

I remember that our local track had a special day for people going to the bracket finals. The entire team spent a day in a private test session and we traded advice and expertise in order for all of us to do better and had as many test runs as we wanted. That was a great learning experience for me.

 

Line locks are for burnouts, not launches.

 

Yea but... A poor mans transbrake is a four wheel line lock configuration...

 

Hmmm, I never considered putting a line lock on the rear wheels. Why even bother with four? Or, better yet, put separate locks on the the front and rear, so that you can lock the fronts for the burnout, and the rears for the launch?

 

Yup. It has all been tried with varying degrees of success.

I lobbied IHRA a few years back to allow front wheel only line locks in street class, for burnouts only. I succeeded but it took a majority of track operators in the Northeast to approve the decision. It was an IHRA specification only for the bracket finals.

 

I want to try this(4 wheel line loc) on my b body with the addition of a two step. The b body has that massive proportioning valve (Two discharges from the master cylinder leading to it, one line for the rear brakes, two independent connections for each of the front wheels)

Can the solenoids be placed before the proportioning valve? or should i use 3 valves one for each line going to the brakes after the proportioning valve?

 

Ted, that a no-no in the DIV 1 footbrake class. Just don't get caught. Not allowed to launch off a button.

This is the second year that I'm running the Mustang without a linelock. Don't plan to install one. Shallow just off idle in second gear off the second amber.