went to the track last night and it was my first time ever. ran 4 runs with 30 psi in the back (i have mohawk predator tires 275/40/17). i managed to get a best of 14.1 at 99 with a 2.24 60' time. that was my second pass. then i had a 14.4 and 14.6 and then my last run i ran at 20 psi in the rears and during my burnout the seemed to squeel a lot more at the end of it, and i thougth it would help a lot more, so then i launched got a ways down the track and missed the 2-3 shift, so i just went to 4th and went the rest of the way with a 15.8 or something.lol. anyways was it smart to lower the pressure or should i have kept them at 30? they are just regular "high performance" tires but not drag radial or anything, also i had no spare tire or jack.basically when i laucnhed i held it a little above idle then dropped the clutch and stood on it the whole time. should i have let off until they stopped spinning or what? im really new to all this stuff but i want to get more into it. what are some simple mods that would get me into high 13's as of right now. in the future i plan on sprayin' and doing headers, msd 6a, and some suspension stuff. will lowering springs be worse for traction, or does it not really matter that much? i hope some people can answer all of my questions. TIA

 

The tires that you were using at the track don't have a wrinkle sidewalls (were not drag radials/slicks) so lowering you tire pressure wouldn't do a whole lot. I'd run the tires you are using at around 28-30psi for a baseline. Then experiment with different psi once you get everything dialed in on your car to see if different tire pressures effect your 1/4 time. Also, to improve your time you might want to try iceing down your engine after each run, to cool it down. Seems like you were running slower and slower times. This could be part of it.