Reaction time does not effect your 1/4 time correct?

Some guy on another board is trying to convince me that you do some mathematical equation with the reaction time and the 1/4 time to determine the full 1/4 time.

I always thought the clock started after you crossed the line.

Who is right??

 

It depends on what type of racing you're doing.

For simple 1/4 mile times, NO, the R/T doesn't affect the 1/4 time at all.......you could sit on a green light for 10 seconds, and still run 13.xx or 14.xx .

HOWEVER, in bracket racing, your R/T's become very important. Everyone dials in a time (1/4 mile time) and you have to try to run exactly that time, without going faster, but get to the line before the other guy, SO, the only way to win is to be as close to your dial in time as possible, and get the quickest R/T you can. Your "total time" in bracket racing really counts.

As far as 1/4 mile time, you're right, the clock starts counting once you roll through the start beam, but your reaction time is important for racing purposes .

EDIT: I guess I overlooked the fact that your reaction time is critical in ALL racing scenarios, not just bracket racing. In "heads-up" racing (both starting at the same time) you also want to get off the line first.

The 1/4 mile time between the beams is independent of R/T though, and is used mostly for test & tune purposes, knowing what your car runs, and determining a dial-in time.

 

During T&T passes, RT means nothing as mentioned above. I did an 8 second RT once during a T&T pass. I had a reverse pattern manual valve body TH400. PRN321. I was in first gear and when the light turned green I launched and the car died without moving forward. I never broke the starting beam. I ratched the tranny up to neutral, started the engine, ratched back down to first and launched. 8 second RT and my ET was the same as the previous run.

If it was a bracket race, the best I could have hoped for was that my opponent would have broken out to give me the win but in a T&T pass it ment nothing.

The 1/4 mile time clock will only start when you break the starting beam but as mentioned above, you must also cross the finish line first without breaking out to win a race so reaction times means a lot during an actual race. If you're the faster car you get to see your opponent launch. You can see if he gets a good reaction time or not just from how he launches in relation to his green light. If you know he was alseep at the tree all you need to do is not red light and you should get a win as long as you're not asleep also.

 

The question was simple:

Simple answer: Correct. Reaction time has nothing to do with elapsed time.

 

Yeah, but often times a person who believes something to be one way or another does so because of some type of reasoning . Those people usually need an explanation of how they're wrong so they can understand the "right" way . If you just say "no, you're wrong", they're gonna argue back that "no, I'm right".....so you have to explain how these things work.

 

Yes... Cause that guy, when he was talking about "Full 1/4 mile" time, he probably means "1/4 time + R/T".. semantics..


Heh, in my stock 99 Z28, I almost lost to an sleeper civic back in Atco, NJ.... lol.. it looked stock, down to steel rims, only slightly lowered. but thats it really.. except it was clicking off consistant 13.9's all day(which I had no idea either).. I had a bad launch and ran a 13.9, and the only reason I had the WIN word on my side is I had a better R/T.. whew...


We raced again and I got a 13.3 and he red lighted but still ran a 13.9.. Obviously he was betting on hope that I would run another 13.9, and try to eek me out on R/T..

 

As Raptor said - NO, Reaction time does not effect your ET.

I do want to follow up on something Pete and Stephen said though. While R/T is extremely important in bracket racing, it also just as important in heads up racing. You need to cross the finish line first and ET has no real value in a heads up race. If you sit at the line for a second and your opponent does not but he runs a 10.00 and you run a 9.50, YOU lose because you slept on the tree.

So, even though it does not effect your ET, it is very important in any type of racing - unless you're just trying to get used to your car.

 

And a great explanation it was too