It's hard to concentrate when there is a car with open headers staging next to you don't you think? Especially when you have stock exhaust. But, do you know at what RPM you were letting the clutch out? With your tires I wouldn't be to worried about blowing the rear end. Sounds like you need a little more RPM when you launch. I definetly agree. I know that I get a ton of more traction at the track. Thats why I will not even attempt to race from a dead stop on the street. With my M6 I can never hook up in first gear.

 

Yeah, it made it very difficult. Normally I can regulate my launch by the sound of my engine and the amount of slip I'm getting from my tires. At the track, it felt like I was sitting in the other persons car, it was so loud. Even while going down the strip, I couldn't hear my car. It's a very weird feeling. There I am, racing down the track, shifting gears, but I had no concept of what RPM I was running at other than watching my tach. There were a couple of times when I got to run alone, but I was too concerned with my R/T for some reason, and I ended up messing those launches up too. My best runs were like my 1st and 3rd runs of the day. Weird.

Live and learn I guess. Next time I'll know better.

It's also a little intimidating lining up to a full blown dragster that hit 130 MPH by the time he hit the 1/8 mile mark!!

Dan

 

It was much better after I installed my cat back exhaust system. Next time try not worry about R/T you can perfect that later

 

It's actually not that hard if you don't mind abusing either your clutch or your rear end (or both!). Keep launching at a progressively higher RPM (dumping the clutch) until the tires just start to spin some on the launch. That's about the point where you'll get your best 60' time with that method. The second method is to tac it up to about 4500-5000 rpm and slip the clutch some as you launch. By that I mean don't dump the clutch, let it out slower. It's hard on the clutch and it takes a while to figure out the speed to let the clutch out but it will probably net you the best times. Using that method I can cut 2.0 60's on street tires without doing a burnout as long as the track is reasonably well prepped.

BTW - In decent air, my convertible ran consistent 13.9x @ 100 mph with my only mod being K&N FIPK. You ran in worse air which explains the mph drop. On a perfect track day, I'd expect you'd be trapping 100-102 mph which would be about right.

 

My LT1 Z28 is totally and completely stock, and my best time so far (at M7 last year) was 14.23. I am quite sure she has some quicker times in her, maybe lower 14s or *gasp* a high 13 (???), so I would guess you'd be able to get a bit quicker than that with your K&N FIPK.

Another thing you have to consider is that your car is a M6 and mine is an A4. Racing with a stick is much more complicated, IMO, than with an automatic.

All in all, especially considering the weather conditions, I think you did well.