First time drag racing

leppy_89 · Post by **leppy_89** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:55 am

Tomorrow I am going to go drag racing with one of my good friends.

It is going to be a blast. He had the idea when we wondered who's whip

was faster. He has a 87 944 with a freshly rebuilt engine against my 87 GT.

I definitely have him in low end torque, but I'm pretty sure he will catch

me in the long run. Whatever the result, its going to be fun, and I'll still

love my Fiero

crzyone · Post by **crzyone** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:59 am

You will have a lot of fun, the drags are a blast.

You should have posted this in motorsports but it's alright.

Be sure to tell us how it goes. :thumbleft:

leppy_89 · Post by **leppy_89** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:19 am

I was planning on putting it there but the sticky made it seem like it was

more of a technical thing. My fault. On I'll let you all know. Just don't ride

me too hard if my times suck haha.

crzyone · Post by **crzyone** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:25 am

You will get props for going to a track and racing your car regardless of how fast it is. No worries there.

How about you press the space bar instead of the enter button. :thumbleft:

leppy_89 · Post by **leppy_89** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:35 am

The whole enter button thing really does seem to bug people. Guess its time to break the habit ha. Its going to be fun, because as sad as it is, my Fiero is that fastest car I've ever driven. And I love going fast haha.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:25 am

I kinda like it, makes the posts easy to read for those of us with ub3r resolution. Kind of like double-spaced papers ya know?

leppy_89 · Post by **leppy_89** » Thu May 22, 2008 11:23 am

Aaron wrote:I kinda like it, makes the posts easy to read...kind of like double-spaced papers ya know?

Thats exactly why I like doing it. I hate it when someone types a LOT and

it all just gets cluttered up and I'm constantly losing my place. Makes it

look neater. And I love double spaced papers. Haha, great way to fill up

the pages..

whipped · Post by **whipped** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:20 pm

Maybe
it's
just
me
but
I
think
it
would
be
better
to
limit
the
length
of
the
lines
to
one
word
long
each.

So
much
easier
for
me
to
read.

But
hey
if
you
don't,
I
understand.

It
is
a
lot
of
work
to
hit
enter
so
much.

I
think
my
enter
button
will
break
faster.

Or
maybe
my
pinky
will.

Ow.

crzyone · Post by **crzyone** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:47 pm

whipped wrote:Maybe
it's
just
me
but
I
think
it
would
be
better
to
limit
the
length
of
the
lines
to
one
word
long
each.

So
much
easier
for
me
to
read.

But
hey
if
you
don't,
I
understand.

It
is
a
lot
of
work
to
hit
enter
so
much.

I
think
my
enter
button
will
break
faster.

Or
maybe
my
pinky
will.

Ow.

I quoted you just because it will probably be the most annoying quote I could ever do. Almost as bad as when people quote in a picture thread and you get to see all the pictures over again. I hate that.

:thumbleft:

CincinnatiFiero · Post by **CincinnatiFiero** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:05 pm

Post the times casey! I've actually never legally drag raced, I've been to the strip but I ended up running the camera.

TheFieroBoy · Post by **TheFieroBoy** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:40 pm

Here are a couple tips that a friend gave to me on my first trip to the drag strip:

1) Don't try to do a burnout on street tires. Street tires overheat too easily, and will lose traction.

2) Avoid the water. If you get any water on your rear tires, you'll lose traction.

Have fun!

leppy_89 · Post by **leppy_89** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:49 pm

Woo hoo! That was an absolute blast! I never really appreciated speed until I

could experience it first hand. I had a bunch of drunk hillbillies telling me

what I needed to do haha. But, to their credit, they did me good. So, don't

laugh, never done this before, and its a stock Fiero, so no impressive

numbers here...

1st Run:

Reaction: .8829
60ft: 2.1831
330ft: 6.7330
1/8 ET: 10.4721
1/8 MPH: 66.47
1/4 ET: 16.4580
1/4 MPH: 80.78

2nd Run:

Reaction: .7740
60ft: 2.2519
330ft: 6.8068
1/8 ET: 10.5891
1/8 MPH: 65.87
1/4 ET: 16.5470
1/4 MPH: 79.64

Not too sure whether I made an ass of myself, or held my own for my first

time, but all I know is I had a hell of a good time!

lucky · Post by **lucky** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:34 am

nice reaction time :thumbleft:

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:04 am

R/T is for people with slow cars.

If your worried about, or trying to get, a good R/T, you have no place at the track. I don't think I had a single R/T under 1 second the last time I went to the track. I just wait until the green light.

CincinnatiFiero · Post by **CincinnatiFiero** » Fri May 23, 2008 1:34 pm

16.5 is pretty damn good for a stock 100k+ mile car and your first time.

crzyone · Post by **crzyone** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:00 pm

Nice runs, now you will have the itch to improve your car to get faster and faster. :thumbleft:

lucky · Post by **lucky** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:02 pm

Aaron wrote:R/T is for people with slow cars.

If your worried about, or trying to get, a good R/T, you have no place at the track. I don't think I had a single R/T under 1 second the last time I went to the track. I just wait until the green light.

that's gotta be one of the dumbest things i've ever heard.

crzyone · Post by **crzyone** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:04 pm

Why is that dumb? You don't have to leave at the light, it doesn't affect your E/T. You can sit there, dial in your rpm and leave at your convenience. That way you can learn how to properly launch your car to improve your times before worrying about improving reaction time.

Aaron is right. :uhoh:

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:29 pm

Not only for the reason Crzyone said, but look at it this way.

While you sit at the line, worrying about your R/T, you do a number of things. First, you take your focus off of your launch RPM and your launch technique. So the thing you should be paying the most attention to gets put on the back burner. Next, you're holding your clutch halfway in anticipation, waiting for that perfect time. This damages the clutch, shortens its life, and overheats it, hurting performance the rest of the day. Then, since inevitably you're going to roll forward a bit as the clutch grabs, your tires might leave the line without you realizing it, and you get back with a 17 second slip. But it's a good thing you cranked off that .04 R/T.

The worst part, is you will red light. Sooner or later, maybe 1 time out of 10, maybe 1 out of 100, you will leave early. But nothing tells you that you red lighted. So you stress every component of your car to the maximum, slamming gears at redline, punching the throttle, dumping in gas, etc, just to go and get your slip. And, without any numbers whatsoever, all it says it *REDLIGHT*. Once you leave early, the computer stops timing your run altogether.

R/T is useless. Leave on the green light, or whenever you are comfortable leaving. Don't let the computer decide when it's time for you to go. You will get 1 second R/Ts every time leaving on the green light, but you will be much more consistent, and you will never run the risk of a red light.

Series8217 · Post by **Series8217** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:12 pm

I agree with aaron.