ShaneM

i went up to the local drag strip last night with some friends. By local i mean I drove nearly 2 hours each way. As it turns out the track was having some sort of shootout for rail cars with a $10k purse so i only got in four runs. I had my GoPro in the car, but for some reason I randomly forget how to work it and manged to not record my two best runs, but i have the two crap runs lol.

I can't believe how slippery the track was. My car would randomly spin the tires in 3rd at 80-90 at any throttle level and the spinning and getting sideways wouldn't stop until 4th gear. I had gone hoping to put down a 13.5 my first time out and i ended up doing better than that so i was happy. Does the rubber these drag cars put down make things more slippery?

anyway, I'll post the time slips below. My first run I was nervous since it was my first time on the strip, then a fracking rail car pulls up in the lane beside me. I almost laughed in the guys face when he said "he's going to pass you" lol NO REALLY!? some guy behind the fence yelled "Get some chevy man" lol that's at the start where i said i don't think so. That **** rail put down a 7.952 @ 165.46

Jimmy Pribble

Shane, thanks for having the ***** to post your "my first time" videos.

I have never been on a drag strip and I'm guessing I would line-up backwards or be halfway through my first run, put on my signal, and change lanes or something. Plus, apparently, I don't have enough chevy. Your experience helps us learn. If anything, I am startled to learn about the traction issues in the middle of the track. Honestly, that makes me a little skeered. I'll probably just stick to road courses, but who knows? Thanks for sharing and good luck on your next time around.

Jimmy

UnrealFord

OMG, you need some seat time, Did you lower the air pressure to 22lbs?
Is the track at high DA?
You should have done at least 13.00 at your worst, 12.4 is a good run, My buddy runs 12.66 with all stock including tires with his Boss.
I ran a 7.96 in 1/8

ShaneM

yeah no idea on the DA dude lol. its Dallas raceway in crandal texas. ive been to a strip to watch once in my entire life and i don't street race so what you are seeing is basically the first heads up work ive ever done. i get on the hoon a bit around my area, but im not into drag racing on the street. i do know it felt like that track was water compared to a launch at the light on the highway by my house. im more a road course guy too, but i want to try everything i can with the car. no i didn't mess with the tire pressure, it was 36psi. only thing i did was set the suspension full soft rear and full hard front and went to play.

mammothcar1

This is me also^

Nice job Shane!!

AlsCobra

Were you on drag radials? 1.8 60ft is not bad at all. If not, get some. A few more trips and it starts to get addicting. Not bad for 1st timer.

ShaneM

no i was using the stock pirelli summer tires that come on the boss, my best was 2.148. i don't think it was a tire issue alone the track was slippery. a guy in a saleen next to me has 555r 315 DRs and was spinning all down the track too.

lol my fastest run i wanted to get on video so bad, can't believe the cam didn't work. the guy next to me was in a big quad cab 4x4 diesel truck. that effing thing launched like you wouldn't believe, he put down the 1.8 on a 4 high launch. i wasn't really watching the lights mostly concentrating on a decent time and not spinning. he ended up running a 13.208 at 100.33 to my 13.296 at 111.39. that run had a 2.148 60' if i wrote 1.8 up there somewhere it was a mistake. i almost had him at 90-ish around half trick but the car got sideways again and i couldn't make it up, then i hit the rev limiter to

2006mach1

Next time you drag race, try lowering rear tire pressures to 24 pounds and leave traction control ON. Leaving TC on will help you by the sounds of it till you get more practice in. I have run 13 flat with TC on. Once you get better, switch everthing off and you should be able to get near mid 12's.

ShaneM

i was going to leave it on in sport mode, but the TC created unreal axle hop so i turned it back off

AlsCobra

Alright. Thought the 1.8 was you. DR's would help considerably. Especially further down the track. Get you a good test and tune night and put some more passes down. Road racing is ok I guess but All we have down here are strips. No road courses yet.

ShaneM

what part of La? we have a bunch of folks from the shereveport bossier city area come to ECR each track day.

2006mach1

Your right about the wheel hop. I did end up changing my upper control arm out for a UPR adjustable. Solved the wheel hop issue and works fine on road courses too.

AlsCobra

Right in the center of baton rouge and Nola. A little far for me. We have one little test course right past BR that I might hit one of these days.

zwede

Which is exactly backwards. You want the front to rise to get weight transfer so it needs to be full soft. You don't want the rear to squat as that reduces weight on the tires so it needs full hard.

ShaneM

lol half the people told me one way, half another. it made sense to me that if you wanted weight to transfer from the front to the rear, the rears need to be softer than front and firmer fronts would help keep the nose from diving on shifts. not that it helped in my case either way

jouster

Thanks for this post!
I enjoyed the read, .... and as usual learned something new too!!!
Cheers,
Jouster

Antigini-GT/CS

Soft in the rear.

Tires will make ALL the difference in the world. Going from street tires to ET Streets made a .5 second difference for me. If you're going to continue drag racing, I would invest in a line lock.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and with some seat time and proper instruction you'll be just fine!

P0 Corsa

Hey Shane, great post! You put yourself out there and many appreciate your honest first time candor. Great job!
Sure there is much to be learned but Shane is trying and learning...

Unreal, how many readers do you think understand your reference to Density Altitude (DA)? Really... If you want to use terms you may think are common, how about explaining them to others on our Forum who are acronym challenged. And then explain why a first time drag racer needs to even worry about DA. It was his FIRST time at the 1320 (uh thats a quarter mile in feet). Sheze, cut him a little slack...

Exactly! You want the front soft and the rear hard. Remember the old 90/10 front shocks drag racers ran for weight transfer? Well Shane maybe that was a bit before your time.

ShaneM

lol that's funny, i asked here and at another forum, the consensus was front hard, rear soft. next time ill try it the other way. the way you explain it makes sense. they were running bikes too last night. it was fun, but i never expected the track to hook worse than the street it was odd. completely different than the autox or road racing.

goesfast

Geez, I must be old. I had a car with 90/10 drags shocks which did the job quite nicely. You were probably a tad nervous, being your first time, which is to be expected. Brush up on your launches and shifting and you'll improve greatly. Perhaps traction control should be off (I dunno)? Everything is practice. Nobody is a pro their first time out. It all starts at the novice level for everyone. Now relax and head towards some mid 12's with a lot of practice! Very clear video by the way!