i'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to drag racing on a track. although not a complete newbie. i went once about 10 years ago in a turbo civic and know about the staging and all that but that's about it.

the nearest 1/4 mile track from me is probably texas motorplex. from what i can understand in the track rules, i'm going to need a helmet... i'm guessing just by having an AMG, you need a helmet on this particular track since it requires one for faster than 13.99
http://www.texasmotorplex.com/racer-info/track-rules/

where is a good place to start for helmets? i've googled to find some websites that sell them, but i figure it's better to at least try some on to find out what i need to order.

i've read people buying motorcycle helmets or using them just because it's cheaper. how much should i be expecting to spend on a helmet for a car that meets the requirements for this track.

can a helmet expire? i'm asking because spending $$$ on a helmet to use a few times and then find out years later, i have to get a new one would suck.

i also don't plan to switch out tires to get the best possible time ever. i just want to see what i can do. my current tires are the michelin pilot sport all season. initially i wasn't planning on doing a burn out at all since these are street tires. am i correct to assume that?

my plan. put it in S mode and shift to 1st, traction control OFF because i'm not sure what sport will do, and just feather the throttle and learn from there.

any tips/advice would be appreciated...

 

no burnout on all seasons....you're gonna find yourself spinning out all day long on the launches though..You really should get some drag radials to get the most out of it..

 

This is what I use on my track days.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GFR-3002LRGBK/

Helmets do expire. The one above is rated Snell M2005
and it should be good for 10 years.

Put it in S mode, left click the paddle and the display
should read D1 and your good to go, the trans should
shift at redline in every gear. Traction control "Off".

If your staying on street tires I would drop your rear
tire pressure to 25psi and raise the fronts to 50psi
and finally a burnout is recommended.

 

one more thing...if you're the only one on street tires, you'll upset the drag radial folks with the VHT prep..

 

Stick some Nitto NT05's or 555r's in the rear and let' er rip.

 

Helmet AND long pants for sub 14s. I showed up to our local test & tune with shorts at the end of this summer & luckily (that day) only hit 13.98, so they let me keep going.

 

i'm just going for some fun, not to set any records... and i don't have the time to keep switching tires... maybe if i had another set of wheels which i don't

what's a VHT prep?

yes burn out, no burn out.... i don't want to upset people... plus i've read that doing one might not be that great although others have done many and their tranny has held up.

also, i'm not that sure how to do one... i haven't done it in my car before... but from what i can figure out... traction control off, manual mode to 1st gear, hold down the brake with left foot, and hit the accelerator... and after a set time, you're supposed to ease off the brake and let your car go forward while letting go of the accelerator...

the middle and end is where i'm not too sure of... should you stay in first and just get it up to redline area and keep it steady there while your wheels spin... or do people actually shift up to 2nd at some point?

how long do you burn out for?

after you ease off the brake, how soon should you let off the accelerator? and you would have to brake again real soon to stop the car and reverse back into position.

what happens if you just do a burn out, and then just let go of the accelerator and let your car stay where you were instead of going forward while spinning?


i figure since i'll be on street tires and there will likely be a lot of wheel spin, i'll just launch really light... i'm sure my times won't be that great for 60ft and such, but it's better than spinning all through 1st right?

 

Doing a burnout on all-season tires won't help you much. Drive AROUND the water box, not through it, and reverse into the burnout area. Rather than doing a full burnout, just scrub your tires to remove all the debris you've picked up. It's a courtesy thing.

And for the love of god, turn off your A/C.

Have fun.

 

thanks for the link, but i think i'm going to need to try some sizes on before purchasing one online.

 

so let me see if i'm picturing this correctly...

there is me, then water box, then burn out area which is right after the waterbox, then i'm assuming is the staging area with the tree...

so since i'm not going to do a full burn out, i'm going to drive around the water box... which takes me pass the burn out area... so i'll have to reverse back into the burn out area so my rear tires are there and also not back into the water box... then do a little wheel spin to knock some debris off my tires... and then stage...

 

Sort of.. Benz meant if u can go around the water box go around it.

If your doing a burn out back into water (rear tires) hit gas as to rotate them onthe water to get then wet and remove small rocks and such. Pull up outta the water 5 or so feet should be the burnout box. No need to really heat all seasons up allot I suggest when you see smoke stop.. Pull up stage as quickly as possible and do your thing

 

Just go out and have a good time, don't have any expectations and do whatever you feel is fun to do. If you wanna do a burn out, do a burn out, if you don't, don't. The first and second pass may be a little confusing when you are lining up but don't be intimidated, by the end of the day you will have a real good basic understanding on how everything works.

The first time I ever went to the track I had a 1991 Eagle Talon with a few things done to it. I was at Atco and my first pass was a 15.3 and by my 4th pass I went 14.3, I didn't change anything, it just went faster every pass.

I remember racing a Grand National that was way faster than me, we got to the end of the track and he's looking at the time slip and on my lane it said my 60' was a 1.34 (I really didn't know anything about the 60' and didn't realize how hard that was to achieve). He was a dick and I was this newbie at the track and he was yelling at me telling me how that was impossible and that was suppose to be the time on his lane and all this bull****. I just told him "It's All Wheel Drive," and he wanted to kill me (I realize now it was a mistake in the timing equipment at Atco and the timing equipment actually screws up quite often). I walked away happy, I had some douche with an American car hate me, I had a great time and it was the start of my love for drag racing. Hopefully you don't meet any dicks like the Grand National guy on your first day and you have a good time.

 

Great post. Cool story.

 

Jae,

Call or PM me. I have run at Texas Motorplex in the Viper several times on stock tires (avoid water box). The VHT prep is typically pretty good (had a Viper buddy twist a half shaft...ouch!!) GL.....Kurt

 

planning to go to dallas raceway this friday. you should join

 

i'm currently on pilot sport a/s... the fronts are ok and the rears are a little above the wear bars... which i would think is fine for daily driving for a while longer... i'm hoping it'll be fine to take to the drag and not do any excessive burn outs

do all tracks usually have air stations for your tires? i'm looking into trying out your suggestions of 50 in the fronts and 25 in the rear...

 

You should be fine driving around with those tires for a little while longer.
The drag radials I daily drive with are just about bald when new.

A good race track should have an air station.

Definately lower your rears to 25 psi. Go around the water(if you can) to
the burnout area and do a small burnout to heat the tires up a bit.
Check your pressures after a couple of runs because it will increase
slightly due to the heat and you may have to back pressures down
again.

Your biggest challenge is going to be launching the vehicle. It's hard enough
in stock form but a header/tune car will be extremely difficult.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

Great thread. I would avoid the 1-2 shift when doing the burn out. I think C63_Guy (Josh) damaged his trans in doing so.

 

Good point!

I always switch to M mode for the burnout and leave it in 1st gear.

 

thanks. i was thinking the same thing... put it in M for the burn out and then switch to S D1 getting to the staging line.

and i also think the biggest problem will be the launch... i'm not looking to break any records... just going out to have some fun but i'll post up my times

 

Every one has there own techniques, but back in the day, (before I was converted to the dark side by teutonic iron) I liked to "stage deep" ie just barely get the second staging light to come on. This gives you a slightly better chance that you don't red light if you jump the gun on the start. If you really get good at it you can actually start your launch nano seconds before the green light comes on. Figure out what your torque converter stall speed is and hold the brake and gas it to that RPM. Don't rev to stall RPM until the last count down light starts to come on. Try and pratice to hit stall speed just as the last count down light comes on. Leave it in manual and turn the traction control off. You'll learn to feather the throttle so you just don't sit in the dig and spin the rears. Although the object is to go straight, with the traction control off the back will step out and you'll need to lean how to correct without backing off and panic overcorrecting. For your first runs try and get one thing perfected at time. The one-two shift comes on fast (usually around the same moment you trying to keep it going straight). Shut down areas on NHRA sanctioned tracks are more than long enough. (Consider you have cars running 10's with no chute and they have room to shut down). When you get back to the padock, don't shut the engine down right away, give it a little time to cool off. Also put it in park and don't put on the ebrake, to avoid baking your pads onto your rotors. Don't make your first drag racing experience at night. The christmas tree, track lighting and distance plays tricks on your visual perception. Once you get to used to it, you can consider drag radials. Those will give you the best bang for the buck in lowering your ET. While IRS are a must for a road track they are not optimal for a drag track as wheel hop occurs with coil springs and negative camber increase as the car launches causing a further loss of traction. It's amazing the ET these cars with IRS can put down.

 

so i was finally able to run my car at the track tonight... i had such a great time... although i can't say this was my first time... it practically felt like it... since it's been like 10-12 years since the first time i ever went to a track and i believe i did 3 runs in my turbo civic...

the experience was so exhilarating... my heart was pounding staging for my first run and it didn't stop until my 3rd or 4th...

although i didn't do my car justice when it came to times, it didn't matter since it was so much fun...

i was able to make 15 runs so i have 15 time slips... i'm not sure what info is important or relevant but here are some times...

traction was a pretty big problem and i had to play around a bit, the way the track was set up, there wasn't anyway to get around the water 100%... near the end i just drove through it and did a short burn out before each run... i also learned that with my current tires and even with a burn out, i was better off just stepping on the throttle with a little feathering at times instead of launching at any rpm... i did my first few runs at 1000rpm and it was working ok... i also did one at 2000 and that was useless because i was spinning so much

run#1
60 - 1.983
1/4 - 12.369 @ 114.48

run#15
60 - 1.977
1/4 - 12.073 @ 117.11

run#11 best ET
60 - 1.995
1/4 - 12.072 @ 117.74

run#14 best mph
60 - 2.026
1/4 - 12.095 @ 118.11

run#4 worst ET and MPH
60 - 2.200
1/4 - 12.694 @ 113.87

i'm fully confident that i will be able to break into the 11s if i had better tires... after this track experience, i want to go again with better tires... at first i didn't mind that much going to the track with my all season tires but now after seeing how close i am to the 11s i gotta try again...

 

^
Nice!

I agree, my heart still pounds before every run even after all the runs I've made.

There is no doubt with better tires and more practice an 11 second run is definately in your future.

Did you disable traction control?

Next time you go on street tires, set traction control to sport and feather the throttle, it may help mitigate wheel spin. It's tricky because if you apply too much throttle the computer will kill power. If you plan on using drag radials than turn traction completely off and do a good burnout.

 

i kept tc off the entire time... lol... i wanted to try sport mode... but i kept talking myself out of it

 

I went to the Atco last night and the track prep was terrible. Couldn't hook up even with drag radials. Decided on my last run to put traction control in sport mode and managed an 11.70 @ 122.56 with a mediocre 1.837 60'

Made a total of 4 runs:

Run 1: 12.25 @ 119+ (1.988 60') Traction OFF
Run 2: 11.90 @ 120+ (1.918 60') Traction OFF
Run 3: 11.84 @ 121+ (1.914 60') Traction OFF
Run 4: 11.70 @ 122+ (1.837 60') Sport mode

The car was getting stronger with more runs coupled with cooler weather.