shivsiddh

Hi guys, I know this has been discussed before and i have tried to go through some threads to get an idea, but i am confused and would love to get a few questions answered.

As the Title suggests, it will be my first time at the Drag Strip. Never been to it and i am excited and nervous at the same time. Will be heading to the Greatlakes Dragaway from Chicago on Sept 27th.

Backgroud - Car is a 2012 c63 coupe with Lsd bought it 3 months back. Only thing i have on is a Eurocharged tune. Tires are summer tires Contisports and have below 40% tread left. Car Dyno'ed at 426whp on a dynojet.

So now for the 1/4th mile advice/suggestions/recommendations
I am gonna run on my current tires and I am not going to attempt to use Race start because i know i will fail at it and end up embarassing myself. lol
(FYI: Some of these questions might be trivial)

1. Has anyone been to this dragstrip
2. Do i need to do a burnout?
3. Should i avoid the water
4. Tire pressure? (From what i read Front should be normal and Rear should be around 25?)
5. I read on a thread that for street Tires "S+ mode + brake + gas = Sport handling on" is the best way. True? If this is what i am doing, then i give gas when the light is green and till then i let the RPM be at 0? Also to turn on sport handling i just have to hit the Transmission button once correct?
7. What times should i expect?


(Sorry this was a long post)

AMG6.3

Hello,

You will have a blast a the track!

2 & 3 Response - Yes you should do a burnout in the water box a brief one to clean off your tires and warm them up. You can do this two ways. One way is to put your left foot on the brake and the other is to hit the gas aka brake stand. Do a 7-10 second burn out. Other way is to just gun it from the water box to light up tires and then roll up to stage line.

4 Response Rear Tire Pressure 22-25 cold.

5 Yes definitely in Sport+ mode and brake and gas and sport handling for your first couple of runs so you can improve in that particular mode. After consistency and being comfortable at the track you can change your setting around.

6 Your tires will be fine doing brief burnouts at the track as long as you don't roast them.

7 Your first time at the track so don't expect great times. My guess your first run will be 12.7 1/4 mile, but your car is capable of low 12s.

Have fun and be safe.

alexmtl

Hey glad I'm not the only novice in drag racing



7-10 seconds burn out on street tires? Do you stay that long on it because you go to the water box? I thought a quick burnout was around 3 seconds

glennhl

I never go "through" the water box. If you do, then your front tires will be wet and the treads will drip water in the staging area. So what I do is go around the water box and back into it. Then pull forward to do the burn out.

However, given all of that, I never do this with street tires, just drag radials. With street tires, I avoid the water completely, then I do a short "dry hop" burn out (do not stay stationary) to clean off the rear tires.

Good luck, have fun, and be safe.

jmueller

I agree 100% with this. I actually leave traction control on to scrub the tires because it allows the tires to do about two rotations before cutting back in to stop you from spinning the tires. Then, before getting up to the tree, I put the car into sport handling mode. Throw the car into S+, left foot on the brake, build the revs up to 1000rpm and when the last yellow light turns off let off the brake and roll into the throttle. These cars have a ton of power for such a small tire, you will spin the tires of you try and mash the gas off the line; managing tire spin is the hardest part at the strip.

Have fun! (Don't show up with a full tank of gas, half-tank at most and 1/4 tank is best).

shivsiddh

If you dont mind me asking, what do you mean by "dry hop burnout"

Manofsteelpt

"22-25 psi cold"... Does that mean let the air out before even driving to the track?
Thanks

glennhl

It's just a term for a very short rolling burnout. Just punch it and let the wheels spin and then let off and roll up to the staging area.

shivsiddh

aah i see thanks!

-Marlin-

You don't need to do a burnout if you're not comfortable doing one. You can always leave the traction control on and put it in S mode to get used to a couple passes and shake the nerves first.

shivsiddh

S mode or S+ mode?

jmueller

Just go for S+ as it has nothing to do with traction control and will speed the shift times up just a little bit more.

shivsiddh

Also is 100oct going to make any difference? Or should i just stick to 93oct. I have the Eurocharged v5 Tune

glennhl

I always mix some 100 octane and then I put in my 96 octane tune from OE. But if your tune is already set for 93 octane, then running 100 won't help UNLESS you are getting some incipient knock and the computer is pulling some timing. I guess if it were me, I'd mix a little in just to make sure you don't get any knock. I'm not sure on the Mercedes, but once my Vette pulled timing, it would back off on the timing for a while. The only way to get full advance back was to pull the ECM fuse and reset everything.

shivsiddh

hmmm

glennhl

No problem, you will learn. One thing a tune fiddles with is what is called ignition advance. The spark plugs fire before the piston reaches what is called top dead center (the point of maximum compression). Since it takes some time for the fuel to burn, the spark plug is fired anywhere from a few degrees (angle of crankshaft) before top dead center to as much as 50 degrees before top dead center. If you fire the spark plug too soon, then you get what is called pinging, knock, or detonation. This can be harmful to the engine, so on modern cars there is a knock sensor (microphone) that listens for early knock. As soon as it hears it, it pulls back the ignition advance to fix the problem. This is great since you can run lower octane fuel and not hurt your car. But when it pulls back on the ignition advance, the engine makes less power.

So a tune makes sure you have the proper ignition advance for the fuel you plan to run. I have a 91 octane tune in my car that actually runs less advance than a 93 octane tune. The good news with this is if you can keep your car from knocking, then the computer won't start pulling ignition advance (also referred to as timing). It's better to have the proper timing tables in the computer because once the knock sensor hears some knock the computer pulls a lot of timing. I've seen tuners on some cars (like the Vette I had) actually reduce the stock ignition advance in the computer in order to keep the computer from pulling timing when the car knocks.

Sorry for all the info, kind of like getting a drink from a fire hose. It's all fun though. Have fun at the track and be safe!

shivsiddh

Aaah i see!! Thanks a ton for the information. I Appreciate it!

glennhl

Oh, one thing I left out. If you have a tune for 93 octane gas and you run 100 octane, as long as you were not getting any knock on the 93, then the 100 does not give you more power. If you want to make more power with 100 octane gas, then you need to have a special tune that runs more ignition advance to take advantage of the higher octane gas. When I got the OE tune, I actually got two different tunes, one for 91 octane and one for 96 octane (I chose 96 because I never run a lot of gas at the drag strip and there is always some 91 octane in the tank to begin with, so all I can do is mix it and I typically end up with around 96).

And mixing gas is linear. If you mix 1 gallon of 93 with 1 gallon of 100, the resulting mixture has an octane rating of 96.5.

shivsiddh

D - Day Tomorrow! Excited and a little nervous at the same time cause its my first time at the strip. So hopefully its good and nothing "bad" happens.

to confirm:

Go around the water
No need for a long burnout or any burnout for that matter since street tires
S+ mode and traction in sport mode

jmueller

Well? How did it go? Times? Trap speeds?

shivsiddh

Best time was ~12.49. Meh (left lane, i kinda let go off the accelerator for a few seconds cause i thought i was past the line LOL maybe tht is why the trap speed is only 111..)

80+ out tht day, i didnt lower the tire pressure cause - lazy
Mode S+, Traction control on, didnt do a burnout, went around the water.


Maybe i will eventually learn to launch the car right idk.


Only Did 4 runs and were ~12.8, 12.7, 12.4, 12.5 , best trap speed tht i managed to get was 115... idk if this is in range or what. Suggestions plz.

Illegal Machine

That time with that 60ft isn't bad.

Your trap should be 114-117mph with the V5 from what I've seen.

My best trap (same mods as you) was in the 114's in 90 degree weather.

shivsiddh

So what do i need to do to get a better 60ft time.

Car in the right lane btw was my buddys 2012 giac stage 2 audi s4

Illegal Machine

The power down low in these cars are so wild, just get some drag radials. Even really good street tires are only going to get you in the 1.9XX 60fts. Drag radials will get you in the range of your buddy's AWD Audi.

shivsiddh

Aaah I see and what time would i be looking at or should be expecting with a good 60' and trap speed of 114-117?

Just so that i get an idea of what is what when i go next time