kiluminati616

Took my car to the track last Friday for the first time and had a blast. I guess the stories of guys dipping into the 11s stock had my hopes a bit higher than they should’ve been but I think my car ran pretty well. I’ve raced every car I’ve owned but sadly, this is the first one that had enough power to break the tires loose so I definitely need some work getting the launch down. I ran my car in S transmission, suspension raised in comfort mode and with traction control on. the majority of the time I left right off idle and eased into the throttle but my best 60 came when I brake torqued up to about 1200 rpm and eased into it. I tried to take the TC off once and it was a wasted trip as I spun instantly off the line. weather was low 70s and slightly humid. I tracked my vitals with OBD fusion and most of the runs I started out with an IAT around 115 -120 and by the finish line was up to 160.

Best run of the night was:
60ft: 1.97
1/8: 8.20
¼: 12.65 @ 111 mph

What do you guys think? I watched legitstreetcars track vids and saw he managed 1.6-1.7 60’ on drag radials and heavily modified so my 1.97 didn’t seem bad. if I could bring mine down to 1.8 I could be 12.5 or lower.

Worth the wait

I think those are solid numbers for your first outing. Given the time of year, the temp/da were less than ideal.

You are right to say you have some some work to do on your 60’. With patience and practice you should be in the 1.7x range. I knocked out a 1.67 60’ on all-seasons.

I would also also suggest upgrading your cooling system first. Go with upgraded dual heat exchangers, a CWA pump and split cooling and you will see a significant drop in IAT.

If it was me, before adding any power adders, I would practice my launch, with a properly cooled car, until you have improved and consistent numbers.

Then add LTH and K&N filters. You should see a nice gain from both performance and drivability with that. Practice that until you have consistently improved numbers.

Then tune, pulley and larger TB and enjoy low 11’s in street trim

GL!

kiluminati616

Thanks! I'm a little annoyed with myself for not at least practicing my launch on an empty side road before heading to the track but oh well. i'm on all-seasons as well and kept them inflated to the standard 35psi. i drove around the water box, spun them quick w the TC off and then threw it back on. What's your launch technique?

i had planned to keep the car stock but modding is sounding more and more appealing. If i do i'd probably go with the VRP heat exchanger, LTH & a tune. do the K&Ns add much?

my iats were the worst when the car sat not running in the staging lanes as another class got their turn. would it help at all to throw a bag of ice on the blower while sitting or is that a waste of time?

kiluminati616

Best run

90lxracer

Here's something to think about.. forget ET... MPH is power. That's going to be your true indicator of what your potential really is. At 111, that's not enough to get to 11's. it's go bottom 12's on an ideal pass. I think you'd need a couple more MPH to have enough umpf to get you were you want to go.

kiluminati616

good call - and that's where i think the heatsoak on these cars comes into play. my first run was by far the best MPH of the night - about 1.5 mph faster thru the 1/8 and 1 mph faster at the quarter than the other 7 runs...and i accidentally had the ac on for that one.

drothgeb

You are loosing a ton of timing at 160 degrees intake temps (9 degrees), more cooling will get you a long way :-P Also, what altitude are you at? The density altitude (DA) will have a major impact on performance as well.

kiluminati616

just looked it up on dragtimes and DA that day was about 1800. puts me at corrected time of about 12.5 @ 112. not bad

drothgeb

Also if I remember right all of the stock 55s that made it into high 11s were on slicks, not street tires.

90lxracer

A drag radial on a properly prepped track would be quicker than a slick.

Fantomas

Your car isn't running 100%, IATs start too high and climb even higher. Recently I took my na m113k C55 out drag racing and ran 12.92@109.3mph with 1.99 60', 8.4@85mph in the 8th. It gained 24.3 mph between the 8th and the 1/4, your car gained only 23.4mph, for the last 8th your car was making NA levels of power. What was the temperature and DA? You're starting out strong but then your car chokes up top. Do you have the Bosch 010 intercooler pump or still have the OEM one?

drothgeb

Not my point ;-) Most of us are running hoosier DR2 radials with great results. I'm only pointing out to the OP that the times he read about folks getting into the 11s stock were not on street tires. Sorry if I threw you off slinging around the phrase "slicks".

E42AMG???

Your in it now, what happens when you get in the 11s? Then your gonna want 10s lol

Worth the wait

My technique is the same as yours, although I do like to get the tires a little more smoky before I stage. I don't lower tire pressure or do any weight reduction. Since day one I've been a firm believer in the "Run what ya brung"
motto. At the track I want my car just like it is on the street (so no ice between runs either).

Personally, I noticed a small improvement when running K&N's, but don't have any scientific data to back that up.

I never shut my car off in the staging lanes, unless they shut the track down.
When you add cooling wire your pump to always be on. That will help in the lanes.

Have fun!

drothgeb

There are a couple good write ups around here discussing k&n vs the green filters. I recommend reading up a little before you make a purchase.

kiluminati616

Wow sounds like you've got a pretty strong C55. Temp was about 70 and DA was 1800 on my best run. Just looking at the full log now and i started out with an iat of 117 and by the 1/8 was at 154 and 158 by the finish. i do have the bosch 010 installed and it appears to be working as i was down to 120 within a minute.

the car does run about 15-20 degrees above ambient when i'm driving but i think what hurts while drag racing is that all you get is the trip up return road to get cooler air running thru the heat exchanger and then you sit.

kiluminati616

@Worth the wait i think next time i'll keep the car running while in the staging lanes. i noticed that when i did hop in after shutting it off sometimes the iat was 130+. I did try to floor the car quickly while in park to kick on the ic pump but it didnt seem to help much. I used that technique to bleed my ic pump when i installed it a couple months ago so i know it works but with no fresh air it didnt lower temps much

Fantomas

Just wanted to chime in with my own slightly disappointing E55 results. My IATs were in the 120s I launch and reach 165+ at the end of the run, temp was in the low 70s. Most of my runs were right around 12.6-12.7 @ 112mph, left the car by accident in Sport 2 for most of my runs. Best run was the last when the temps were finally in the 60s, took it out of sport 2, raised the car and launched with traction control on 12.4@113mph, IATs were in the 110s. A friend of mine with a eurocharged headers and no mufflers ran a 12.3 @ 114. Last time out he was trapping 116, I guess both cars were suffering from heat soak.

This is the only car I've ever owned where keeping the traction control at the drag strip is a wise move.

kiluminati616

sounds like we had nearly identical results until your last run. I would've loved to have seen a 12.4!

what was your best 60'? did you torque brake or launch off idle? stab the throttle or roll into it?

Fantomas

For my best run I did a burnout then put ESP back on, brake torqued to about 1200rpm and rolled into it, 1.99 60' I think. I would have walked away with a best of a 12.6 but I parked the car for 30 minutes with the hood up and took it out for its last run at 9:45 (15 min before close), that's when I managed the 12.4, still my IATs were far from ideal but stayed under 160*F by the end of the run.

I'm guessing once the weather cools more in the evenings I could see it doing a 12.2 based on the strong 1/8th mile performance. In the meantime I'm thinking I need a secondary heat exchanger to increase total intercooler fluid volume as well as adding additional surface area for extra cooling while on the move. Our stock heat exchanger is a long rectangular shape while the auxiliary one that VRP sell is more square, I will be adding a puller fan behind to see if I can get more reasonable IATs. So far the baseline is 50 over ambient because the car was parked at tech, parked in the staging lanes and all of my intercooler fluid heated up to underhood temperatures due to lack of any sort of fan.

kiluminati616

i had about the same technique on my best 60' as well - will work to get it down a bit. i found my iats were the worst after letting the car sit for a while not running since there was no fluid pumping thru the intercooler. i'll wait til the fall and hopefully give it another shot on a nice 50 degree night.

puller fan sounds great for drag racing. there was a guy on here that drifted his e55 that added them but i don't recall seeing how much they helped

this may be a really dumb idea, but could spraying the h/e with compressed air while in the staging lanes be of any benefit or would it really only cool off the fluid briefly? i was using some to clean out my keyboard at work (nerd alert) and it comes out quite cold and quite strong. just a thought.....

jbaker1121

Nice! Just picked my e55 up, already looking to see the soonest 1/4 mile race day event...

kiluminati616

nice - was thinking of hitting up island raceway if we get a cool day this fall. It's out on rt 80 in NJ almost to the deleware water gap. do you know of any closer tracks? shame there isn't anything in the immediate nyc area.

jbaker1121

I'm not even sure of local tracks besides NJ Motorsports Park, Ponoco Speedway, Lime Rock, watkins, etc.
I was at Law School up in Buffalo and took my cars tot he 1/8 and 1/4 tracks up there - wish we had something closer...

I'd be down to do a little w211 AMG trip out to a local track for a trck day....

kiluminati616

nice, i graduated from UB back in '06. I'm guessing you hit up lancaster speedway?

i grew up in the rochester/finger lakes area and made these runs at empire dragway in leicester ny while i was home visiting the fam about a month ago.

shame englishtown doesn't do drag racing anymore. our closest options from north jersey or westchester are a solid hour and a half away. i could be down for a trip sometime this fall