Bullet Tooth

As you all may or may not recall, I went to the track for the first time in early April. I don't have the slip in front of me, but I ran a 12.86 at 111. All the numbers are in the How to Drag Race sticky. Last Friday, I went again. I did improve my overall time, but my trap speed actually decreased. This time, I went with less than 1/4 of a tank of gas, unloaded all the stuff from my trunk and let some air out of the rear tires (the last time I had a full tank of gas and a bunch of stuff in the trunk.) Those were the only changes I made and I did forget to reset the ECU this time.

Here were my numbers from my best (1st) run:

r/t .412
60' 1.947
330 5.355
1/8 8.17
1000 10.61
1/4 12.66
mph 110.14


I did win both races. The first was against a pickup with nitrous. It was a really close race and I beat him by .1656. The second race was against an 08 S550. I ran a 12.743 in that race and beat him by 2.36 seconds. I got my reaction time down to .361 in the second race. Compared to the first time I went, it was probably 15-20 degrees warmer this time than the first time and I am sure that had something to do with it.

On the next trip down, I am going to take the rear tire pressure down to the 26-28 range. I am going to put in a new air filter before I go and I may put just a smidge more gas it in (1/4 tank). Does anyone else have any suggestions or do I just need to get my arms around the fact that my car is slow? It just seems to me that the trap speed is slow compared with my 60' time.

chiromikey

it's actually quite common to get a lower mph with a better et so don't worry about that.

i've run many 1.71 60ft times on street tires and have tested all kinds of pressures and i prefer 30psi or slightly above for street tires (toyos or michelins). too low of a tire pressure along with the fat weight of these cars causes the tire to cup and decreases contact patch.

as long as track prep is done right you want to go with the least amount of weight possible, so i would not go with more than 1/4 tank in the car. if track prep isn't done right or isn't done at all, it won't matter how much weight you have. and remember our gas tanks aren't over the rear wheels anyways so adding more fuel in the hopes of increasing traction is another "old trick" (like super low tire pressures) that doesn't apply to these cars.

with all that said, track temps and elevation are important to know before dismissing your car as "slow". if you can post that info it would more informative and we could make a better comparison with your times and others'.

Bullet Tooth

According to Wikipedia, the altitude of Noble, Oklahoma is 1194 feet. I found a weather site that shows that the temperature at 10:00 p.m. was 65 degrees and the humidity was at 76%. Thank you for your help.

chiromikey

also need the pressure to calculate an exact da but you're not at a very good altitude with relatively high humidity so your times are likely not off at all.

Bullet Tooth

Pressure showed it was 29.77 inches. Aside from changing filters and messing with my tire pressures, do you have any other suggestions? My 60' time was not that bad. Out of the 4 runs I have made with the car, the 1.947 is by far my best. The car hooked up pretty well.

Many of the racers at that track said it was not a good track for running a quick time. I am too much of a novice to know what a good track is.

One thing I forgot to put in my original post. There was an 08 M5 at the track on Friday night. The guy was there with his buddy, who had a 335i that was chipped. The 335i beat the M5 both times. The 335 ran in the low to mid 13s. The M5 ran a 13.53 the first time and 13.98 the second time. I wanted to race him instead of the S550, but he didn't want to. (I had already committed to racing his cousin the S550.) I am not sure, but I think the guy was trying to shift it with the paddles and was not having much success.

DFW01E55

Bullet, make sure you roll into the gas off the line. If you just floor it, you're going to get 1.9+ to 2.2 in the 60'. That hurts.
Also, take a long look down the track and reduce steering corrections as much as possible, line up straight and don't over correct.
The warm air is not great for times, practice technique during the summer and then set record times in the fall.

oldgixxer

Bullet what was your 1/8mi mph?

chiromikey

da was 2246ft according to your supplied information. this corrects your run to 12.34 @ 112.95 which is right on for a stock e55.

i'm not surprised at the m5. i've yet to see an m5 or m6 run better than mid-low 13's at our local tracks. i know they can do better but it's still embarrassing for our german brothers.

thebenzbar

Yeah, I was curious about that too... new M5's are supposed to be faster than those quoted times. WHAT GIVES? Why are they running that slow??

Bullet Tooth

For whatever reason, that slot is blank on my first run. The pickup next to me ran at 85.59 for the 1/8. My trap speed at the end was 110.14 compared to his 105.37. It seems to me that we were pretty even at the 1/8.

His 1/8 time was 8.278 compared to mine at 8.170. I was probably a bit faster than him at the 1/8, so a couple of miles an hour faster than 85.59 would be a pretty good guess.

My next run was slower and I ran a 12.74. In the second run my 1/8 speed was 86.89.

Does that help?

Bullet Tooth

It is hard to say about this M5. I am probably not making it clear enough that the driver of this car was obviously a novice. As you can tell from my posts, I am too, but this guy really had no clue.

With that said, the 335i was consistently faster in both ET and trap speed. I really wanted to race him, but I needed to get home.

juicee63

Good runs man!! You ran good and your trap is effected more by the DA then ET. Carjust cannot make HP with that kind of humidity , the temp was ok but pressure needs to be 30.00 or better, the higher the baro the better . This is why I correct all my times to compare runs from different days. At first glance you would suspect your car was slower, it was but your driving improved as your 60 ft dropped. The car simply was hindered by temp, altitude and the atmosphere. 12.30-12.50 @112-114 is where you will be on a better weather night

Bullet Tooth

This is probably a stupid question, but would 93 gas help? I have been running on 91.

chiromikey

actually it probably would help a bit.