took my car to the quarter mile track
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
took my car to the quarter mile track
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.
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.
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From: Northern VA
2006 E55
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.
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.
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!
Last edited by Worth the wait; Jul 15, 2019 at 12:11 PM.
Thread Starter
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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?
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?
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01 E55
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.
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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.
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2005 E55
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.
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2005 E55
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01 E55
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From: Oregon
2006 ML350, 2005 C55, 2004 E55
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?
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2005 E55
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".
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From: Northern VA
2006 E55
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?
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?
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!
Thread Starter
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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?
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.
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
@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
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From: Oregon
2006 ML350, 2005 C55, 2004 E55
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.
This is the only car I've ever owned where keeping the traction control at the drag strip is a wise move.
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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?
what was your best 60'? did you torque brake or launch off idle? stab the throttle or roll into it?
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From: Oregon
2006 ML350, 2005 C55, 2004 E55
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.
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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.....
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.....
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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.
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From: Westchester, NY / Greenwich CT
MB: E55 AMG, CL550, E3004M Cab + other makes :)
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....
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2004 E55 AMG / 2019 Audi Q7 / 1991 300TE
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
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
