Well... Got my first runs on the car under my belt. It was an ok day, as far as an outing goes. Car ran fine, and came home in one piece. So, WIN

I was there to help my buddy who bought my old drag car, he's been struggling with it, LONG time away from racing, and not used to this power level. Last time he had it out, without me, he stood it straight up and let it drop and near tore the motor out of the car... literally. So, it's fixed, having had to replace the front struts, and have the motor and mid plates rewelded to the chassis.. Couldn't get his car down which bummed me out.. it kept going into really violent tire shake. Kind of a bust day for him for testing, but at least I was able to show him how the data logger in the car worked. Managed a VERY ugly 5.6X@134 I forget exactly.. it was just ugly.. lol

As for me, since I was making the trip, I thought I'd bring the taxi and make some passes between his runs.

State of the car.. 06 E55 100% stock, down to the Continentals

I went completely raw.. as in manual shift setting, ESP off, but on regular comfort setting on the suspension. Best 60' I managed was a 1.98 on a very cold track. Good power making weather, but bad for making it stick.

I made 5 passes total. First and forth were complete throw aways as I kicked the tire right on the hit. Oh.. the track is 1/8 mile.

1st pass: spin <-- I let the pro-tree catch me off guard and I stabbed it..lol

2nd pass: 2.17/5.54/8.32@88.60

3rd pass: 1.98/5.34/8.13@88.11

4th pass: spin <-- knew I left a bit on the table with the previous pass and was just too aggressive out of the gate.

5th pass: 2.03/5.45/8.30@86.34 <-- Hot lap after blowing the pass and pulling right around into the lanes.

Weather was great, mid 50s'/low 60's, dry mid 50's% humidity, BUT the track was also only 60 degree.. So, it made it a tough one. Maybe traction control would have been the way to go? I could tell on the hot lap pass that the trans seemed not as happy.. not that it was slipping, but "laggy" on the shift? On a nice prepped track, that's warm with a posi and a decent converter with a drag radial, I think these things could be interesting with a completely stock engine.

 

Those sound like solid runs and given my recent results in my stock ‘04 would translate into about a 12.5 in the quarter. I put the tranny in S and keep the tc on. I found the car damn near impossible to launch w the tc off so nice work getting the 1.98 60. That’s also my best 60’ w tc on

 

Thanks! As far as launching, it's just a feel thing I guess.. plus, I do have a good number of passes under my belt with things that were MUCH quicker. However, my reaction times totally sucked, but since I was testing.. I didn't care, it did take some concentration to have it stick. Who knows, maybe traction control IS the way to go? From a heads up racing perspective, traction control isn't the fast way down the track BUT will save you from having to abort a run.

I'm not sure if I'll ever have it at a track again... It's just something I wanted to try. But who knows? Might have t give the TC things a shot? maybe it IS the hot ticket for these things?

 

It's very easy to mess up the launch with street tires because the supercharger clutches in with a wave of torque and you just blow the tires off. If you try to launch anticipating the supercharger clutch you can't get out of the hole very quickly. TC keeps you in the game even if you lose traction when the supercharger kicks in, the times are usually. It's actually faster if you start out in 2nd once you add a pulley. Obviously this isn't an issue with drag radials or slicks.

Would be nice if we could have the supercharger clutch on the entire time while drag racing.