Some tips and advice for the track....

[RICEATER94Bird]

Hey, so tommorow nite is the usual wedneday nites when anyone can take their cars from the street and race. It is at Sac Raceway. I need to get as much advice from people with experience racing as possible! i.e: tips on how to launch and how to get the best traction. Thanks!

[ConElite]

Im guessing your running something like 275-295 tires out back. Drop those puppies down to around 25-20 psi. When entering the waterbox. Power brake it and let go of the brake so you get them spinning just enough to be spinning out of the water box and drying the tires. Pre-stage, wait for the other guy to pre-stage as well then stage. Since your A4, power brake it just about 1600 rpms once your staged. Then 3 yellow and once the last amber is fully lite let go of the brake and floor it. Thats pretty much it. I dont know if your running an 1/8 or 1/4. Either way Traction is going to be your biggest problem. If you get that thing to hook up then your good, but Its going to be hard with stock Control arms, Panhard and no relocation brackets. Remember street tires do not have to be heated to work, Thats only slicks and some drag radials. Morons that do huge smokin burnouts with street tires are just dumb and are actually making things worse for themselves b/c it makes the tires greasie. B/c you have the sportlines Your going to have one hell of a hard time hooking it up b/c you dont have the Reloc. Brackets. I recommend to get those things right away.

[ConElite]

P.S. Remove your floor mate completely and make sure that the carpet is not crumpled up under the gas pedal.. You can also Remove one of the end links on your front sway bar to help with weight transfer. Known to help.

[RICEATER94Bird]

Yea i have 275's out back. So pretty much have it on the brake and at about 1600 rpms and then once the green light goes punch it? I know i'm losing ALOT of traction with out the relo brackets,etc., and i'm planning on ordering them soon. I might just do the relo brackets for now because i have other things to worry about..cell phone, concert tickets...all the good stuff. LOL and about the floor mat thing, one time i was showing off and i floored it out of a parking lot and the damn thing wouldn't even spin the tires! i look down and its wasnt even to 3k rpms! the floor mat was shoved up behind the throttle. i will remove that though to make sure.

[ConElite]

Yea i have 275's out back. So pretty much have it on the brake and at about 1600 rpms and then once the green light goes punch it? I know i'm losing ALOT of traction with out the relo brackets,etc., and i'm planning on ordering them soon. I might just do the relo brackets for now because i have other things to worry about..cell phone, concert tickets...all the good stuff. LOL and about the floor mat thing, one time i was showing off and i floored it out of a parking lot and the damn thing wouldn't even spin the tires! i look down and its wasnt even to 3k rpms! the floor mat was shoved up behind the throttle. i will remove that though to make sure.

Yeah you should do some suspension work next to your car. Sportlines are to low for my taste and horrible for Drag racing. Without Relocation brackets, your pretty much done. That Alxe is just going to bounce. ha ah ha.
Good Luck and tell us how it goes. Report some times and that will lead you in the right direction.

[MunsonGTA]

Yea i have 275's out back. So pretty much have it on the brake and at about 1600 rpms and then once the green light goes punch it? I know i'm losing ALOT of traction with out the relo brackets,etc., and i'm planning on ordering them soon. I might just do the relo brackets for now because i have other things to worry about..cell phone, concert tickets...all the good stuff. LOL and about the floor mat thing, one time i was showing off and i floored it out of a parking lot and the damn thing wouldn't even spin the tires! i look down and its wasnt even to 3k rpms! the floor mat was shoved up behind the throttle. i will remove that though to make sure.

don't wait for the green light to go. you want to be on the gas before that. i used to let off the brake and lay into the gas on the 2nd yellow light. by the time everything gets going, you're at green. if you red light, just wait a little bit longer the next time. i wouldn't suggest a waterbox burnout with street tires. i would go around the waterbox, stop and do a small burnout to clean off your tires and then pull up to the lights. the swaybar end link trick does work, it'll help transfer weight to the back of the car giving you more traction. however i wouldn't do it if you drive around many turns on the way home. if you do, make sure you drive much slower around the turns. one thing you could do would be to disconnect them when you arrive, and reconnect them at the track before you leave.

[ConElite]

The Second amber your going to redlight. I drop the hammer when the last amber is on. I used to do the same in my honda and pulled off a lot of .69-.55 reactions. The best I was ever able to do is .55reaction time.

If you can avoid the waterbox all together then even better. And then just do a little burnout and then stage.

Once you get the hang of the light then you can maybe even deep stage. I used to do it all the time in my Honda. Now I just prestage, apply a little brake, hold the front brakes with my line-lock and rev it up and let the clutch out slowly to stage. Works great.

[RICEATER94Bird]

hahahhaha yeaa i know all about having no traction already because when i street raced my friends evo 8, he would just jump out and barely even spin the tires while my car was almost sitting there just spinning the tires. i caught him though at around 13 seconds. we had it filmed and everythign lol. alright about the whole "light" thing. i really dont get quite get it. isnt it just 3 yellow lights and then the green? it just seems to me if i gun it at the green light my tires would spin too much. is there any pros about pressing it about half throttle right at take off and then punching it?

[ConElite]

The reason the EVO kicks your butt out of the whole is bc its all wheel drive. Come one now. ha a ha ha ha. They can Clutch dump around 8000rpms. ha ha ha Only was to make them go.

The reason why Drag radials are so important is b/c you want to test the ability of the engine not the ability of the tires. Thats why you want to floor it. If you have to half throttle it to prevent slipping then you better start on your suspension and a pair of radials. Its pointless if you have all that power but no way to transfer it to the ground. Leave the "more power is all thats important" mentality to the Ricers.

As for the lights, you have to learn how the tree works.
1. The first row of lights is Pre-Stage. (roll up slowly and the top row will light)
2. Then you roll a couple more inches then both rows of lights light up.
At that point once you and the guy next to you are both staged the guy presses the button and the ambers start going down.

Keep in mind that your reaction time has absolutly no effect on ET. You can sit there 10 seconds with a green light and your ET will not be effected. I normally wait about 2-4 seconds from when the green light turns on when testing a new mod. Normally b/c ur all nervous and excited about all the lights and getting a good reaction time that you take off wrong and get a bad launch.

[RICEATER94Bird]

hahahaahaha yeaaa he was sittin next to me revving that 4 cyl up to like 7k! then he just dumps the clutch and hes off with barely any spinning. it makes me mad cuz i wanna launch like that. lol. well i was gonna delay going down until i got the relo brackets,control arms, and panhard, but alot of my buddies are going down so i'm gonna test it out w/o the way it is right now and then later down the road i'll see how big the improvments are. so here's what i think i will do: my first launch i will do the 1600k rev and then gun it. 2nd run i will half throttle it to see if it helps at all. then after that i will just keep working on my launching and hopefully i will start to get good at it. i will defnitely post up my times when i get back. what do you expect it should be running considering i get good traction? i know mid 13's should be right in the ballpark, am i not right?

[ConElite]

so its a 1/4 mile. you never said if it was 1/8 or 1/4. you should be in the mid to high 13's. As long as you get traction you should be alright. Dont forgt to drop the psi in your tires to around 20 psi. that should help u. yeah the first run floor it. if u have major major spillage then 3/4 full throttle it and drop it 2 psi. dont go lower than 16 psi. 18 psi to be safe. If u have to go less than 3/4 WOT then some suspension work and drag radials should be next on ur list.

[MunsonGTA]

The Second amber your going to redlight. I drop the hammer when the last amber is on. I used to do the same in my honda and pulled off a lot of .69-.55 reactions. The best I was ever able to do is .55reaction time.

If you can avoid the waterbox all together then even better. And then just do a little burnout and then stage.

Once you get the hang of the light then you can maybe even deep stage. I used to do it all the time in my Honda. Now I just prestage, apply a little brake, hold the front brakes with my line-lock and rev it up and let the clutch out slowly to stage. Works great.

i let off the brake and smash the gas right as the 2nd amber was going off, i cut many low 500 lights. it really depends on your car and where you stage it. you are suggesting to go off the 3rd light, but you also stated that you deep staged your car. those 2 go hand in hand. i just barely get the 2nd prestage light to come on with my car, so i had to start earlier.

[1slo_camaro]

one thing i know works for my car and my truck since i dont have a posi rear its limited slip. it doesnt always lock in posi. pull up to your stages right before you get into back up about six inches that will lock your rear into posi then pre-stage and stage that should help your launch a little and your end time also i took almost .2 seconds off my time by locking my rear in and you can tell its a lot harder launch. well god luck and the track hope my advice helps

[ConElite]

i let off the brake and smash the gas right as the 2nd amber was going off, i cut many low 500 lights. it really depends on your car and where you stage it. you are suggesting to go off the 3rd light, but you also stated that you deep staged your car. those 2 go hand in hand. i just barely get the 2nd prestage light to come on with my car, so i had to start earlier.

Yeah you have a point. A lot has to do with engine response. My Honda was Stick so It was immediate go when I dumped the Clutch around 3k on street tires. Thats why I would deep Stage and leave when the Last amber is completely lit. If you Barely light the Stage Lights then you can punch it when the last amber is lighting up. If you leave when the second amber is turning off then your throttle response is some what slow.

Just remember its going to take a lot of practice to figure out how your car responds.

[RICEATER94Bird]

Alright had a little delay, but will be going to the track tommorow. So from my understanding, i should drop tire pressure to around 22 psi, power brake at 1600 rpms and then just go right? I wanna get this right the first time so i dont look like an idiot! I will post my times when i get home wednesday night.