I hope this is the right place to put this...if not then the mods can let me know and it will be moved to the appropriate section.
Disclaimer - Not everyone will have the same results with this method, use common sense and take into mind the condition of the track, money you have to fix broken parts, and grade/quality of your tires. Those of you with slicks may have to do burn outs those of you with street tires may not depending on track conditions and prior experiments. See what works best for you.
Launching 101
By: Midnite Racer X
Launching correctly can make all the difference in gaining and better track times and speed. There seem to be three methods for launching a car. Two are the feather technique and the dump technique for manual transmissions, and the other one is brake boosting for automatics.
PREPPING FOR THE STAGING LANES
One of the most important things you can do while your in the staging lanes is check your tire pressures (usually I stop at a gas station on the way to the track and set my tires to about 25-30 psi in the front and the max psi for the rear tires. You’ll want to have lower pressure in the front than in the back for front wheel drive vehicles. Have a tire pressure gauge handy and recheck the pressures while you still have adequate time in line. Your first two runs should basically be testing to see if your front tires catch traction at the psi you’ve set.
BURNOUT
Now you’re ready for the staging lanes. Most tracks have somebody that wets the pavement for burnouts. At my particular track there is a lot of dirt so making sure your tires are clean is essential. Roll over where the pavement is wet but not past it…land right on it and pull up the e-brake and go into 1st gear with the clutch pedal down or for automatics apply your brakes and wait until your allowed to go. Once your ok’d to burn out through a quick rev up to about 3500-4000 rpm and let the clutch out. For automatics just let go of the brake really quickly. Try to hold around 4000-4500 rpm by tapping the gas pedal and remember that your e-brake should still be up. Within about 5-10 seconds of this burnout the tires should start to catch a little traction and you’ll start moving forward (unless your car is very very powerful, in that case your tires will be the only things moving and not the car). When you’ve moved forward about a couple of feet let off the gas and immediately press in the clutch and let the e-brake down or you’ll stall out in front of all those people watching you (very embarrassing). If at any point in the burnout you start to see your tires smoking wait about 2 seconds then disengage burnout. Trust me you’ll need some tires to get down the rest of the track. Or if your car starts turning too much to one side just stop the burnout.
.
MAKING SURE YOUR TIRES ARE CLEAN
The point of the burnout is not to impress everybody on the sidelines it’s to clean and heat your tires up. Now that your tires are heated make sure they’re clean…no don’t get out the car just pull up a couple more feet but not to close to the staging line, stop and rev up to 3000 rpm and drop clutch or let go of the brakes for auto’s (no e-brake). Get your tires to chirp or squeal. A slight chirp means the tires are in fact clean. If you don’t hear anything from the tires and your just spinning tires then they are not clean and since you paid good money to test your vehicle I’d back up and do quick burnout but without the e-brake. Hot, clean tires grip hot pavement. Also pay attention to how much tire spin and squeal there is because if there is too much you’ll want to launch with lower rpm’s.
LAUNCHING AT THE STAGING LIGHT
Finally we’re at the light. Please remember to fasten your safety belt, turn you’re A/C off, turn your music down or off, and make sure the e-brake is NOT engaged, close sunroof/moonroof, and close windows or leave cracked so you can hear your tires. Inch up to the line and stop. If the other car is already there then rev up to 2000-4000 rpm or so depending on your tires and what you learned during the cleaning session after your burnout. If the other car isn’t staging yet then just wait until they are so you don’t put too much heat underneath the hood holding rpm’s.
The light has started, your revved up and your focused…you are focused right? The first yellow is there, now the second (butterflies much?), and then third light GOOOO! Wait…what? Yes it is okay to go on the third or last staging light before the green. Don’t be scared to red light if anything try anticipate the third light so you can go as it‘s turning on instead of as it is on. Drop clutch, feather the clutch, or for auto’s let go of the brake the main point is to keep your rpm’s as constant as possible until you feel your tires catch traction. At a 2500 rpm launch stock tires won’t usually catch traction so why do people give it more gas??? Hold your rpm’s and slightly feather the gas as your tires are catching traction. Try to anticipate the tires gripping and give it a lot of gas a split second before they catch. For those of you with performance street tires or slicks can launch a little higher and since your going to catch traction much sooner apply gas much earlier. The more you know your car the better. If the car bogs down launch a little higher next time but remember if your tires are spinning…then your not going anywhere. And if you launch to really high and do catch traction then you still may have passed the “meatiest” part of your powerband.
CONCLUSION
With this series of methods I’ve managed to pull a 2.435’s 60 ft. time in a 91 accord lx on stock tires with just an intake. After I upgraded to yokohama tires i was able to launch at about 3500-4000 without my tires making a sound or spinning much at all if any. The tires made my launches very predictable and consistent. So after a couple runs at the track launching at 3500-4200 i noticed i was losing 1/8th mile et's because i was launching past the meaty part. After i got off the mountain i was on because i bought new tires and lowered my launches to 2600-3000 i gained my et's back and lowered the 60ft a bit more.The key point through all of this is to hold your rpm’s and don’t apply more gas if your tires are spinning too much. If you think you can improve traction by reducing the tire pressure then definitely do so but don’t go below 15 psi because you still have to get home. 25 psi is good and should work out very well at the tracks and on the way home.
*******EDIT********* Turns out the clutch can't take 3500-4000rpm dumps. The clutch was slipping, thats why the tires weren't making a sound!!!
Disclaimer - Not everyone will have the same results with this method, use common sense and take into mind the condition of the track, money you have to fix broken parts, and grade/quality of your tires. Those of you with slicks may have to do burn outs those of you with street tires may not depending on track conditions and prior experiments. See what works best for you.
Launching 101
By: Midnite Racer X
Launching correctly can make all the difference in gaining and better track times and speed. There seem to be three methods for launching a car. Two are the feather technique and the dump technique for manual transmissions, and the other one is brake boosting for automatics.
PREPPING FOR THE STAGING LANES
One of the most important things you can do while your in the staging lanes is check your tire pressures (usually I stop at a gas station on the way to the track and set my tires to about 25-30 psi in the front and the max psi for the rear tires. You’ll want to have lower pressure in the front than in the back for front wheel drive vehicles. Have a tire pressure gauge handy and recheck the pressures while you still have adequate time in line. Your first two runs should basically be testing to see if your front tires catch traction at the psi you’ve set.
BURNOUT
Now you’re ready for the staging lanes. Most tracks have somebody that wets the pavement for burnouts. At my particular track there is a lot of dirt so making sure your tires are clean is essential. Roll over where the pavement is wet but not past it…land right on it and pull up the e-brake and go into 1st gear with the clutch pedal down or for automatics apply your brakes and wait until your allowed to go. Once your ok’d to burn out through a quick rev up to about 3500-4000 rpm and let the clutch out. For automatics just let go of the brake really quickly. Try to hold around 4000-4500 rpm by tapping the gas pedal and remember that your e-brake should still be up. Within about 5-10 seconds of this burnout the tires should start to catch a little traction and you’ll start moving forward (unless your car is very very powerful, in that case your tires will be the only things moving and not the car). When you’ve moved forward about a couple of feet let off the gas and immediately press in the clutch and let the e-brake down or you’ll stall out in front of all those people watching you (very embarrassing). If at any point in the burnout you start to see your tires smoking wait about 2 seconds then disengage burnout. Trust me you’ll need some tires to get down the rest of the track. Or if your car starts turning too much to one side just stop the burnout.
.
MAKING SURE YOUR TIRES ARE CLEAN
The point of the burnout is not to impress everybody on the sidelines it’s to clean and heat your tires up. Now that your tires are heated make sure they’re clean…no don’t get out the car just pull up a couple more feet but not to close to the staging line, stop and rev up to 3000 rpm and drop clutch or let go of the brakes for auto’s (no e-brake). Get your tires to chirp or squeal. A slight chirp means the tires are in fact clean. If you don’t hear anything from the tires and your just spinning tires then they are not clean and since you paid good money to test your vehicle I’d back up and do quick burnout but without the e-brake. Hot, clean tires grip hot pavement. Also pay attention to how much tire spin and squeal there is because if there is too much you’ll want to launch with lower rpm’s.
LAUNCHING AT THE STAGING LIGHT
Finally we’re at the light. Please remember to fasten your safety belt, turn you’re A/C off, turn your music down or off, and make sure the e-brake is NOT engaged, close sunroof/moonroof, and close windows or leave cracked so you can hear your tires. Inch up to the line and stop. If the other car is already there then rev up to 2000-4000 rpm or so depending on your tires and what you learned during the cleaning session after your burnout. If the other car isn’t staging yet then just wait until they are so you don’t put too much heat underneath the hood holding rpm’s.
The light has started, your revved up and your focused…you are focused right? The first yellow is there, now the second (butterflies much?), and then third light GOOOO! Wait…what? Yes it is okay to go on the third or last staging light before the green. Don’t be scared to red light if anything try anticipate the third light so you can go as it‘s turning on instead of as it is on. Drop clutch, feather the clutch, or for auto’s let go of the brake the main point is to keep your rpm’s as constant as possible until you feel your tires catch traction. At a 2500 rpm launch stock tires won’t usually catch traction so why do people give it more gas??? Hold your rpm’s and slightly feather the gas as your tires are catching traction. Try to anticipate the tires gripping and give it a lot of gas a split second before they catch. For those of you with performance street tires or slicks can launch a little higher and since your going to catch traction much sooner apply gas much earlier. The more you know your car the better. If the car bogs down launch a little higher next time but remember if your tires are spinning…then your not going anywhere. And if you launch to really high and do catch traction then you still may have passed the “meatiest” part of your powerband.
CONCLUSION
With this series of methods I’ve managed to pull a 2.435’s 60 ft. time in a 91 accord lx on stock tires with just an intake. After I upgraded to yokohama tires i was able to launch at about 3500-4000 without my tires making a sound or spinning much at all if any. The tires made my launches very predictable and consistent. So after a couple runs at the track launching at 3500-4200 i noticed i was losing 1/8th mile et's because i was launching past the meaty part. After i got off the mountain i was on because i bought new tires and lowered my launches to 2600-3000 i gained my et's back and lowered the 60ft a bit more.The key point through all of this is to hold your rpm’s and don’t apply more gas if your tires are spinning too much. If you think you can improve traction by reducing the tire pressure then definitely do so but don’t go below 15 psi because you still have to get home. 25 psi is good and should work out very well at the tracks and on the way home.
*******EDIT********* Turns out the clutch can't take 3500-4000rpm dumps. The clutch was slipping, thats why the tires weren't making a sound!!!
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