First time at the strip ever, any tips and tricks are welcome

[Mazman]

Ok on Saturday will hopefully be my first runs on strip. Have driven a lot of cars but not on track unfortunately.

So I have a GT PP1 A10 with Magneride, lowering springs, CB005 and diff bushings (don't ask why lol).

From a "performance" PoV I have a drop in filter and a resonator delete.

Runing 20" wheels with Michelin pilot sport 4s 275(35)/305(30).

So I guess I would be launching somewhere around 1800RPM?

What tire pressure is good to start of with, running 32PSI at the moment.

What to do
-Drag-mode I presume
-Turn off advance-track?
-Shifter in S or D?
-....
-Have fun


Thanks in advance

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[Burkey]

Tip #1
Try and drive AROUND the water box and reverse into it.
Otherwise you’re going to drag water from your fronts all the way to the start line.

Tip #2
If the car starts to wheelhop (which is likely, given the choice of tyre) get OFF the throttle.
2 piece half-shafts don’t work.

Tip #3
Have FUN!

 

[NC85]

Drag Mode
Advance Track Off
20 psi
Try 1500 launch then go up or down from there.

 

[Mazman]

Thanks

Hopefully there is enough room to go around the water box. Is there any point of a burnout with street tires though?

Tip #1
Try and drive AROUND the water box and reverse into it.
Otherwise you’re going to drag water from your fronts all the way to the start line.

Tip #2
If the car starts to wheelhop (which is likely, given the choice of tyre) get OFF the throttle.
2 piece half-shafts don’t work.

Tip #3
Have FUN!

 

[Mazman]

Thanks

Shifter in D?
Ohh o down to 20

Drag Mode
Advance Track Off
20 psi
Try 1500 launch then go up or down from there.

 

[NC85]

Leave it in D.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

If you've never raced before. Watch everyone stage. Get an idea of what you're doing. There will most likely be a million mustangs there. Mingle and get advice there.

 

[Mazman]

Yeah that is for sure always good to do.

I am in Sweden brother, relatively speaking we have many mustangs here but not sure how many will be there though.

I have been to the track watching many times but never raced. Will be a bit nervous I guess

If you've never raced before. Watch everyone stage. Get an idea of what you're doing. There will most likely be a million mustangs there. Mingle and get advice there.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

Yep nerves are part of the fun. My advice is dont get nervous. And just stab the throttle. It'll be very easy to spin street tires. Id use drag mode. Thats what its there for. Turn the nannies completely off. Have fun.

 

[ugstang17]

Watch them make passes and observe what they are doing when they stage. Observe how they stage.

When staging don't drive clear through the beams and up to the tree. The beams that stage you are marked if you look for them at most tracks. If not ask where they are. Tell the guy you're popping your cherry for the first time. They'll help you.

Ask questions. Don't let your ego or your bashfulness (if that's an issue), stop you from asking questions. Don't know where the beams are ask. Don't know how to stage? Ask. Roll in after doing a light burnout and set the first (top bulb) be courteous enough to wait for the person in the other lane to at least set the first bulb. Then final stage rolling forward and setting the second bulb. Once staging bulbs (lights) are both lit in both lanes the starter will activate the tree and away you go. On T/T nights its not a big deal but its good to get in the practice on courteous staging if you plan to compete.

And like mentioned just have fun!!!! The butterflies will ALWAYS be there a little bit every time. It's part of the fun.

 

[Burkey]

Thanks

Hopefully there is enough room to go around the water box. Is there any point of a burnout with street tires though?

Yes, you want to warm them but not cook them. Just a gentle spin should do the trick.
You certainly don’t want plumes of smoke coming off the tyres.

 

[Kep4]

My GT has the exact same tires on the back (32psi), CB005/CB762's with Ford Perf GT350 coils. I put it in Drag Mode, D, shut off the Advance Trac, and just stomped the throttle. No spin at all on cold tires, though it did spin a little on the 1-2 shift. As stated above, butterflies are part of the fun and ask for assistance, especially with staging properly. There are always cool people there willing to help cuz we were all new at one time! Hang on and enjoy the rush!

 

[Mazman]

Thank you all for the inputs, very much appreciated.
Sorry for the late reply it has been a crazy work week at some point I was awake some 35 hours in a straight...

So yesterday was the day. The track was almost a 5h drive away so I started the journey on friday and met up with a friend and we slept over at a hotel in a city nearby (40 min away from the track).
The morning came and it was humid and damp outside so we crossed our fingers that there would be no rain.

We got to the track and there was no rain however it had rained during the night and early morning.

The "track" itself is a closed airfield so it is not a real track. Also this is not a prepped track which I would guess makes some difference in timing.
Before we started driving some 20 car ran down the left lane over and over to try to dry the lane up as much as possible.

Well then to the actual runs the first and second run were no good as I did not figure out how the bloody line lock works lol, those runs were two 13s runs .
The 3rd run which was my best I figured out how to work the line lock, when it says "firmly brake" Ford really means firmly . The brake gague the first two time were at 100 but apparently I did not apply enough force...

So the time for the 3rd run was a [email protected]/H(115.5MPH). I believe a 12.3 would have been possible on that track with some more driving. On all runs the tires were spinning on gears 1 and 2.
I did manage to get to more runs, on one run I overcooked it and on the last one the car running next to be blew something and parts were flying over on my side so I had let off. There was a 2017 GT3 running he ran a 12. 00 as thd best time of runs I saw him so 12.5 is quite decent for that track and given day I guess.

On one of the runs I did experience quite a lot of wheel hop. I also did try to test different rpms and the best run I did start at 1500rpm.

Here is the time slip of the best run(my names is covered by my thumb) . I have not yet seen any slips or videos of any 18/19 mustangs in Europe, so I considere myself to have the fastest "stock" 18 GT on a unprepped track lol . Also to consider the EU model only has 389ft-lb at the crank and not the 420 of the US model.

It was a great experience and also to learn the car in a bit more controlled environments.. Unfortunately there are not that many opportunities to run on the drag strip anymore. I will try to get to at least one more event this year and see if I can improve the time a bit.



//Maz

Yep nerves are part of the fun. My advice is dont get nervous. And just stab the throttle. It'll be very easy to spin street tires. Id use drag mode. Thats what its there for. Turn the nannies completely off. Have fun.

Watch them make passes and observe what they are doing when they stage. Observe how they stage.

When staging don't drive clear through the beams and up to the tree. The beams that stage you are marked if you look for them at most tracks. If not ask where they are. Tell the guy you're popping your cherry for the first time. They'll help you.

Ask questions. Don't let your ego or your bashfulness (if that's an issue), stop you from asking questions. Don't know where the beams are ask. Don't know how to stage? Ask. Roll in after doing a light burnout and set the first (top bulb) be courteous enough to wait for the person in the other lane to at least set the first bulb. Then final stage rolling forward and setting the second bulb. Once staging bulbs (lights) are both lit in both lanes the starter will activate the tree and away you go. On T/T nights its not a big deal but its good to get in the practice on courteous staging if you plan to compete.

And like mentioned just have fun!!!! The butterflies will ALWAYS be there a little bit every time. It's part of the fun.

Yes, you want to warm them but not cook them. Just a gentle spin should do the trick.
You certainly don’t want plumes of smoke coming off the tyres.

My GT has the exact same tires on the back (32psi), CB005/CB762's with Ford Perf GT350 coils. I put it in Drag Mode, D, shut off the Advance Trac, and just stomped the throttle. No spin at all on cold tires, though it did spin a little on the 1-2 shift. As stated above, butterflies are part of the fun and ask for assistance, especially with staging properly. There are always cool people there willing to help cuz we were all new at one time! Hang on and enjoy the rush!

 

[Ron]

...20 psi ...

Actually, I had some discussions on this very topic w/the BFG engineers & they recommend running the factory spec tire pressures on the back side. And go to 40 psi on the fronts for less rolling resistance. They had done quite a bit of R&D on this by incrementally going +/- from the base pressure figure. The downside to a pressure increase is obvious, but they did not achieve any advantage in acceleration or ET that could be attributed directly to a pressure decrease. Tires that are drag specific are designed to work at lower pressures, but not production based automotive tires.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

Thank you all for the inputs, very much appreciated.
Sorry for the late reply it has been a crazy work week at some point I was awake some 35 hours in a straight...

So yesterday was the day. The track was almost a 5h drive away so I started the journey on friday and met up with a friend and we slept over at a hotel in a city nearby (40 min away from the track).
The morning came and it was humid and damp outside so we crossed our fingers that there would be no rain.

We got to the track and there was no rain however it had rained during the night and early morning.

The "track" itself is a closed airfield so it is not a real track. Also this is not a prepped track which I would guess makes some difference in timing.
Before we started driving some 20 car ran down the left lane over and over to try to dry the lane up as much as possible.

Well then to the actual runs the first and second run were no good as I did not figure out how the bloody line lock works lol, those runs were two 13s runs .
The 3rd run which was my best I figured out how to work the line lock, when it says "firmly brake" Ford really means firmly . The brake gague the first two time were at 100 but apparently I did not apply enough force...

So the time for the 3rd run was a [email protected]/H(115.5MPH). I believe a 12.3 would have been possible on that track with some more driving. On all runs the tires were spinning on gears 1 and 2.
I did manage to get to more runs, on one run I overcooked it and on the last one the car running next to be blew something and parts were flying over on my side so I had let off. There was a 2017 GT3 running he ran a 12. 00 as thd best time of runs I saw him so 12.5 is quite decent for that track and given day I guess.

On one of the runs I did experience quite a lot of wheel hop. I also did try to test different rpms and the best run I did start at 1500rpm.

Here is the time slip of the best run(my names is covered by my thumb) . I have not yet seen any slips or videos of any 18/19 mustangs in Europe, so I considere myself to have the fastest "stock" 18 GT on a unprepped track lol . Also to consider the EU model only has 389ft-lb at the crank and not the 420 of the US model.

It was a great experience and also to learn the car in a bit more controlled environments.. Unfortunately there are not that many opportunities to run on the drag strip anymore. I will try to get to at least one more event this year and see if I can improve the time a bit.



//Maz

12.5 is very good for an unprepared track. So the trip was worth it. Now you can brag about what a bad ass drag racer you are.

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