First attempt getting into drag racing need advice.

[sigma4g]

Hello guys! i recently went to the drag strip and ran my 20 gt to see what i can run. Car is a fully loaded premium A10 with pp1 and magneride. Car is stock minus a cat back. I am consistany running 12.5-12.6 which i thought was decent until i found somebody with the exact same options running a 12.2 and a base model running a 12.4 the same night. Now in my mind that tells me im am in serious meed of trying to find out what im doing wrong or what i need to do to improve my times. First pass was with no burnout doing 12.8 but after that ive been doing roughly a 4 second burnout and running a launch around 1500-1800 in drag mode. The car was not hooking or gripping much as i could hear the tires starting to screech off the line (sometimes wheel hopping), 1-2 shift chirpped and lunged forward, 2-3 shift same thing, shifts after that were very quick and firm.

The day was around 50 ish degrees and the humidity around 84% which i know is pretty rough but it still bothers me the other two mustangs ran much quicker and were completely stock as well.

if anybody has read to this point thank you very much for taking the time to read this and please help me try to learn and improve to be a better driver

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[331GT]

Hello guys! i recently went to the drag strip and ran my 20 gt to see what i can run. Car is a fully loaded premium A10 with pp1 and magneride. Car is stock minus a cat back. I am consistany running 12.5-12.6 which i thought was decent until i found somebody with the exact same options running a 12.2 and a base model running a 12.4 the same night. Now in my mind that tells me im am in serious meed of trying to find out what im doing wrong or what i need to do to improve my times. First pass was with no burnout doing 12.8 but after that ive been doing roughly a 4 second burnout and running a launch around 1500-1800 in drag mode. The car was not hooking or gripping much as i could hear the tires starting to screech off the line (sometimes wheel hopping), 1-2 shift chirpped and lunged forward, 2-3 shift same thing, shifts after that were very quick and firm.

The day was around 50 ish degrees and the humidity around 84% which i know is pretty rough but it still bothers me the other two mustangs ran much quicker and were completely stock as well.

if anybody has read to this point thank you very much for taking the time to read this and please help me try to learn and improve to be a better driver

while i'd love to help and offer advice, i think i will defer to others in this case.

 

[Coyote Chase]

Takes time and practice. Sounds like you have some good knowledge/experience already. Your learning how to warm up your tires and get a good launch.
Try working with your tire pressure, when I ran street tires, I dropped the pressure of the rear tires down to 24 pri and increased the front tires to 40 psi and launched at 1750 rpm.

 

[sigma4g]

Takes time and practice. Sounds like you have some good knowledge/experience already. Your learning how to warm up your tires and get a good launch.
Try working with your tire pressure, when I ran street tires, I dropped the pressure of the rear tires down to 24 pri and increased the front tires to 40 psi and launched at 1750 rpm.

thank you for the kind words! I did forget to mention the last run i made i dropped the rear tires to 20 psi and left the fronts around 34. no change still screeching all the way through the 60ft. :/ i know its trial and error but just seeing somebody running faster times and all stock as well really bugs me lol

 

[qtrmiler2]

I ran mine with good 93,in drag mode,stabiity and traction control off,28 psi in rear,45 psi in front.18 pp1 magna ride and active exhaust.12.09 around 1500 da.

 

[FruityJudy]

Sport or track mode may help due to softer shifts when traction is lacking

 

[sigma4g]

Sport or track mode may help due to softer shifts when traction is lacking

i was thinking about track mode. it seems drag mode tends to load the torque and takes it a little longer to shift in my car

 

[cahouston]

i was thinking about track mode. it seems drag mode tends to load the torque and takes it a little longer to shift in my car

For me and the track I go to, drag mode with TC/Adv Track off was way too much for the stock tires. It was a peddlefest getting a 12.2 in ~1200 DA with no cooldown. The best advice I can give is ppractice the launch and experiment with some throttle modulation right at the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. Beyond that, get a set of drag radials. If you know how to do a proper burnout, doing so after backing into and rolling out of the water box on a DR will set you up for a solid launch at 2000 RPM with no drama in the shifts. In decent weather, you will break into or be close to 11s.

 

[cahouston]

Oh yeah, on stock tires, my method was no water box, quick burnout (~2 seconds) to clean tires and get a bit of heat in them as they don't heat up and stick like a DR with a long burnout. Drag mode and tc/adv track off, launch at 1500, and be ready to modulate throttle as you sense spin coming on (not just hearing it but you will feel the car). For starting out, track mode and leaving adv track on would be safer until you can respond to traction loss. My stock tires were far from new when I finally got to the track so I can't say if they would have performed different in a newer condition. This was on a stock set of PP1 wheels/tires.

 

[sigma4g]

For me and the track I go to, drag mode with TC/Adv Track off was way too much for the stock tires. It was a peddlefest getting a 12.2 in ~1200 DA with no cooldown. The best advice I can give is ppractice the launch and experiment with some throttle modulation right at the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. Beyond that, get a set of drag radials. If you know how to do a proper burnout, doing so after backing into and rolling out of the water box on a DR will set you up for a solid launch at 2000 RPM with no drama in the shifts. In decent weather, you will break into or be close to 11s.

only question i have for you is what do you mean by throttle moderation on the two shifts?

 

[sigma4g]

Oh yeah, on stock tires, my method was no water box, quick burnout (~2 seconds) to clean tires and get a bit of heat in them as they don't heat up and stick like a DR with a long burnout. Drag mode and tc/adv track off, launch at 1500, and be ready to modulate throttle as you sense spin coming on (not just hearing it but you will feel the car). For starting out, track mode and leaving adv track on would be safer until you can respond to traction loss. My stock tires were far from new when I finally got to the track so I can't say if they would have performed different in a newer condition. This was on a stock set of PP1 wheels/tires.

sooo drive around the box back up to a dry spot burnout for a couple seconds and launch at 1500?

 

[MKL_DS]

I dont go through the water on the MP4S tires. I drive around it, hammer the throttle to spin them a little to clean them off and get a little heat in them. Foot brake the launch to 1800 or so, depending on the track surface. At private rentals, I can smash the throttle right out of the hole and it will hook. On TnT nights, I have to roll into it a bit slower since prep is not generally as good.

I do not use drag mode. I have tried it quite a few times and consistently go quicker using track mode. The drag mode shifts are brutal with street tires and all that spinning on 1-2, 2-3 and even 3-4 is losing ET.

Last track outing I made multiple passes in the 12.3X range in 100% stock trim, before loading a 93 tune and going 11.92 and 11.98 back to back.

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