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1/4 mile techniques and tips 

 

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 Post subject: 1/4 mile techniques and tips
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:58 am 
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Brought up in another thread can you improve your 1/4 mile time just by improving your skill? How much can you improve it with skill alone?

All things being equal and I by that I mean your car has the same mods between runs/meets how much can you improve your 1/4 mile time through practise alone?

I've only taken my EF XR6 down the drags once and my first run was 16.1 and by the end of the night it was 15.5. That was over 6 runs that night.

My car is still the same now (years later) how much more could I improve? How much more could you improve? Things such as lowering tyre pressure, learning to slip the clutch at launch, burnout to warm the tyres and not missing 3rd gear cause you now have a Billet shifter (I know its a mod but it doesn't effect power or speed).

Care to discuss?

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:15 pm 
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gee i wonder where this is coming from :wink:

well i think its like most things in life, the more you do it the better you become at doing it.

there are quite a few things invovled in getting your car down the 400m strip in a decent time all ov witch take practice and knowledge.

to say that you cant better your time due to your skill level or experiance growing is just stupid.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:15 pm 
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Heaps.
60' is area where biggest improvement can be made, especially manuals.
What were you 60 footing at?
What was 60' for the 15.5?
Might be another tenth in it, might be another 5 tenths!
More power the bigger gains can be had too IMO.
Especially big power manuals.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:28 pm 
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Most of my 60' times are 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and a 2.7.
Where I got my 15.587 I had a 2.501 60' time and terminal speed of 90.63mph (145.85kph). I never got out of 3rd in any run.

This was running 17" rims at 40psi. I ran it how I run the car on the street. Run what you brung so to speak.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:33 pm 
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2 areas you can see marked improvement are your reaction time and your 60ft. RT can be acheived by either shallow or deep staging. Deep staging is where you move forward to the point the 2nd stage mbeen is almost our. The stage beam area is 6in. This allows for tyre rollout. If you shallow stage, then on a sportsman tree it is possible to leave on the last yellow and not break out. This will allow you to get closer to a 00 reaction time. Conversley a deep stage means that it relies more on your ability to guess when the green is going to come on and allow you to leave later.

Now your RT has nothing to do with your ET, but depending on deep or shallow staging will affect your MPH at the end of the track.

60' times.
The easiest way to increase your 60' time in an auto 6 pot falcon is to hold the car on the stall and leave the auto in ECON. reason for this, you auto will change up earlier and keep you in your torque band. Your power band in a stock 6 pot is well below the change point in power mode. As for a manual, get the car dynoed, work out where the torque starts to drop off and change at that point. For optimim launch in a manual, that will come down to practice and getting just the right amount of wheel spin to prevent the engine bogging.

Hope this helps
Brett

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 1:26 pm 
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All my best results with stockish 6 cylinders and even a mates LS1 VZ Calais have been by 'flashing' the convertor off the line, I get on the brake, go foot flat to the floor and a fraction of a second later get off the brake.
I don't think tight stock convertors gain much by 'stalling' up like that.
You just end up putting heat into the trans.
From what I've found anyway.

Timmeh, it's auto obviously?

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 1:28 pm 
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Before modifications my EL XR8 has done a best of 15.861 @ 141kph with a 2.473 60' time.
That is with 16" FTRs at 40psi. I grabbed 4th just before hitting the line.

It has 3.45 diff gears as its a 185kw version and its a manual.
Can't believe my XR8 was slower than my XR6.
I don't reckon it is now but I haven't finished modifying it yet got a couple of things to do.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:15 pm 
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Theres probably 3 tenths in that 60 foot, which equates to probably half a second by the time you cross the line.
Would get you down to 15.2 which makes more sense.
Should be able to get 2.1 60's in a stockish manual E-Series.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:33 pm 
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I think a pertanent topic related to this would be "Dos and Don'ts of getting down the 1/4" in terms of damage to your driveline etc. and getting your car down the 1/4 in 1 piece. Having never been down the track I'd be interested to know such things. In terms of Stock drivelines etc... And I'm sure a few of the juniors to this game would benefit a bit from this.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:59 pm 
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If you've got a manual, and you want to be quick, you have to forget about mechanical sympathy.
You absolutely HAVE to slip the clutch a decent amount to get it off the line quickly, and you should be giving thought to flatshifting if you are serious.
My opinion anyway, you can't get a relatively heavy sedan off the line with a manual quickly without slipping the clutch.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 3:07 pm 
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I know what your saying Steady but I have sympathy for my car. It breaks me heart to slip it that much. I guess it wouldn't hurt a couple of times. After the launch though its just foot to the floor and jam that stick into gear on the redline.

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 8:43 pm 
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run some 16's with about 25psi, slip the clutch from about 3000-4000 rpm and u should get at least a 2.1 60' whcih would be a low 15 maybe scrape into the 14's. Coupel of unopened EL xr6's over here have cracked the 14's. (just extractors and exhaust)
If you don't like the thought of flat shifting, just flat shift 3rd to 4th.. less harm then the other changes by far
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 10:15 pm 
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I never got into 4th gear. She was still pulling in 3rd as I crossed the line.

I'll try the 16" rims when I get my 17"s for my XR8 then those 16"s its currently wearing I'll put on my XR6 and give it a go.

Cheers

 

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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:31 pm 
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Do what my friend did when he raced my down at the drags.. he decided weight reduction was the go and removed his floormats, coin tray and wiper fluid LOL.

 

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Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:22 am 
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TerroristGHIA wrote:
The easiest way to increase your 60' time in an auto 6 pot falcon is to hold the car on the stall and leave the auto in ECON. reason for this, you auto will change up earlier and keep you in your torque band. Your power band in a stock 6 pot is well below the change point in power mode.


awesome. i didnt know that :) be handy to keep the the turbo spooling

but will having the car in ECON be detrimental to the time?
(i guess im unsure what ECON exactly does)
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