First time at the track.......

It was bad. REALLY BAD. My car only ran a best of 16.2 I coulda nearly run that with the old 6. What messed me up, was the water. I spun all through 1st and most of the way through 2nd. I got beat by a Honda Which on the street I would have eaten alive. I didn't pick up my timeslip from that run ( I was a bit stunned) but the next run was a 16.3686 @ 83.52 mph. What is really ticking me off, is that I know my car is faster than that. On the second run, once again.......tires spun all through 1st and nearly all of 2nd. My friends said that when the light changed, it looked like they coulda pushed the car faster than it left the line. Said it smoked the tires for a loooong ways. What do I do?? When I got back to Lake Charles, I stopped at a light, and when it changed, I did just as I did at the track.....except......I hooked up!! I spun about 20 feet, and tore outta there. I know the car is faster than 16.3. The water just killed me. So, I am ready to do some rear end work. Which cars had a posi-trac or limited slip rear end that will work in a mav?? I am ready to change it and go back to the track to redeem myself. I also go a 4 bbl the other day, now I need an intake. Anybody got one for sale or trade? I'd appreciate it. Oh, and by the way......I did have fun, I was just extremely dissapointed. But I got the sickness now......gotta go faster........Country

 

Here's the timeslip. And Stefan........whatever you do......PLEASE don't put this in the timeslip forum...... It's just embarrasing. Thanks, Country


Oh, I am on the right. The 12 second camaro they put me against is the time on the left. Country

 

I love it.. it is sooooooooo easy to get hooked on drag racing. Man, do I remember my first time. Couple of things to help you with right away. Avoid the water box, drive around it. Then while the tree is flashing down, leave on the last yellow light, the one right before the green. This will improve your reaction time. I would work on those 2 things and see where that gets ya. Then you can start adding more performance oriented components as you go. The rearend issue can get complicated, but you should be able to get a posi for the 8" in your car and a little more gearing while your at it too. I think you will be turning some better times real soon.
Dan

 

Lots of fun to go drag racing, and thats why we do it but it is also very easy to get caught up in a numbers game. Modify your car as you can afford. It is a game of efficiency not pure power. Concentrate on a good suspension set up and driving techniques more than HP. You will be amazed with the results, and then add power to a good chassis and suspension setup. Use your 1/4 mile MPH and 60' times to help tune your car properly. The first time I went drag racing at the track (20 short years ago) I knocked off 2 seconds in one afternoon by changing my driving technique and air pressure in my tires. Good luck and most of all have FUN!!!!

 

country, glad you had fun. it only gets better. like dan says if the water is screwing you up, go around it. most tracks would rather you go around the water if you have street tires on. the water gets in the grooves and carries to the starting line, then drips off. you might also try leaving at a lower rpm. if your spinning tires the car is going to be real inconsistent. many street class winners are the slower cars because there's less chance of spinning and the name of the game is consistency. work on being consistent then work on the speed. good luck and have fun.

 

glad you had fun!
One thing I did in a pickup I had traction problems with was to bring the converter up to stall and then on the last yellow sidestep the brakes without pushing on the throttle until the vehicle moved then gassing it. flooring it any sooner and the tires went up in smoke while I sat there going nowhere. Might try it to see if you can get moving sooner and harder.

 

Country,
Don't get too upset about it. It's hard to race a "street" car at the drags because all the rubber off of the slicks makes it hard for cars without slicks to get traction. Also, drive around the water box like someone else said. Finally...definitely get posi and some gears (3.55's if you've got a 3 speed auto), and you ought to cut at least a second off your times.
My first time at the track i ran a 17 somethin, spinning my tires through first, second, and part of third (on a five speed). After changing some things around and putting gears and posi in, i dropped down to a 14.7.

 

Your numbers are not too far from where I started. Nothing to be ashamed of. You have to start somewhere. The fun part is experimenting and learning.

One of the biggest improvements I made when I ran open rearend was to drop the air in the right rear tire to 15 lbs and the left rear tire to 20. If you are driving to and from the track, you probably do not want to go too far with low air. Maybe there is a service station or quick mart with air inearby that you can hit before the drive back home?

I'll second 77mav302's brake/converter advice. With the open rear - I improved my reaction time and reduced wheel spin by doing exactly what he has described in the earlier post. I've heard some explanations on the subject about why and when to do this. I don't think I understand it - but it worked for at least a couple of tenths on my traction limited Mav.

Cleaver

 

Like I have always said.....doing it on the street and at the track are 2 different things. Country, you are not the first guy and you will not be the last that has found out that the "strip" is ALOT different than the "street".
I think a few guys learned that last year at the round-up and a few more will learn it this year.

Sound like country might have gotten the "bug"....

Keep your head up!
Alot of good info on this post, work on driving technique first and for most. You cannot hammer it at the track like you do on the street, with street tires.

At this level the main thing should be fun!!!!

Keep us updated.

 

Did a little researching and you mph on the time slips converts to a 15.90-16.0 with zero traction problems.
With some tuning and a little more practice on your driving you should easily get that down in the mid 15 second range with what you have now.
Thats nothing to be ashamed of.....it takes a lot to go fast!
Keep your head up and keep trying.

 

was that at ben bruce airpark ihra track? if so call me next time you go. i live about 20min from there.

 

Yep, it was Ben Bruce Memorial Airway there in Evadale. I'll be sure and get in touch with you. Can you PM me with a #? Thanks. As for the water, there was no way around it. If it hadn't been for that, I might have done better. I will have to figure out the best technique for dealing with it, because I am definitly going back very soon to redeem myself. Thanks for all of the advice ya'll, and keep it coming. I need all the help I can get. Thanks everybody......Country


PS- GPZ1100 what color is your maverick? I heard from a friend of mine that a maverick was running down there about 2 weeks or so ago. Was it you? Just wondering, and I'm looking forward to meeting up with you sometime. Thanks! Preston

 

Preston,

All good avice above.

Your 60' times show you definetly need to work on. Side note: Your e.t.'s will lower by a greater magnitude than simply the time you improve your 60's. (ex: lowering your 60' by .2 seconds will result in a .4-.5 at the the 1/4mile e.t.)

1st thing to address (and obvious) - YOU HAVE TO HAVE TRACTION to get your 60' down.
a) Do that by 1st getting good street/strip tires (do a search on "Nitto" or "Nittos" in another thread).
b) Install a mini-spool if you have to, to put power to both wheels. That'll keep you from doing the "one wheel peel", a.k.a. "one tire fire"

Address that one issue (traction) first, then take it from there. You won't be doing yourself any favors until you conquer traction.

Good luck to you. Racing is fun - winning is better!

-Rick
p.s. We (southerners) don't have the option to go around the waterbox as it goes entirely across the staging lanes. Roll through it, then do your burnout. Don't spin your tire(s) in the waterbox as all that does it throw water up inside your wheelwell then drips down on your tires when you stage. Try heating your tires just a little bit at first (just enough to get a little smoke), and then compare your 60' after heating the tires a lot (longer burnout).

 

As said many times over, all good advice. Another thing you want to do is keep working at it. My son races in the high school drags here in Spokane and went from 16.87 on opening day to 15.30 on finals day without ever breaking a seal (didn't even have valve cover off). Just tuning, fine-tuning, adjusting, technique, electric fan, oil viscosities, etc. etc. not phenomenal but a second & a half with the same combo? you can do it too! keep at it!

 

Love to read this stuff, makes my pea brain work overtime remembering when my son and I took our Mav to the track the first time. 302 with hyd. cam, iron heads with 1.94 valves, headers, C4 and 4.11 rear with spool. Thought we were going to tear some serious ass. Wrong, ran high twelves in 1000ft which would be somewhere close to high 15's in 1/4mi. Got disgusted and thought we did something wrong, first time son had driven a drag strip and also been many years since I had done it. To shorten this up, we continued to tune and change things such as gear ratio, ign, valve body's and a ton of other money sucking stuff.

Walked around and listened and asked the pro's questions and finally began to run faster. Here is the old story all of us at the track have gone and done. Got into the 11's and decided to get into the tens would be the ultimate goal and once reaching it would just be damn well satisfied. Again wrong, got there and says to the boy, " I bet if we got some good heads and different carb we could go in the nine's" And so the story keeps going on. Now it is in the eight's and with the new back half and stang II front end and other mods to a now 351w, High 7's are a good number to shoot for. How come we are never satisfied? Because we are gearheads and have a internal need for compitition and speed. Take all these guys advise and learn the game, never give up. Before long you will be doing the same as we did, thing I forgot to mention is that it has taken about 12yrs to get where we are now. And a ton of green stuff as well. But was it worth it? You bet, and until they put me in the ground or something else happens to this old guy, will still tinker and drive race cars etc.