Reaction times

Discussion in 'Drag Racing' started by murphy88, Aug 6, 2017.

  1. murphy88

    murphy88 Member

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    Had my maverick at track this weekend.,had reaction times of.,.206 196, .174..I am constantly but way off.,lol.. I hit he gas on the 3rd yellow light when it is fully lit....can I try rolling the car in deeper ..?? Or can I even try deep staging it ?.
     
  2. Krazy Comet

    Krazy Comet Tom

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    At least your way off was fairly consistent, foot braking within .032 sec is golden...

    Apparently the car's reaction time is a bit slow, you'll just have to try different methods...
     
  3. murphy88

    murphy88 Member

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    It's a 347 with a C4...it has a 2500 stall...runs 7.50 in the eight...if I try to foot brake I can not bring up the rpms very much so I just let it idle around 900 rpm then hit the gas
     
  4. Krazy Comet

    Krazy Comet Tom

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    Boy howdy, 7.50 in the 1/8 is a scootin', probably breaking 90mph??

    Soooo what tires and rear end ratio does it have???
     
  5. Maxx Levell

    Maxx Levell Member

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    What does it 60', and what front tire pressure are you running? Are you staging consistently every time...ie turning on the pre-stage and then slowly inching forward until flickering the stage bulb, then stopping when you're solidly in?
     
  6. greasemonkey

    greasemonkey Burnin corn

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    If it's idling it's gonna be super tough to get a light. You need to be up on the converter and the car has to react right.
     
  7. murphy88

    murphy88 Member

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    The car has Nitto drag radials,,275 /60 15 with 430 rear gear,,60 foot is 1.660,,,it will run 91 mph in 1/8,,l pull car in the until the bottom bulb comes on,,,l try to do it the same ,.. next time out I will go to test and tune and try foot braking it or just reacting sooner
     
  8. spork1o1

    spork1o1 Member

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    What do you run for an ignition?
     
  9. murphy88

    murphy88 Member

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    Pertronix ignition
     
  10. Krazy Comet

    Krazy Comet Tom

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    Well Nittos can only hold so much... When I've used them I'd bring up the RPMs to around 2000, on the last yellow release brake and then sorta gradually roll into throttle with WOT at approx a car length out...
     
  11. murphy88

    murphy88 Member

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    Sounds good,,i will try that on Saturday
     
  12. airford1

    airford1 Member

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    Not so my friend I leave from an idle and manage 006 to 000 lights.
     
  13. greasemonkey

    greasemonkey Burnin corn

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    I bet your car makes a lot more power and is lighter. I didn't say impossible I said tough. It all about finding your spot on the tree. But, to see the last yellow and react and the car has to react makes it tougher.
     
  14. airford1

    airford1 Member

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    14 inch rear tires with a 3800 rpm stall and a 460 that starts to make 500 ft lbs of tq at 3600 rpm. Simple set up. Good bracket car.
     
  15. mavman

    mavman Member

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    Trial and error, my friend. I've been feet braking for, what? 25 years off and on (more off lately). And I still ain't got it figured out. Some days are good some not so much. In other words, one bracket day I may have a worst .020 and then there's days where it's all over the place.

    Ironically, the days when I'm decent, the car won't run consistently; and then it seems those days when the car is dead on with a few zero's, I suck at the tree. Part of racing is to find what works for you.

    If you ask 10 racers how they react to the tree, you'll get 15 different answers. Try leaving as the light is just coming on, before it's fully lit.

    Smaller front tires improve reaction time but will hurt ET a little bit. It does the same thing as rolling into the beam, ET will suffer a little but R/T usually improves.

    I like to use the converter to adjust my r/t a few hundredths at a time. It's MUCH easier to adjust the car than it is to adjust yourself; at least it is to me. But that said, my converter flash stalls 6100 rpm, so getting it up around 2200-2500 at the line is pretty easy; a little rough running but doable. I have launched at 3500 before but it gets real hard to hold it against the brakes without it rolling, especially with disc brakes. Drum brakes "hold" better at the line.

    very occasionally I'll run an index class, which is run on a .400 pro tree; and I'm footbraking (the only one in the class). So getting the car to react quickly to get anything decent, .040 or better, is a lot tougher. I usually find myself rolling into the lights a little, putting air into the front tires, putting air into the rear tires, and adjusting the shocks a little bit. More air in the front tires makes the beam "see" less tire, so the car reacts a little quicker. More air in the rear tires, with slicks anyway, applies power to the track quicker at the hit, but at the expense of some lost 60' sometimes. I can get them up around 20 psi to react good, but the 60' will start to get inconsistent. Thats why I adjust the shocks a little, to help calm the car down in the 60'.

    Also if your rear end gear is a "highway" gear (e.g. 3.00) , that'll also affect your r/t's a little because it takes longer for the power to move the car as less torque is applied at the initial hit. Going from a 3.00 to a 4.62 for instance makes a huge difference in r/t's alone-IF the car can use the gear.

    Just a few thoughts, for what it's worth.
     

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