How to drive like a pro
 

Everyone always talks about how drivin like a pro lowers times huge! So give me some examples of how you great drivers do this. Note this was not posted by Blue Thunder but by one of his curious friends. :toothy11:

If your refering to the dragstrip, knowing how to drive does make a HUGE differance.
A good driver can hit a light somewhere in the .500, launch his car with little or no tire spin, and powershift every gear without hitting the rev limiter. I consider myself to be above average driver on the strip. In my 99 GT I consitantly hit lights in the .510-.550 range my very best being a .501 !!! Ive seen alot of 99+ 5 speed stangs running low to mid 14's. My first time at the track in my 99 my worst run was a 14.17 and I ran a 13.98 completely stock. My buddy let me drive his 03 Cobra at the strip last year. His best run was an 11.99@123, I ran a 11.80@126 AND I missed fourth gear.
The best way to learn how to drive is experiance, many people are quick to give advice, but the only way to learn is to get out there and experiment. You will learn more your first time down the strip than you will listening to the advice of 100 different racers...

I have all my time slips ever, My first one my reaction time was .957!!! Ouch!!! 15 years ago. Ive cut a .502 light by luck, And plenty of red lights!!!

You will see every time you get better. I use to play a computer drag strip game and just by playing it all winter, and the lights on it were the same as a real drag strip it helped a lot. Im always in the mid to low .500s.

Your first time you will be nervous as can be, Do not worry about the car next to you, expecially if he leaves first.

Again like said above, a good good driver and launch the car, shift it and reacts fast.

An example is i can cut 2.0 60' with stock 245 bald goodyear rubber. thats good launching.

Also knowiong how to powershift is something a good driver can do to cut time off there 1/4. I heart powershifting.

Just a quick note... for a really good driving, power shifting is a very minimal improvement... someone asked one of the big shots over at Modular Depot and he said he cut under 1/10 off his quarter time by power shifting so he doesn't do it anymore... not worth the additional stress on the transmission. If you catch your shift points right, you don't need to power shift.

This is true I had my SVO with 175,000 miles on tranny.

I don't want to powershift so tell me step by step how to shift and start really well. I want to make my times awesome because of me not just because i have a lot of power under the hood. How to do it step by step please. :laughing6

I actually get a whole lot more spin when i powershift into 2nd compared to when i just slam into 2nd.

The secret is to launch w/o bogging or spinning. It seems to be better to spin a tad, then to bog at all. A little wheel spin will also help get your trap speed up a bit.

So, what you have, is a delicate balancing act. Each car is different depending on how much power you are making, type and size of tires, and conditions.

If you are at the track, you should take some air out of the back tires. That will allow the side walls to help you hook-up better. Also, adding air to the fronts helps do. It tends to reduce friction, and push some weight towards the back. Weight transfer to the rear helps with traction.

When launching, keep your rpms up...perhaps around 3,000 - 3500 rpms. Then, you want to lift up on the clutch, but feather it in an out as you you feel the rear end either grip or loose traction. Of course, you are hitting the gas at the same time. If you can pull a 2.0 in the 60 foot on street tires on a near stock car, you are doing about as good as you can.

If you don't want to powershift, you simply need to shift like a mofu. What I do is sort of inbetween granny shifting and power shifting. When it is time to shift into second, I depress the clutch, but not fully while letting up on the gas a little bit at the same time. Then just before I release the clutch, I floor it. This achieves the impact of rasing the rpms before the clutch engages. All this takes a milisecond. By lifting up on the gas briefly, I avoid hitting the limiter.

It is something you will have to get on a empty road and just practice. Everyone shifts different, and some take longer to get it. How long have you been driving a stick?

There are a bunch of little things you can do to improve besides the driving aspect. Get to know the track and your car. I adjust my tire presseure after every run. Early in the evening my tires will go up 1-2 lbs. on every run. I have to drop them back to my starting point before the next pass. Watch the cars in front of you, look for the groove when they stage. If the car in front of you runs DR's or slicks and leaves clean line up right were he was, if he spins move over a little.
pump your front tires up to 40 - 45 psi for less rolling resistance
If running street tires do not do a burnout, just spin them enough to clean off the dirt, gravel etc., street tires get slippery when hot. Drive around the water and back in to do a burnout.
If you have a place to keep them safe pull out the spare tire and jack stand.
If you run an open air filter pull the front passenger healight, this requires no tools. Always run with an 1/8 to 1/4 tank of gas. Drop the front sway bar, this will allow your front to raise up quicker and help shift the weight to the rear of the car, also it takes about 30 lbs. off.
Removing your rear wing will net you 1 - 1.5 mph in trap speed from reduced drag. I ran my street tires in the rear at 18 - 20 lbs. adjusting until I got the best results. Play with your shift points to see what gives you the best results. On mine 1-2 shift is 6,000 2-3 is 5,800. I made a small note book to keep track of how each run went, things like weather conditions, track conditions, tire spin, shift info. I always go online when I get home and get all the weather data and then correct my times to see how the runs stacked up with previous outings. I have every pass I've ever made with this car in a spread sheet. I can tell you what gain each mod netted and what driving changes worked and those that did not. You don't need a ton of power you just need to get the most out of what you have.

People talk about feathering the clutch and stuff while taking off... how exactly is this done?

I have yet to seriously launch my car.. but when I'm on the street and I want to take off hard I will rev it to about 2,000 and slip it a little... I dont spin to the point where 1st is worthless... but I do hear tire spin all the way through first and I chirp 2nd.

How long are you actually "feathering" the clutch for? I just kind of pretend I'm taking off like normal though I'm revved at 2k and as soon as the clutch is out I go full throttle.

Give me some tips also... track opens up March 5th!

I dont think I will ever power shift my car but I think I'm getting pretty good at it... I can shift pretty hard especially 2nd to 3rd. We try to record in my car but when the camera man isnt ready his head jerks around and I bark 3rd.

I personally like to rev my car up til about 3500 rpm. When the last yellow comes on I floor the gas and slip the clutch. Basically I use the clutch to control wheelspin, not the gas. This will shorten the life of your clutch, but my stock one lasted over 40,000 miles and many,many dragstrip launches on drag radials. Ive got a Spec stage one clutch now and it seems to love the abuse...

Hear is a link with a video on how to drive. Hope you like it.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/pages/driving.htm

Funny how many of those I have seen people do.

So i rev to 3000 while in first then as i let off the clutch i lighlty tap my foot on and off the clutch as i push in the gas. Then when i shift to second i put in the clutch, shift and then just drop the clutch as i ram in the go pedal and repeat? Does that sound good? :occasion1

what exactly is power shifting guys? i searched on google and in all your posts, you just refererred to it and said its bad for the tranny. is it just shifting w/o pushing the clutch in or what? also....i got a question...whats the best way to reduce chirping the tires when shifting into 2nd. i do it alot and alotta times forget to turn tcs off so i bog down and lose any chances at winning a race

Always turn traction control off if you are going to race. You also can get the diablo sport predator and have it turned off for good.

i dropped 2 tenths every time powershifting.

I have drag radials and it helps even more cause i dont hardly spin on the shifts.

Powershifting is banging the gears while holding the throttle wide open.. It is rough on the trans, but also the best way to a low ET.
Chirping the tires into second isnt a bad thing, racing with the traction control on is. Unless your driving in the rain/snow... switch the traction control off.

Yeah. Please explain to me what powershifting is? Thanks!!!

its simpley not lifting off the gas when you shift. this keeps the motor going full blast and makes the car jump when tossed into the next gear kinda like a kick in the pants

Cutting 1.9x 60's on street tires is good driving...period.


Adam

Trying doing that at orlando Speed world lol. They never spray VHT on Test and tune nights ever. It sucks.