More Weight... Faster?
 

So a buddy of mine has a Monte Carlo 3.8l Auto, and I've got a Mustang 3.8l Manual... stock form my car would probably beat his, but the first time we raced he had dual exhaust, cold air intake, and a chip. I was stock. He pulled ahead from the beginning and stayed about a car length ahead of me. This was done several times and happened every race.

So now I put on my 275's, still stock hp, and I raced him again. This time he beat me off the line by a little more than 1/2 car length, and it looked like I was catching up to him very slowly, ending a little past a 1/4 mile with him only 1/2 car length ahead.

I thought well, the tires helped me get off the line a little faster, and then we accelerate about the same. Only thing is, I forgot about the 300 pounds of softner salt i have in my trunk for winter traction. I understand it would help me off the line (more weight = more traction) but this was the closest race we ever had, and my car weighed 300 pounds more. How come when I had more weight I had my fastest time ever?

Was this at a track? If not you cannot accurately say you ran your best time ever based on being a half car closer to his car. How do you know he didn't run slower this time.
300 lbs of added weight equals adding 3 tenths to your et in a quarter mile. Your theory about better traction would be true, better traction = better holeshot. If this was at a track then post up your time slips and we will help make sense of the numbers.

haha its a v-6 - so that doenst make any sense - take the sh!t out ur trunk and let sum pressure outta ur tires = btw maybe his car ran sh!tier - just a guess?

As far as I know you don't have to worry about traction in a V6. Take the damn bags out as well as your spare tire and all it's tools, wait until you've only got about 1/8 of a tank of gas left, remove your air silencer, and then race him again. I'll bet you win.

I don't have to worry about traction in a V6? Ok... just about any manual car can burn rubber just rev it up and dump the clutch.

But anyway, I hold it at about 4,000 and let the clutch out slowly but it usually burns out for a little ways, not too much though. If I wanted to though it will burn them well into second gear. This was not at a track, but his car is an auto and he hasnt messed with it since the last race, so I figure it should be running the same. My new tires will help plus the weight on take off, but after that nobody was really gaining or losing ground, just like before, so the acceleration didnt seem to be hurt much by the weight (which is why the question is about)

I'm going to take out the weight, I don't have an air silencer, never had a spare or tools (bought it used) or is the spare tire not in the trunk? I guess I don't know where else it would be. What air pressure should I run at? I don't want to run too low and wreck my tires. I think they might be at 30 now or something, whatever they are recommended at, but I may be wrong cuz I'm not going to go check them right now.

EDIT: Plus last race we ran them 3 times and same results every time... a whole car length ahead.

There's a difference between "burning rubber" and chirping the tires, and just because a Scion xB has a stick shift does not mean it can "burn rubber". The spare is under the carpet in your trunk if you have one.

worry about traction when you spin al the way through second from a 1k rpm launch using 3/4 throttle...like me :)

damn i need some SFCs

I'm going to take out the weight and I found out I have a spare tire (didnt know that) so that will come out too before the race. What air pressures should I run at? Don't I want the highest safe PSI in the front for less resistance and the lowest safe PSI in the rear for traction? What is safe for a low PSI?

My car doesnt have an air silencer, nor does it have a smog pump so I cant take them out.

I'll have lights off, A/C off, stereo off...

Anyone else have any tips? These cars are neck and neck so every little bit will help!

Thanks guys!

Take your passenger side headlight out if you're really really serious about this. It will let cooler air go into your intake. Make sure no one is riding with you. And like I said, make sure you have very little gas as it weighs at just under 8lbs a gallon.

You need to have your car set up like it was supposed to be. Run what psi ur supposed to run in your tires. Leave the Spare in the trunk.

You have a V6 so dropping the PSI in your tires isnt gonna help. Especially from a roll race. The spare in the trunk will only help traction off the line. It wont slow you down any.

You just need to make sure ur car is running the best it can. Check the plugs and all filters. Thats all you can do.

If your having traction problems with a V6 then you need to learn how to launch the car. Dont launch from 4000 RPMs. Try 2500 RPMs and slip the clutch out just enough to get it rolling then floor it after your moving. If you launched it right then your car wont bog or roast the tires.

I don't bog or roast the tires, it squaks them a little, yes, but nothing big. I was just talking about if I wanted to do a burnout the "little" V6 has plenty of power for that.

He already tried running it like that and lost.

Haha thank you!

I'm obviously not going to try and race him the same way I have been...

Ok how about another thing... I've heard the term "powershifting" before but what does that mean?

Just taking a wild guess maybe shifting and holding the in the clutch and slowly letting it out so you keep the rpms in the 4-5K range?

And if that's not what it is, would I notice a gain in acceleration by instead of letting the clutch out, just let it out slowly so that the rpms stay up in the 4-5K range? I guess it makes sense to me because it would be in the powerband then but idk maybe not.

Power shifting is where you never take your right foot from the floored position. Wait until about 500RPM before redline, push the clutch in while keeping the gas floored, shift, and then move your foot off the clutch and let it pop all the way up. Makes your car really damn fast but it will also eventually break something. And it takes practice.

How the heck would that work? Sure it would give u a quick small boost but then the rpms will just drop down to however fast ur going divided by the gear??

Because it reduces the amount of time it takes for you to get through the next gear. Instead taking your foot off the gas (losing power), pushing the clutch in (which takes away time), shifting (again takes time), then starting out again at a low RPM working to get to a high RPM, you're already at the high RPM. It's kind of like dumping the clutch at every gear shift.

hmm i'll have to try it and see

but first I should prolly just take the salt bags outta my trunk and see if that works haha

who can Run faster?

a normal 180lb person?

Or some 400lb lard ass?

I used to make fun of my one of my friends being I was 150 and he was 350..I automatically had 3/10ths on him no matter what..

awesome story

Wow didn't think it would make that much different but just on the road today at some stop sign i floored it and shifted at about 4500rpms and it jumped from like 30 to 40 instantly. Pretty cool but I didn't time it so I don't know how much faster it really is but seems faster. Guess I'll try it out one of these days when we race again. Already got the salt bags out and the spare tire.

LoL DIC*k...

Dude, u lost to a monte carlo? hmmm somethings seriously wrong with your shifting I beat them all the time, there are alota ghetto ballers around that thing their tinted Montes with 24''s are tight...****'em, power shift, whatever you should ALWAYS come out on top...

Yea somethings seriously wrong with my shifting except I can prolly shift faster than you can.

His monte carlo is modified, my mustang is stock. That's all there is to it. I smoked a auto v6 stang of the same year easily.

I don't know man, if it's a 2004 one it could be supercharged...They have 240HP on your 190.

No it's not a 2004 but he claimed it was 200 or like 205 horsepower stock, which my 190 would beat since I have a manual, but he has intake, exhaust, and a tuner chip. I'm guessing it's in the 235hp range but who knows.

So it's the 3800 V6 "SS". Yup, those have 200HP at the flywheel from the factory. Just using math alone, you should be able to beat him:

Mustang: 190 x .85 = 161.5rwhp
M. Carlo: 200 x .80 = 160.0rwhp

Mustang: 3064 / 161.5 = 18.97lbs per RWHP
M. Carlo: 3391 / 160.0 = 21.19lbs per RWHP

Of course those are stock numbers, but even still, that's a healthy advantage you've got as long as you can drive really well.

The driving part isnt the problem but he just added 30 or so horses...

EDIT: Which means he could have as many as 20-25 more rwhp just taking a wild guess

I think with my newly learned powershifting skill I'll take him. :banana: