So I just got home from another night at my local drag strip. It was a fun night, but it was a touch on the warm side. This was the first time with my new gears and I must say I am dissappointed. I went from a best of 14.72 to a new best of only 14.54. From what I had herd from other people, the gears would knock off more than that. Some of it could have been the warm temp, but I doubt it. At the begining of the night I was poping and boggin off the line, but I worked the bugs out and got my 60' down to about a 2.1 flat. The times really started to drop once I started to run my gears a little longer. I am also curious as to exactly when I should be shifting.

I have included two of my slips for the night....take a look I'm car

 

Christ did you fall asleep at the light? Those r/t's are horrible.

 

Did you go to Milan?

 

what is a good reaction time?

 

.000 Perfect Light

 

Don't worry about your reaction times yet. Just focus on 60ft and shifting correctly, then the reaction times will drop too.

 

R/t's dont matter right now. The important thing is to keep going out and getting those 60 footers low and finding out WHAT works best. Launch rpm, shift points, all of it. Dont expect too much, your heads flow about as much as a coffee stirrer in a gallon of milk. Stick to it, youll get there.

 

Wow, see I thought that there were a few smart people on this forum. I know what a good light is and isnt. A perfect light is a .500 unless you run a pro tree. AND NO ONE DOES. I ran all night long, about 16 runs and the last run was probably one of my worst reactions. If you want I will prove it by posting every slip. Dont give me sh** about my reactions, a .5700 is nothing to gripe about.

Below is a pick that proves anything less than .500 is a REDLIGHT.

 

Easy there turbo, some of us forgot that they have multiple tree setups in other parts of the country. No reason to get upset about it. Your r/ts dont make that much of a difference, so its no big deal. No harm, no foul

 

Christ take a little sarcasm...for a 97 thats not that bad....

Jesus someone take their "bitchy" pills this morning...

 

R/T does not matter unless bracket racing. R/T is simply the time it took for u to MOVE. Remember u always want to leave on the LAST YELLOW LIGHT. dont launch when you see green. launch on last yellow. when drag racing, its all about the LAUNCH in other words....the 60ft time. A good 60 ft time with no or little wheel spin will improve your 1/4 time! get some Drag radials/sllicks and your all set.....just dont break ya axle...lol

oh..and may I say Nitto 555 street tires SUCK on the strip. no traction whatsoever!

 

I just asked a simple question and say how I did personally with some new mods, and I get shot down about my R/T's. I was lookin for some some suggestions on shifting, and about the gears in general. MY R/Ts are fine. I averaged them out to .612, and with 15 runs thats damn good. Thanks to those giving advice, and to others you can have the "bitchy" pills back there yours anyway.

 

What rpm are you shifting at, there could be some extra time held up there if you are shifting too late? I dunno, for what you have to work with, I think you are doing great powerwise, I just think maybe some slicks or at least d/r's would help a lot more.

 

Im runing 1st to about 5100 because its so quick now, and then I bring 2nd and 3rd just up to 5000. I have seen curves for stock gts and it appears the best place to shift is like 4700, but I have the full exhaust and I think it moved the power up a bit.

 

Ok, I just wanted to make sure you werent going in the upper 5k rpm.

 

Those are decent R/t's, and R/T's do matter, you get the jump on a

And as far as your question about shifting, I really do believe you should be able to play it by ear. I have never used a tach or lights to tell me when to shift, the only time I see that as any help is if you have someone extremely loud running next to you and you cant hear your car.

 

But only in heads up/bracket racing. Not on like test and tune night.

 

Lol well I dont have to worry about NOT hearing my car, It can be heard 3 miles away clear as day (yea sometimes a problem). But the problem is in between 4800 and 5200 it sounds the same in the car, but my buddy who sat in the stands said he could deffanitly hear the difference when I ran a gear a little farther. So he would tell me in between runs how I shifted by the sound. LOL I love bein loud!

 

I miss my flows... I wanna be loud again...

 

yeah i thought it was somethin like .500 or .050.. couldnt remember which though

 

Perfect tree round these parts is a 0.000, but it used to a 0.500 at our track. They changed it. Even so, my first RT was 0.9. That's almost one second after the light. - LOL

 

most will say shift right at redline. but sometimes they are wrong.

My best suggestion is to get your car Dynoed. And shift at the peak of your Horepower band. My peak is right at 5000rpms. Now that I shift at the perfect spot my times have improved a bit.

lol@horepower typo

 

My reaction times avg out in 21 runs total not includeing 4 red lights .21 here it's the .0000 is a perfect r/t. but nice runs

 

so what all states, or places for that matter use the .0000 light. Because all the places I have seen or herd of use the .5000 light for racing.