So.... I havn't yet been to a track, because basically, my car has been stock for quite a while. But I now have exhaust, cai (on tuesday), and 3.73s with some decent tires... what kind of 1/4 mile times on my 98 v6 should i be expecting to throw down... or should i just wait until i get a tuner before i even think about going to a track

 

Track is for fun imo..unless you have a set race or something... i don't know what our stock 1/4 mile times are...i'd assume somewhere in the 16 - 17s ..maybe a little higher..

We can't really pull staggering numbers unless we have some sort of induction going i don't think.. so don't expect something like 13s or anything.. If you want better times then what you are going to get now..i'd get the tune...

If you want to go out to the track just to play around...go do it.. no harm can be done right?

 

If you want to race, race. Who cares what your times are. With your car, waiting to get a tuner is not goign to make much of a difference anyway.

The best mod is a good driver. This not something you can just bolt-on.....you need experience. Many drivers have slower times after swapping gears because they can't drive for ****.......until they get practice.

Go to the track. Keep an open mind. Ask questions of the experienced people and your times will drop faster then you will get with any exhaust mod or tuner.

As far as times go, with your car, your goals should be this:

1 - Get down the track safely without killing yourself (not that it ever happens)

2 - Good reaction time

3 - Have fun!

Then, you can starting thinking about getting that car into the 15's.

 

Yeah i wanna go just to have fun and see what my car is capable of. I have an auto trans so im not tooooo worried about being inexperienced, ill probably just slam the gas down haha (is there a better way?)

hopefully i can get out there soon

 

Drag racing an auto is not as easy as you think. There is more to it. Sure, having a 5 speed adds more difficulty, but can you answer these questions:

1 - Are you able to get a perfect reaction time?

2 - What pressure should you set your tires at for your car?

3 - Do you know how to pull your front head light and why?

4 - How do you use the water box?

5 - Are you able to get consistent back to back runs?

6 - Should you shift manually, or allow the automatic transmission to shift for you?

Just to name a few. Once you get a hang of these types of issues, then driving an auto is as simple as smashing the pedal.

 

Yeah i cant answer all those questions .

But a big thing with me was the shifting manually part. I never do it after i installed my new gears because the 2nd gear holds way too long for some reason, hence the fact that i want to get the tuner. When i try to shift manually i go fine from 1st to 2nd, but when i go from 2nd to Drive, it doesnt always shift me out of 2nd . I need to get that fixed....

 

OK....that is a different thing all together that I must have missed or not understood in your earlier post. You should really not be driving that car at all until you have the speedo corrected or you are going to damage your tranny.

You can get either a speedcal or a tuner.

 

Well, it shifts out of 2nd just fine when im driving on the street and such, and i had the spedo re-calibrated, so thats fine. However, when i slam the gas from a dead stop, for instance, the 2nd gear just hold for a couple hundred too many RPMs, almost to redline... I definatley lose power in those last few rpms, so i want to change the shift point a little lower

 

Don't worry about reaction time it has nothing to do with the times you run. Just go out and have fun.

 

I don't think I would tell him that. Perhaps at first you can not worry about your RT's, but if you want to bracker race, RT's are important as hell.

 

He's not braket racing. And probably never will. Just focus on launching and driving the car once you get that down then worry about RT's.

 

Well, I agree with you there.