First time on track

[ausie]

I finnaly decided to go for it. I am not sure why I held off from racing in the first place. I was able to get 4 runs in last night but decided to call it a day since the rear tires did not have any tread left (down to 1/32" remaining). I do like the Toyo's since they remained sticky to the end of life.

Here are the results of my first 4 runs. Practice is needed to improve reaction time for sure. (temperature : 98, Relative Humidity : damn humid out)

pass: first second third fourth
R/t 0.967 0.804 0.852 0.638
60ft 2.375 2.321 2.431 2.189
1/8 9.110 9.323 9.168 8.868
mph 81.17 81.21 83.49 83.43
1/4 13.805 14.021 13.796 13.524
mph 104.99 104.95 106.66 105.94

It was not as good as I expected it to be. Also my launch needs to be established. I was not overly disappointed since there were other Cobras there getting about the same ET's. I should have continued since the number of cars began to dwindle when I stopped. The first and second launches were mild but had alot of wheel spin on the second. The third was from 2000 RPM and hit the rev limiter on the shift to third. I cleaned the tires off for the last and feathered out the clutch and shifted at 6000RPM in every gear. I am certain with a few more runs and familiarity of wearing a helmet I can improve my ET's. I think I am hooked and cannot wait to do it all over again.

[nckissfan]

I am going tomorrow for the first time as well. I am nervous, never done anything on the strip before. I will have a few peeps there to give me pointers. Hopefully it wont be too hot.

[ausie]

I was a bit nervous too, but after the first pass I knew what to expect. First thing, do not drive through the water box. I just wanted to see how my car would do unmodded and having the full weight of the spare, seats and all. I did not even clean off the tires except for the last run. The hard part is getting used to the helmet ( I ran out of head room with the helmet on). I kept waiting until it was too late to launch (once I saw green it was too late). I also kept wondering why I only saw one set of lights ( I did not know the tree had a divider on it). I basically ignored the other driver. Also you have to get out of that frame of mind of being on the street (red light runners) which was hard for me to let go. I had a great time! :thumbsup: I definately have to do that again, and again..... Hell of alot better than on the street. The only people you have to worry about running over are the one's at the staging lanes. I had my first impression thoughts about the drag strip (seemed out of date) but once on the strip, it was much better surface than any street I have ever been on. Best of all, no cops to give you a ticket :thumbsup: I think I found a new hobbie :D

[nckissfan]

I was told, when you see yellow, take off, cause the green is real close. I will let you know how the day went. It is fun, and you wont get in trouble with the law, unless you are married to the law:rotf:

[ausie]

1/10 of a second and it is green..... have a blast. It was the best thing I ever did. :thumbsup: I was expecting a bit more out of the car but that comes with experience.

[nckissfan]

yeah, 70% driver if not more:thumbsup:

[ausie]

I had just put on new rubber in the rear, still street tires (Toyo Proxes T1-R). The temperatures were great, cool 70 and no humidity. Island Dragway had an end of summer event going on with jet cars and an eliminator class along with the street racing. My first pass was not bad, had alot of wheel spin out of the hole but landed 13.54 /103.31mph. I noticed my R/T had dropped to 0.444 which is better than the first 4 runs two weeks ago. My second run 13.393/105.73 and an R/T 0.405 . I was determined to gain some more ground, I wanted to break the 13 second barrior badly and see what this stock Cobra can do on such a perfect day. While waiting in the staging lanes I was talking to a guy who does mustang tuning. I mentioned if I took the air silencer out would it make a difference? Of course he said hell ya. I had him help me get it out, it would have been easier to take it out through the engine bay but with a little bit of effort I pulled it out throught the fender well. That simple mod at the track improved my ET's to 13.142/107.56. The last race of the evening had to be it. I was determined to beat the 13 second dilema. The last trick up my sleeve should have been my first. Let some air out of the rear tires. I knew I brought my air guage for a reason but forgot about it once I got at the track. Dropped the PSI from 35 to 28 in hopes to improve traction. This time I kept a good watch on the tach and banged every shift as quickly as possible so hard that I broke the shift knob loose which caused me to miss 4th gear with plenty of room to find it at the end. Lost a great amount of speed but netted 13.059 /102.82, dang it, so close to breaking the 13 seconds and could have had it if I did not miss 4th. Looks like a MGW shifter is going to find its way into my gear box. Sooner or later I will get a pully and tune but for now I just want to max it out with the car just the way it is.

Does anybody know what they use to measure the speed? I have seen the speedo was above the 110 marker before I missed 4th. I more than likely lost some of it when I was coasting and attempting to find all the gears. I guess things will improve with more time out on the track. I have a few more things to do before I can beat the 13 second problem. One will be new spark plugs (denso Irridiums) since I noticed a difference when I had them in the 01, wonder if it will make a difference in the 04.

[pdogkilr]

Those are good time slips for your first couple of trips - great job!

Actually, most NHRA strips use a half second tree. That means the green goes one half second after the yellows flash. The reason is, "science" has shown humans to have a half second reaction time. That is, it takes a half second after visual recognition for the brain to make the body do something. So someone that has an R/T of .000 has "perfect" reaction time.

You will see most professionals have point zero something. They are as good as it gets. Old farts like me can get into the point one and point two times with a lot of practice. Anything under point five means you did not wait until the green came on to start rolling, and that is a good thing.

There is a set of lights after the quarter that measures your speed as you break the beams. That is why it is important to "run out the traps". There is plenty of room to stop, just don't start coasting too soon. They are right at the quarter so it is pretty accurate as to measuring your speed at the quarter mile post.

I enjoy drag racing, but if you want a real rush come to the Talladega event in October. Instead of a 13 second shot of adrenalin, it lasts twenty minutes!

Good luck with your next outing, and I hope to see you in Alabama in October.

Jerry

[ausie]

I only get the adrenaline rush for the first run, then I am relaxed for the rest which helps improve my focus. I usually do not slow down until after I get out of the quarter. The numbers I got on my last run Friday were the following:

R/T .652
60' 2.014
330 5.556
1/8 8.419
mph 85.93
1000 10.879
1/4 13.059
mph 102.82
If I had not missed 4th I may have been able to beat the 13 seconds.

[bobbys97r]

I only get the adrenaline rush for the first run, then I am relaxed for the rest which helps improve my focus. I usually do not slow down until after I get out of the quarter. The numbers I got on my last run Friday were the following:

R/T .652
60' 2.014
330 5.556
1/8 8.419
mph 85.93
1000 10.879
1/4 13.059
mph 102.82
If I had not missed 4th I may have been able to beat the 13 seconds.
:thumbsup:

[ausie]

Sunday is a blast and a far cry better than the Friday night grudge racing. Not as many imports on Sunday's. It is great watching the time trials for NHRA qualifications. I think the tree is running a bit slower during the Test & Tune event than for the Firday nights street legal racing. Here is how my day went, spend 2 hours sitting in the staging lane, the track had more cars running than spectators in the stands. I was concerned that I would not get any runs in at all. A couple of cars blew up. Ahh yes there was that sweet smell of nitro methane fuel in the air. I had to ask how I kept getting the same number every time I come to the track at the inspection station. It was so obvious I should have recognized the number but failed to do so previously.

I finnaly made it to the 12 second club :thumbsup: with my stock snake.

first run: r/t 0.153 60ft 1.976 1/8m 8.341 85.38mph 1/4m 12.839 109.98mph
2nd run: r/t 0.302 60ft 1.874 1/8m 8.131 87.46mph 1/4m 12.597 110.16mph
3rd run: r/t 1.008 60ft 1.966 1/8m 8.363 86.40mph 1/4m 12.843 109.82mph

Things I did prior to the cobra, changed spark plugs Denso Irridiums IT22 gapped at 0.030. Changed oil, royal purple 10w30 (the previous runs I had too much oil in the pan since amsoil can trick you due to long cling time I thought I was a quart low as it turns out I was not). The last change was the modified air silencer, which was removed prior to heading out to the track, seems to close up on itself when you run WOT so out it came. The denso's helped in reducing the number of miss-fires I was getting with the stock plugs which really made a difference. Now I am convinced that this car will pull 12.5's out of the box unmodified (I doubt the cat-back has much to do with it since I was running mid 13's prior to the spark plug change.) Last item, I remembered to bring my air compressor with me so I can fill the tires up after running the car. Dropped the air pressure down in the rears to 25 psi. That must be the sweet spot for the Toyo Proxes T1-R's since I hooked up every time without any wheel spin at all. Best of all the track was sticky due to all of the burn outs from the other cars running with slicks (street tires tend to pull off the rubber where as the slicks put it back down). :cool:

[casey99COBRA]

drop them down to about 18-20 psi next time and i bet you will do even better. I'd actually get you a set of wheels to put some drag radials on for track use. Or even throw on a slick.

[ausie]

I am debating that casey. I may just get a set of FR500 wheels (closest match for the BBS wheels) for the rear 17x10.5 with a set of nitto drag radials in the 315 size. After this past Sunday I was amazed how well it hooked up. It was difficult to even get the wheels to spin before staging in the lights since it just hooked up immediately. I have to remember to back up a bit so I do not rip up the track at the launch point. If I play my cards right I may be able to break 12's but may need to tweek the car a bit to do it (JLT cold air kit will be on the way soon). I am tempted to do many things to it all at once but I would prefer one thing at a time to validate if good or bad. Drag radials will have to wait for next season.

[casey99COBRA]

Run a smaller wheel in the rear and i think you will hook up even better. Maybe look at getting 15 or 16 inch weld draglites for the rear? I run my nitto 315's dr's at 13-15 psi and warm them up for over 10 seconds and i'd still spin like a mother out of the box! i'm buying full slicks next season for the new car and i'm looking for the front wheels to come off the ground at least a few inches when launching. :naughty:

[ausie]

I still need to hone in my launching skills at the track before moving up to drag radials or slicks. Street tires may break easier at the launch but it is saving my half shafts from breaking. Surprisingly I have yet to experience wheel hop at the track but then again I have yet to get the tires wet in the water box.

I guess that would make a difference when I run. On Friday nights everybody gets into the water box even with street tires which makes the launch pad slippery (lack of following the rules). On sundays if you did that when it is test and tune time, they would kick you out since they run NHRA certifications as well as everything else (don't follow the rules do not expect to run). I have seen them push cars off the track when the rules are not followed after the burnout then you are stuck waiting for them to dry off the water in the lauch area.

[ausie]

I scanned two time slips. The one on the left was from Friday street legal and the one on the right was Sunday test and tune. *8999 in the left lane for both runs. Also, the one on the left was the last run when my throttle stuch to the floor at the end. I can only imagine what my time would have been if I did not spend all of the 60' spinning the rear wheels (did that on the Friday night event). On Sunday's, the track conditions are much better and much harder to loose traction on the launch.

[nckissfan]

pretty good times. yeah, hook it up in that first 60' and you will be straight:thumbsup: