civic4982

My car is in the shop for the next week and a half but until then I wanted to read up on launching. I don't know how to get 1st gear going without spinning in place when I'm about to setup for a race. If someone could give me a detailed explanation including RPMs, clutch, gas.... just as close as you can come to explaning in a short bit of text. I just have issues spinning in 1st gear... happens every time I race...

allmotor_2000

This car has oodles of torque (for a FWD) and no traction.

So, here's what I do.

Rev to 2.5K rpm. Side-step the clutch and floor the gas. Feather
the gas-pedal if the tires start spinning too much. Basically what you want to feel is the car 'hopping' - The LSD works pretty well, in that, it doesn't allow one side to spin vigorously while the other does nothing.

Two BAD things preventing a good launch are:

(1) Spin too much
(2) Bog the motor

Actually 'bogging' the motor (2) is worse...

Don't try to ride the clutch during launch as you will ruin it VERY soon.

Basically you want RPMs to constantly 'increase' from the moment you launch until redline. You don't want it to redline immediateley (wheels spinning), then drop until you get traction and then shoot back up again. At the same time, you don't want it to 'bog' and drop immediateley after launch and then take its sweet time to get into the power band.

This car has torque in the low-end.... so figure out (for your setup), what RPM and tire-pressure is suited for a nice 'hop' out of the starting gate.

This technique works... with some practice. Try running 22psi on the street (if you want to race) or like 15-18psi at the track.

Good luck!

civic4982

yikes 22psi eh? that's really low... no fear of losing a rim that way? I'mma have to learn to ease up on the clutch more... and I've been riding it a bit so I guess that's bad... it does have tons of low end tq... I always do the 1st one "spin too much" ... I've beat a few cars even messing up like this once I hit 3rd gear... thank god for the overwhelming amount of acceleration in 3rd gear...

allmotor_2000

Honestly... you should be able to take most FWD cars 1st through 2nd and most RWD if you drive well and they don't drive too great.

You really arn't going to gain too much on anybody (unless its a really 'slow' somebody!) on 1st and 2nd... 3rd gear from 5.5K onwards is spectacular on this car. I don't know if you have headers... but its a BIG difference.

I ran my buddy's NSX (91 with hdr/exhaust) and we were dead-even off the hole and I was 1-car ahead through the beginning of 4th gear. At this time I shifted.... the NSX 3rd gear goes to 100+mph, so he caught up during my shift. It was even beyond that.

I think raising the redline to maybe 7.5K should solve the problem.