well, I finally made my first ever passes on a drag strip yesterday at the 1/4 mile in baytown, tx.

my first run wasn't so impressive (17.501 @ 86.96) with wheelspin up into third gear. course, I was the second car of the day down the right lane but things improved considerably after the track warmed up and some of the faster cars laid down some rubber. my second run was a 15.123 @ 92.45 with special attention to wheelspin. on my third run, the track was much improved and I ran a 14.866 @ 93.43, which I repeated on my fourth run with a 14.843 @ 94.09 (with scary wheelhop at the line). my fourth run was my best for the day.


after lunch I ran three more times: 15.068 @ 93.21 (forgot to turn off vsa - nice, smooth run though), 15.000 @ 92.53, and 14.978 @ 93.60.

I saw many GTPs at the track, most of them at least slightly modded. one particularly well prepared example ran a 13.8 but most ran mid-14s. one poor guy couldn't get his [ugly] bronze colored gtp out of the mid-15s, even with all the ducts and vents attached to the hood, the headlight covers, the club decals and what had to be the ugliest wheels I've ever seen in person...

the only other japanese (or even generally foreign) car all day was a decent integra who made a pass in the lower 14s. unfortunately, he was running against that fast gtp when he ran his 13.8.

I also saw a 2000 sierra extended cab pickup run a 14.6 (after a couple of 15.5+ runs). I also saw everything that wasn't permanently attached inside and outside the truck piled up in the pits (seats, tailgate, mirrors, floormats, etc.)

anyway, it was a lot of fun for $20 bucks and I was pumped to run several (admittedly high) 14s on my first-ever trip to the drag strip.

 

Thanks for posting your results!! How was the weather and what was the temp? How muhc gas in your tank and did you experiment with brake torquing or was traction too much of an issue?

My first trip to the track will be 2/03/01 and I can't wait!

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2001 Satin Silver Cl Type S.
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[This message has been edited by Mike (edited 01-21-2001).]

 

I only checked the temp once when I got to the track (34F on both my car and the vettes that were there). the weather was clear and sunny and there didn't feel like a lot of humidity. we did have a little bit of a headwind on the track though.

the gas tank was full. I used 1/4 tank during the course of the day (1hr out to the track, 7 runs, and 1 hr back from the track).

I didn't brake torque until the 4th run because traction had been so much of an issue on the first two runs. after lunch, I really wasn't able to get adequate wheelspin for a good launch even with torque braking.

otherwise, I just pre-staged, staged and mashed both pedals until the 3rd yellow turned on, when I released the brake. after that, I was just along for the ride. the car sounds great running out to redline.

 

Did you have any mods or your car? Or was it all stock?

Alex

 

completely stock. I had the changer playing and my cellphone on. the phone even rang while I was staging (didn't answer it, though). I haven't even had time to add the hp-improving yellow stickers...

I did turn off the seat warmers, the climate control and unplug the cellphone charger, though. I left the tires at the factory recommended pressures (whatever that might be...)

 

Did you use SS or full-auto for the runs?

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2001 Acura 3.2CL Type-S
Satin Silver/Ebony
No Navi

Wheel locks/35% tint/Splash guards/PIAA 19169 bulbs/K&N 33-2178 air filter/Mobil 1 5W-30 oil & filter

 

actually, this was cause for some debate with the group I was there with. they thought I should use ss...

my view of it is that 3rd is good for more than 100mph and the 1-2 shift can't really be controlled in ss mode, so all I'd be doing is deciding when to move from 2nd to 3rd. it didn't seem to be worth the effort. so all my runs were full auto.

 

Could you post your timeslips or tell me what your 60ft times were on your 14.x runs?
What were some of your better RTs?

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2001 Satin Silver Cl Type S.
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[This message has been edited by Mike (edited 01-21-2001).]

 

I have no idea what most of the other info on my timeslips means, but here you go...

14.843 @ 94.09, 1.333 r/t, 2.329 60'
14.866 @ 93.43, 1.515 r/t, 2.274 60'
14.978 @ 93.60, 0.934 r/t, no 60' (or 330) time on slip

 

Just a few more questions:

How much do you weigh? (less than 200lbs?)

How many miles on you CL?

34F, that's pretty cool for Houston. We just got 6" of fresh powder last night.

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<A HREF="http://rrw.d2g.com" TARGET=_blank>The Red Rocket
</A>

 

I had that same wheel hop when i went to the track last month. I didn't like it one bit. It didn't feel like it was good for the car so I backed off punching it at the light and did a "smoother" takeoff. The r/t suffered but I wasn't racing just trying to establish ETs for a new stock car.

Were you bracket racing or just running time trials?


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South Jersey: 2001 Acura CL-s Gold with navi/spoiler/splashguards/V1/w/cdu
stock 1/4 mile 14.698sec@95.91mph
Atco Raceway 12/1/00

 

Wow...pretty impressive for a first time out stock car I would think that SS would get faster times though right?? Well, nice anyways though...

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Tw1112
CL 3.0 '98 - Cleared bumper, hiper/piaa bulbs all around, PIAA 1700x fogs, and AEM CAI.

• My CL
• LA Autoshow
• SoCal Meet

 

Tank,
Glad to hear that you did so well I wish I was down there at the track, everytime I've been to Baytown it's been a Friday night. Lot's of people run Friday , so I usually don't get more than three runs in. The best that i've ever done at the track (with my mods) is 14.9, might have to head down there again Maybe this time on a Sunday (I didn't even know until recently that they ran on Sunday). I think my fat ass is slowing me down

Did you have the A/C off?? You would have probably done alot better if you had a 1/4 of a tank. We outta all setup for a Sunday meet at the 1/4

The 1/4 is so much different than a Rallycross


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01'
Black/Ebony CLS

 

Tank,
If someone else hasn't beat me to it, i'll try to interpret those results for you the first with the speed is of course your 1/4 mile time and the trap speed in the quarter. The r/t is your reaction time (time it took for you to hit the gas and get going once the tree turned green), from your R/T it looks like you did pretty well. Did you go on the second yellow?? The last time is pretty weird, why didn't they have your 60 ft. time?? Well that's the time it took for you to get from crossing the starting line to 60 ft. down the track.

Great runs man.



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01'
Black/Ebony CLS

 

I weigh right at 200lbs (much to the chagrin of my endurance racing teammates - heaviest on the team)

my cls just cleared 5000 miles.

34F was quite cold for houston. all in all, this has been the coldest winter in houston in some time. and we just barely missed the bad weather: friday was crap and sunday was crap, but saturday was beautiful.

 

it was a "test and tune" at the baytown track. I was just running to see what the car and I could do.

some of the serious bracket cars were out there, and they appeared to be having traction control issues that we couldn't figure out: they'd launch hard at the light, "jump" out to the 60' mark and seem to stall for a second or two and then storm down the track. we thought (at first) that they were hooking up better than they thought they could or something and it was affecting their launches. then we noticed the times and realized they were running brackets and using timers. heh.

 

the climate control was completely off. I didn't want to take a chance with the a/c cycling on during a good run.

apparently baytown is having test 'n tune days on saturdays through february. I might go out again, and if I do, I'll certainly run with less fuel.

 

Bet if you go back Tank, with more miles and less than a full tank of gas you'll do even better. Years (and years ha) ago I took my Old's 88 coupe (J2 with B&M Caddy trans), and because I had removed the front bumper (big ugly chrome thing) they stuck me in "O Gas class". My first race was a tricked out injected 57 Chevy that turned 111mph in the low 12's. The only reason I beat him was because he broke an axle and crossed my lane line. Funny that today's V-6 is as fast as yesterday's V-8.

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CL-S Sundance Gold, TR Typhoon Wheels, Solaris 9005, guards, nose mask, V-1 & remote.
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It's been my experience that the compressor shutdowns down under WOT.



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2001 Satin Silver Cl Type S.
Comptech Headers
Comptech Springs
Muds
Wheel locks
35% Llumar metallic tint
Best 0-60. 6.08 Gtech Pro (Preheaders)

My Car

 

True that is an excellent run...maybe it'll shut up all those idiots with Type-Rs!! Not trying to be a person who cites mags, but they said that the SS allows a firmer shift than the regular auto. Also, to reduce wheelspin... try power braking and holding it at 2500rpm...this should be an optimal launch point because if it is too high, too much wheelspin will occur from all the torque...your 60 ft times are suggesting that you do have a lot of wheelspin...but then mid 2s are pretty standard for front-wheel drives...get a pair of slicks and launch at 3500...you'll be scorching down the 1320..

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2001 Cl-S Black on Black with Navigation
Weapon-R Dragon Filter