guys, yesterday, at work, a collegue invited me to race his 4 month old buick regal GS(supercharged) in the 1/4mile, at a local drag strip. Now I have an '03 TL-P with 2,700miles on it! I told him I won't go head to head with him, But I'd go anyway to time my car too. Now the more I think about it the more I wanna just go for it, and race em! I know his car is capable of mid 6's high 14's but Who knows? I might just beat him! I know I need 1/4 tank of gas, and spare tire taken out. Now this will be my first time at the dragstrip, with any car, so please give me some tips on how best to launch our auto! traction control on or off? D3, D4, D5, or sport shift? what is break torqueing, how do I pull it off, and is it safe? I feel my car is broken in well now, and its real jumpy, in first gear, so who nows?

 

I hear people say gun it on the yellow to lower your reaction time.

 

maybe you should go to some deserted road and practice launching your car b4 you go to the track

 

Like NsX Pilot said, find an empty stretch of road and get a feel for how hard you can launch the car. Play with tire pressure a bit while you are at it. Here are a few more tips for the track:

- Avoid the water in the burnout box. Drive around it to keep water away from the tires. Unless you are using slicks, a big smoky burnout is just a waste of rubber and gas. Water from the inside of the fender or between the tire thread blocks will drip down on the track and make the starting line slippery.
- Line the car up at the starting line and do a quick launch to clean the tires. If you know your car/tires launches well from 3000 RPM, launch it @ 3000 RPM at the line. It cleans the craps off your tires and gives you an instant feedback on track condition:
1. If tires spins @ 3000 RPM, the track is too slippery. Try it again with less RPM.
2. If tires grabs and engine bogs down, the track is sticky. Raise the launch RPM.
3. If tires grabs, squeals a bit and the car takes off, then line the car up again and let'er rip at the same RPM.
- If you are racing headup with the GS, leave as soon as you see the last yellow. Unless you are blessed with hair-trigger reaction time, it will be too late if you launch after you see the green light.
- If you two are just racing against the clock, leave whenever you feels like it because the clock doesn't start until your tires breaks the staging light.

Good luck and keep it safe.

 

wear a helmet

 

Power brake it in D1, then gateshift ur way up one at a time carefully because u dont want to pop it in neutral

Sport Shift is not as efficient as gateshifting. In SS mode your first gear automatically changes into second very early.

 

Power brake = Applying brake and gas(floor it) at the same time. ( Your car will rev to somewhere around 3000rpm at a standstill. When you see the green light you let go of the brake and your off.
Get some mods- u will have a lot of fun at the track.

 

Take out your back seat, keep the windows rolled up and try to take a big dump before going to the track to "lighten the load".

 

drop it! no clothes on will help too...no heavy jewelry either..

 

putting it at D3 is better...all u need is just to focus on the road....

the supercharged 3.8 is capable of running high 14s all day long...but they don't perform well on humid and hot days...if that day is humid and hot, u might have the advantage

 

I agree. I recently used gate shifting from D1 to D4, the drive is remarkably different. Its incredible the difference when you make complete use of 1st gear. Your tires squeal going in to 2nd gear, its great. But you have to be careful not to cut off your fuel (redline) and not to go into neutral. Sportshift has nothing on gateshift, from the stop, at least. Also turn off your VSA, and A/C.

 

will someone please explain to me gateshifting...i mean i know what sportshifting is but im starting to get confused cuz i didnt know there were this many different kinds of ways to shift...thanks

 

Glad to see that there are sensible people in this world who will 'take it to the strip' rather than the street.

 

Gateshifting: Using the shift gate instead of the Sportshift slot to shift "manually" from 1 to D3 or D4.
-J.P.

 

isn't gate shifting bad for your car?

isn't it safer to use ss?

and even safer to use auto?

 

Oops thought about wrong car :P

 

this is an old post...=O

 

Let's see.

No.

No.

and No.


Shift gate shifting will not hurt your car.
The only negative against shift gate use is that it requires more driver skill. The issue is consitency of shift points, but once mastered, you will consitently produce your best standing start times. You will also have better runs from 30, 50 and 80MPH, if you were to race from those points.

We just had a big meet at a major track and we now have many converts to shift gate use as all their times improved. All.

Lastly, there is a poll on the CL Formum that indicates there are more tranny failures using Auto mode than any other mode.

Ruf

 

On my 99, if I gate shift, in first gear, about 6500 RPMs, it flucuates, and feels like the engine is about to conk out, so I use sport shift and shift it at the red line. No real need of doing gate shifting on mine, because i can control first to second gear with SS.


-Ryan
'99 Satin Silver TL

 

all my friends basically race for fun...so don't be too sad if you loose, because they loose alot and it's just more motivation to work on your car more. Just have fun and try not to get smoked that bad...