Should I be satisfied with my times?

03_TrueBlue_GT · Jun 16, 2011

I went to the track last Friday and ran six times, a new personal best was a 14.2 at 98.30mph *it was hot and humid* with a .013 r/t and a 2.164 60ft time.
Worst run was a 14.6, I tried revving the motor up to 1500 on the launch... I ran a 14.3 then the last few were 14.4's.
I got a .003 reaction time on a 14.477 lol so I was happy about the r/t for sure.
I also noticed that the heat sure does play with times, in the winter my mph was around 99.5mph at the end, this time I was barely getting 98.5mph..

Im running Nitto 555 street tires and they are about 2 years old... I was launching mostly from idle or 1100rpms, I just cant seem to get traction at all. I was running on 30psi for the rear tires, had a 1/8th of a tank of gas, using the 93 octane tune on my tuner, no spare tire and iron.

So basically I was wondering with better tires are 13's even a possibility? Btw I didnt do a burnout on any of the races, I just scuffed the tires up when I went to line up to clean the debris off of the tires.

1fun281 · Jun 16, 2011

Dude you should be in the 13's already just got to work on the driving, my car is a 99 with 140k and just 4.30 gears, x pipe flows and under drive pulleys and a shifter and lowered and with no traction 2.0 60 on street tires with the gears went 13.6 at 103 and i have 24lb injectors and a CEL, i need a handheld tuner badly, you with a 93 octane mail order tune and the gears should already be in the 13's, whats your DA of that night at the track?

N8Dogg98 · Jun 16, 2011

Just throwing this out there, but a guy in my car club went 14.4 w/ his bone stock ecoboost F-150...

http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll31/SnakeCharmer77/?action=view&current=VID_20110611_122512.mp4

3ponyshow · Jun 16, 2011

These cars ran low 14's out of the box. You're almost bone stock, so you're not going to get much more out of it. Your launch will be better with more appropriate tires and a little more practice, but I doubt you'll see 13's without some mods. Until then, your best chance to produce better numbers will be running in optimal weather conditions. Hot and humid will never produce your best times.

03_TrueBlue_GT · Jun 16, 2011

I really think its my tires that are holding me back. I'm not launching the car as aggressively as I can. I don't know what more to do for my driving... its weird bc these tires seem to hook a lot better on concrete than asphalt...

What kind of tires would you guys suggest and any other tips?

Gearbanger 101 · Jun 16, 2011

Try slipping the clutch a little coming out of the hole and running through first. If you're getting a bog, you haven't got enough RPM. If you're getting wheel spin, you're putting too much power to the pavement.

If you're running with low air pressure in your stock radials, don't. Dropping the air pressure is an old bias ply trick. It’s done to help wrinkle the side wall and absorb some of the initial “shock” at launch. Since Radial tires utilize hard case sidewalls, they’re not going to wrinkle no matter how much air pressure you let of out them.

Radial tires run best at, or within a few pounds of their recommended inflation pressure. Dropping air pressure dramatically causes the center of the tire to concave and reduces your contact patch with the pavement.

Also…skip the long, smokey burn out. Burning standard radial tires turns them into grease. A quick 2nd gear “buffing” to clean off the rocks and dirt before you pull up to the starting line is fine, but nothing more than a 2 or 3 count.

As for a change in tire, anything with softer rubber compounds are going to hook better as they’re stickier. BFGoodrich tires are almost always a good bet. Barring that, any of the major brand drag radial will cut you're 60ft times dramatically. The Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials I had with my last car used to dead hook, every single time….and that was transferring 465lbs/ft of torque to the wheels.

3ponyshow · Jun 16, 2011

By practice, I mean learning what is the ideal launch rpm for your car without breaking your tires loose.

03_TrueBlue_GT said:
What kind of tires would you guys suggest and any other tips?

Depends on a few things. Will you have designated tires for the track or will you buy a set for street and strip. I like the 555r's but I don't drive in adverse weather conditions, I don't do twisty's and don't put a lot of miles on the car. Consider keeping the tires you have for the street and picking up a set of designated tires/rims for the strip. If that's a possibility, get some slicks and sfc's. You'll see 13's.

Dark04GT · Jun 16, 2011

03_TrueBlue_GT said:
I went to the track last Friday and ran six times, a new personal best was a 14.2 at 98.30mph *it was hot and humid* with a .013 r/t and a 2.164 60ft time.
Worst run was a 14.6, I tried revving the motor up to 1500 on the launch... I ran a 14.3 then the last few were 14.4's.
I got a .003 reaction time on a 14.477 lol so I was happy about the r/t for sure.
I also noticed that the heat sure does play with times, in the winter my mph was around 99.5mph at the end, this time I was barely getting 98.5mph..

Im running Nitto 555 street tires and they are about 2 years old... I was launching mostly from idle or 1100rpms, I just cant seem to get traction at all. I was running on 30psi for the rear tires, had a 1/8th of a tank of gas, using the 93 octane tune on my tuner, no spare tire and iron.

So basically I was wondering with better tires are 13's even a possibility? Btw I didnt do a burnout on any of the races, I just scuffed the tires up when I went to line up to clean the debris off of the tires.

Several things:
1) Go on a "test and tune" night. No reason to worry so much about reaction time, you need to get your launch down... test and tune allows you to take your time and the r/t is not counted in your 1/4 mile time. Focus on your 60 ft time. That will improve your ET and trap speed (they say that roughly every .1 second improvement in 60ft = .2 second improvement in ET)

2) Like other people have said, for street tires, run the psi they were designed for. When/if you get DR's that is a different story and you can lower the pressure.

3) Run a 3/4+ tank of gas. The saved weight from ~8 gallons of gas is not going to help you a ton. Figure 6lbs a gallon... so 48lbs.... and all of that weight is over the rear axle where you need it. Running by the mentality of 100lbs = .1 seconds.... I think the better launch and improved traction will have much more of an effect.

4) Speaking of weight over the rear axle I would honestly put the spare tire and iron back in. In total with the gas you are looking at adding 80-90 lbs but that is purely weight over the rear axle.... the disadvantage in weight I would argue is completely overcome by the advantage of additional traction from the weight over the rear axle. I took my spare tire and iron out (~40lbs) for two weeks just to see how my car would handle. Just in normal driving you can tell a huge difference.... my back end would kick out much easier and for the straight line I felt I could spin much easier. My experiment showed that even though theoretically I should have been faster, the weight was loss on the wrong side of the car and it just made me slower.

5) Like everyone else has said- more practice is the best thing for you. Especially if you go on a "test and tune" night you will have less of the stress of the r/t and you can focus more on your launch. Give a very quick spin to get any water or whatever off your tires but mostly focus on keeping right on the edge of maintaining traction when you launch. Focus on the gas pedal, you don't have to floor it completely initially, especially if you are having problems spinning. Find a nice medium of gas and clutch slippage to where you are getting the best time (shoot for 1.9 60ft's on the 555's).

With the catback/cai/tune and a good launch (~1.9seconds- good for the 555's) you should be able to just crack into the 13's.

Sharad · Jun 16, 2011

Yep, the car will run 13.99 stock. (I ran 13.89 in my stock 99 GT) But you have to slip the clutch out of the hole. It takes a lot of finesse.

Add a gear, suspension, and DRs and you're about a second quicker in the quarter with no extra horsepower! Traction is major.

bhuff30 · Jun 16, 2011

I think 14.2's is reasonable for a mostly stock GT in hot and humid conditions. Sure, on a nice cool fall evening with dry air, your GT would see 13.9's, but weather makes a big difference.

03_TrueBlue_GT · Jun 16, 2011

Thanks for the input guys I appreciate it a lot. I know Im not a great driver but just wanted to know if the car has the potential for 13's.

I think 14.2's is reasonable for a mostly stock GT in hot and humid conditions. Sure, on a nice cool fall evening with dry air, your GT would see 13.9's, but weather makes a big difference.

Ya I was satisfied with the time since it was hot and humid that night I cant wait to do a little more to the car this summer.

Also I was wondering with suspension would H&R SS lowering springs help out at all for drag racing?
Its one of the to do things on my endless list of mods for this car..

bhuff30 · Jun 17, 2011

Lowering springs will make the traction situation worse by hurting the weight transfer. They lower the center of gravity, which reduces weight transfer to the rear tires, and generally provide stiffer springs on the front which don't allow for as much rise.

The difference isn't that significant, but it still makes a difference.

1fun281 · Jun 17, 2011

I will tell you right now your car has every bit of the potential of running 13's the way it sits right now, in my stock 99 i ran 13.8 at 99 with just some 26x10.50x15 M/T et streets. But im also in florida at sea level, altitude makes a difference in times too

sneaky98gt · Jun 17, 2011

Dark04GT said:
Several things:
1) Go on a "test and tune" night. No reason to worry so much about reaction time, you need to get your launch down... test and tune allows you to take your time and the r/t is not counted in your 1/4 mile time. Focus on your 60 ft time. That will improve your ET and trap speed (they say that roughly every .1 second improvement in 60ft = .2 second improvement in ET)

2) Like other people have said, for street tires, run the psi they were designed for. When/if you get DR's that is a different story and you can lower the pressure.

3) Run a 3/4+ tank of gas. The saved weight from ~8 gallons of gas is not going to help you a ton. Figure 6lbs a gallon... so 48lbs.... and all of that weight is over the rear axle where you need it. Running by the mentality of 100lbs = .1 seconds.... I think the better launch and improved traction will have much more of an effect.

4) Speaking of weight over the rear axle I would honestly put the spare tire and iron back in. In total with the gas you are looking at adding 80-90 lbs but that is purely weight over the rear axle.... the disadvantage in weight I would argue is completely overcome by the advantage of additional traction from the weight over the rear axle. I took my spare tire and iron out (~40lbs) for two weeks just to see how my car would handle. Just in normal driving you can tell a huge difference.... my back end would kick out much easier and for the straight line I felt I could spin much easier. My experiment showed that even though theoretically I should have been faster, the weight was loss on the wrong side of the car and it just made me slower.

5) Like everyone else has said- more practice is the best thing for you. Especially if you go on a "test and tune" night you will have less of the stress of the r/t and you can focus more on your launch. Give a very quick spin to get any water or whatever off your tires but mostly focus on keeping right on the edge of maintaining traction when you launch. Focus on the gas pedal, you don't have to floor it completely initially, especially if you are having problems spinning. Find a nice medium of gas and clutch slippage to where you are getting the best time (shoot for 1.9 60ft's on the 555's).

With the catback/cai/tune and a good launch (~1.9seconds- good for the 555's) you should be able to just crack into the 13's.

Yup, perfect advice here. 1.9 60's are very doable with the NT555s (I've done it a lot). With a 5 speed car and some practice slipping the clutch, I'm confident that they would get down in the 1.8 range pretty easily, but it would take a lot of practice.

I definitely agree with the weight. Only take weight out if you are not having a traction problem. When I run on drag radials, I take all the weight out of my car that I can (passenger seat, rear seat, spare tire and jack, bag of tools, subwoofers, spare rocket launchers, etc.) and I'll pick up around .2 seconds and 2 mph in the 1/4. BUT, when I'm on street tires, I run about .2 quicker with the weight IN the car than I do with it out (albeit the trap is down a mph or two), and it's solely in the 60'.

And with intake, exhaust, a tune, and hot/humid weather, 14.2 is REALLY good without a lot of track experience!

03_TrueBlue_GT · Jun 17, 2011

Well heck I might just let y'all drive my car to get it in the 13's.

Again thanks for the pointers guys. At least I feel better knowing my car should run faster than stock.

Also we are at sea level out here in Houston Tx so altitude isn't that big a factor.

JymboSlice · Jun 17, 2011

what sizes are the nt555's? When i had all the bolt on's/stock suspension i hooked perfectly with NT555's that were 285mm wide. The nittos should get you traction...

03_TrueBlue_GT · Jun 17, 2011

The Nitto NT555 street tires Im using are the stock sizes 245/45 on the 17in rims all around...

A group of friends want to go to the track again this summer so I may just run it again and not worry about reaction times next time... Now by slipping the clutch do y'all mean revving the engine up to around 1100-2000rpms then easing off the clutch till it catches?

Sorry for the dumb question....

JymboSlice · Jun 17, 2011

Clutch in, put it in 1st. Rev it to 2k.. light turns green, immediently take your foot off the clutch (not slowly, fast) then the car will go forward, rather quickly. If the car bogs, then raise the revs on your next trip down the strip.

You might want some bigger rear wheels/tires to hook better.. IMO

Gearbanger 101 · Jun 17, 2011

03_TrueBlue_GT said:
Now by slipping the clutch do y'all mean revving the engine up to around 1100-2000rpms then easing off the clutch till it catches?

Sorry for the dumb question....

Not a dumb question at all.

By slipping the clutch, we mean "riding it" out of the hole a little. Bring revs up the point where you would normally disengage the clutch and let it out as you normally would, but at the point where you start to feel the tires break loose, reduce your rate of throttle and keep, or add just a little pressure to the pedal in order to relinquish some of its clamping force on the pressure plate. This should result in engine RPM holding, or slightly coming up, but the wheel spin should stop. Once you're up and moving, fully release the clutch and roll into the throttle.

The whole process should take 1-2 seconds, so it's going to require some practice....so don't get discouraged if you don't get it right the first time.

PULMEOVR · Jun 17, 2011

Brian, thanks for all the advice. I'm a newb to the track and everything you said will be very helpful!

Should I be satisfied with my times?

03_TrueBlue_GT

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