im new to this whole standard transmission thing and ive had my ss for almost 3 weeks now.. i think im getting the hang of it for the most part. but launching is my worst enemy right now lol.. how do you guys do it? i just tried doing it again today and i think i had wheel hop.. it felt like my right tire was just dragging on the street and it was making a pounding noise.. i want to eliminate that lol because i hear thats not good for our axles. so if you guys can give me tips on how to drive it i would appreciate it : ) thanks

 

Practice makes perfect!

Feather the clutch when launching; dont just dump it. Don't dump the gas either; when you launch it, it almost requires a quick little tap to get it rolling so it grabs.

 

Ingalls torque damper or some poly trans mounts will help eliminate the wheel hop issue, its a car thing not a driver thing!

 

also tune it and take some boost out in first, between that and some mounts my car gets up and goes very quick with no wheel hop

 

^^ It can be a car thing if you give it too much gas, but if the responsibility rests on your right foot (as it does with most things race-related) then it's a driver thing. Once I learned to feather the clutch and throttle in first, bye-bye wheel hop, and I have a Stage 2 with no engine/tranny mounts.

Less is more in first, you might not feel it grab as much as you want, but the whole idea is to get the RPM's up for the kick in the butt that is second gear. Keep practicing, once you take care of wheel hop, torque steer is next

 

looks like he has an lsd so he shouldnt have too many problems with torque steer

 

Not as many, but it gets more noticeable if you add power. I have the LSD too, and especially on cold pavement I still feel it. You can never totally eliminate it, but if he remains stock, you're right, he shouldn't feel it as badly as someone without the LSD.

 

trust me even with lsd torque steer still happens out of nowhere ill throw it to second and the car just throws it to the right almost every time.

how to launch it though the stock tires are horrible i went with a 8 inch wide tire with avon m550 tires that stick. just have your car at a peak rev of 2350-2750 rpms and let off the clutch decently slow if u experience wheel spin sorta ride the clutch a little but not to hurt it and watch for wheel hop. The reason people get wheelhop is because right at 2750 rpms they let it out get to 4000-4500 rpms and just mash it to the floor it will give u horrible wheel hop. just go through first decent mash it at about 4500-4700 rpms and get to 6500 rpms and dont slam 2nd but put it down quick. Best thing to do for racing is have the seat forward and just relax good luck now go kill thoose shitty pirellis

 

ive never had torque steer and im just under 300 at the wheels right now, with the lsd. and launching without mods is basically finding the sweet spot in your throttle and clutch.

now im my old car with no lsd, i constantly had torque steer, but you have to find your sweet spot, unless your going to do mods to help you on that path

 

To launch depends on several factors.
First how is the tread on your tires?
The less thread the less rpm you want to be at for launch.

First never launch above 2400 rpms.
Any higher and you get wheelhop unless you have a mounts or Ingalls Torque Dampener which then just means you spin your tires. (BURNOUT!!!)

Second, when your ready to launch slowly let out the clutch untill it starts to grab.
Let it get the car moving to about 5mph by then your should be 3/4's out of the clutch then let it come straight out and slowly push into the gas.

If you push down on the gas you'll wheel hop. The best thing is ride into the gas pedal slowly get to about 4/5 throttle and you'll be near the limiter so shift straight to second and get on it not slam the pedal but faster than you were doing first gear. You should be WOT before getting to 4k rpm.

After that get to redline shift thrid go straight down on the pedal and keep going.

Once the race is done do not hit the break hard!!!!!!!!
More people have injured them selves and / or destroyed thier cars by just stomping the brakes.
Put the car in netrual and slowly get on the break.
Get off after 2 or 3 seconds. wait a second do it again untill your back to 60mph and then you can break normal.

And third, don't try to follow this to the letter. Every car is diffrent once you start modding launch's change.

Experiment and as soon as you feel the car bucking every where and the dash board is rattiling like crazy get OFF THE GAS and PUSH THE CLUTCH DOWN!!!!!!!!
That is wheel hop and it will blow your axel and cause transmission damage.
My advice is get a Ingalls Torque Dampener and or Engine and Tranny Mounts.

I did these launchs and stayed two cars behind an LS1 Trans AM (I have stage 2) and those cars run 13.5 - 13.6 from the factory so take that as a base idea for what a proper launch can do.

Hope this helps.

 

oh, the car is brand new so the tires are brand new also lol. i plan on getting the ingalls in the spring. and what do you mean never launch over 2400rpms? like revving it up to over 2400 and then release the clutch? i dont think i have experienced wheel spin yet either.. i dont know what to look for with that lol.. but a couple times i did something in first and my car would just stutter like go and then stop and then go.. when it does that i have to let off the gas and i shift it into 2nd.. im still learning all of this stuff. sucks i have to learn in the snow though..

 

an0mlaous has a how to on this

 

i'm going to go against everyone here, and say DON'T launch the car. you're new to manual, so get used to doing what you're doing first. master normal driving before you try to launch it hard.

 

bounce rev limiter and dump the clutch

 

I agree with D4u2s0t!

Didn't know you were literaly brand new to the world of Maunal driving.
You need to learn to drive the car espically in snow before you learn to launch and do the heavy stuff like racing.

Trust Me!!!

I learned to drive manual in an underpowered S-10.
Wait till summer when the roads are dry and learn the car for several months before you try launchin it. The SS S/C is a hella of a car to learn manual on. In Stock form it has enough power to get you in trouble real fast so please take it slow I don't want to read another story of a person killing themselves because they tried to do something they weren't ready to.
Racing is dangerous and the less prepared you are the more dangerous it is.
Best of luck to you I was thier to.

 

the stuttering was probably you hitting the rev limiter. if the engine was REALLY loud, and it kept sounding like it was shutting off, it was because you're reving too high. not doing any damage to the engine unless you constantly hit the limiter, but its a good idea to not hit it. lol.

yeah, learn to drive the car before you go trying to launch it. driving stick is all about feel. once you get it, you'll love it.

 

practice makes perfect

 

practice, ingalls and tranny mounts help but it still comes down to you, ive put down 2.1 sec 60ft on stock pirellis and no traction mods its just a matter of throttle and clutch control, you need to feather the clutch and throttle untill you feel it grab and after that your pretty much good to go.

 

how can you tell when it grabs? i really can never tell.. i just let out the clutch slowly while giving it gas and releasing the clutch at the same time

 

you shouldn't be launching your car. learn to drive a manual correctly first. trust me. i know you want to be fast from a stop, but it's not worth it. you're going to burn out your clutch, or break an axle. take it easy for a few months. .

i'm not saying this to be a downer, or be a dick, but your car has enough power stock to break things if you don't launch it properly. and axles/tranny will not be covered under warranty when you break them. i seriously wouldn't even try to go hard if you can't tell when you're hooking, and don't know what wheel hop is. all it takes is one wheel hop to snap an axle.

 

it grabs when you start moving. lol. what you should do is go into a parking lot, and just play with the clutch. move the car without using the gas pedal. you're not gonna go flying like this, i'm only talking about inching forward at like 1mph. but you'll get a feel for when the clutch grabs, what it does to the car and how it feels and everything. just let the clutch out slowly, you'll feel the car start to vibrate a bit, rpm will go down, if its at night you're lights will dim slightly, and you'll start to inch forward. just keep doing that. find out when you can completely let off the clutch (be going at least 3mph). once you feel comfortable, add the gas pedal into the equasion, so to speak. don't be afraid to stall the car. just practice and you'll get it. and yeah, don't worry about launching.

 

from what i can tell, you need to learn the basics before you start launching.

start trying to get your car launched using the least possible amount of gas you can.

because this here:
says that your slipping the clutch to make up for your inexperience on the peddles.

dont worry, its pretty normal.
but what you want to do, is learn that clutch engagement point by heart, so you dont have to "feel for it"

instead of slowly letting out the clutch while giving it gas, do this.

Slowly let it out without giving it ANY gas.
when you feel the car bog a little bit and try to move, thats your engagement point, from there, feed in a tiny amount of gas, and release it the rest of the way.

you will probably stall, alot, at first, but once you get this technique down, THEN you can start playing with the RPMS.

the last thing you need to be doing, is doing any hard launches at 2500rpm with such little experience. or you wont have a clutch left after 10 miles, and trying to blame it on a poor clutch

 

I learned to drive a stick on a beat up '93 toyota pickup.

Going from that thing to my balt was a whole new world, and I'm glad I didn't learn on it, the cobalts can be a rather delicate beast at times.

Learning the friction point in your clutch is extremely important, definately practice getting your car moving without using the gas pedal. Once your good with that, then get good at doing it on an incline Once your proficient at that, you'll be ready for more stuff.

 

thanks for the advice guys : )

 

I agree with the people that say get daily driving down first . In the spring we can meet up and i can show you how i launch mine if u want . Try not to be too hard on the clutch until the car has some break in miles on her .