Since it was such a beautiful day and it as going to otherwise be a quiet night for me, I decided to go to the local dragstrip to get some 1/4 runs in. Luckilly for me, I live right next to Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ which is a fully NHRA accredited drag strip. This is as accurate as 1/4 tracks get.

It should be noted that this is the first FWD car I have ever taken to a drag strip. I have raced RWD cars all my life and was quite good at getting them to run some great times (consistent 1.6 sec 60' times), but I will admit that I have a lot of learning to do with the variances of FWD drag racing.

The only modifications my car has is the Trifecta Tune and a K&N drop in filter. Stock tires were used.

My objective was to get a definitive comparison between the stock 1/4 mile runs I have made vs. the new ones with the tune. This was done in what I consider to be street trim. Normal tire pressure and a 1/2 tank of fuel was used in the stock and tuned testing. Car weights with me in it were identical at 3080 lbs.

Before the tune, I ran a 13.8 @ 103 mph. Decent numbers for a stock SS/TC and right about where I expected them to be.

Having arrived at the track earlier, I got in a total of 5 runs. As I began racing it became immediatly apparent that traction off the line was going to be a huge problem. My first run was an indicator of that.

I will list the times first, then a description of that run...

Run #1 - 14.2 @ 107.35

This was done with no changes to the traction control. It had some serious spin off the line and continued into 2nd gear. The ESC light was flashing away for most of the run and I took my time with the shifts. Once approx. 50 mph was reached, the car had a consistent and steady pull. Shifting was done at redline.


Run # 2 - 13.9 @ 103.9

For the 2nd run, I wanted to see how launch control would work. It did NOT work out very well. After some serious bogging down, the car felt very slow as the traction control was active and then once it sensed grip, it began to move briskly again. This bogging caused a serious dent in my trap speed though.


Run # 3 - 13.7 @ 106.12

I then wanted to test what would happen with all the computer was totally shut off. After holding the traction control button for 5 seconds, all systems were deactivated and the I launched as I normally would. While the launch was much smoother, the increase in torque from the tune caused the tires to spin a bit more then I would have liked immediatly after a gear change. I also took notice of the cars powerband and began to see that taking it up to redline made the car feel as though it was running out of power. I made note of this for the next run.


Run # 4 - 13.6 @ 107.02

Putting my focus more on trap speed then ET, I put the car back in competitive mode and took a standard launch. I decided to pay extra attention as to what rpm the car felt like it was starting to run out of steam. I saw that around 5900 rpm looked like the magic number. I shifted at redline up until 3rd and then shifted at 5900 rpm into 4th gear. Definetly an improvement.


Run # 5 - 13.7 @ 108.68

I took a VERY relaxed launch in comp mode on this run since I was purely interested in max trap speed. My 60' time of 2.375 was a testament to this. In every gear I shifted at 5900 rpm however I made the unfortunate mistake of briefly missing the shift to 2nd gear (my attention was too focused on the tach...a shift light would be ideal). Even with the brief hesitation, the car felt a lot stronger when shifting at the 5800-5900 rpm range. The power was much more solid throughout the run.

I learned a lot about our cars today...

These are quick little cars with just the tune. Everything else on my car in totally stock. No upgraded piping, intercoolers or intakes....just the tune.

With a proper shift during that last run, a 110 mph trap speed was a certainty. Traction is the huge issue and to net very low ET's, one needs a lot of practice with the launch. Once traction is achieved however, these cars perform quite well when shifting in the proper powerband. It should also be noted that "Launch Control" is totally useless for getting good times. Avoid it at the track. Comp mode yields the best results since it controls wheel spin without incorporating too much power limiting traction control.

I will return to the track in the next few weeks with the objective of netting a 110+mph trap speed. ET should drop dramatically as well.

Hope some of you find this helpful when you take your tuned car to the track. Good Luck!

 

Yeah I was there with agent007kimball..First time with this car to the track... My best time was a 13.9 with a 2.23 60'...I'm still learning about this car...Power is a lot different from my ss/sc..Just have to get used to it and hit up the track more.

 

Awesome write up man! Were you using NLS at all?

 

Oh Dan thanks for that keychain light...if ii wasn't for that and my little box of tools i would have been beat. Oh by the way anybody know the size of the turbo inlet. i want to get a silicone coupler. Now i know the dejon intake i believe is 2.5" and i'd have to get a coupler that is 2.5" reduced to ???

 

Thanks.

I used it mainly on runs 4 and 5...run 1 was mainly a test run, 2 was bogging too much so I avoided it and run 3 was spinning a bit much so I decided to hold off of using it.

No problem. Hope that intake stayed on....you sounded damn good going the track. I could hear the turbo from the other end.

 

so dan i didnt use nls and i forgot to turn off my esc( duh) did you notice a difference using nls..I was kinda scared to try it with our cars being tuned and all.

 

It helped on the shifts from 2-3 and from 3-4...once you are getting solid traction it is quite good. If you use it too early or when traction is poor it just spins them and causes a slow down. Try experimenting with it next time you are there. If you drop the tire pressure to around 20psi, I am sure you could use NLS for every shift.

 

Cool cool i'm going to try that next time.. definitely going to drop my tire pressure next time too.

 

What were your 60'ft times,and did you drop your pressure at all?

 

well done! my car last year was doing 12.7's at 110-112 with a 1.7 60' on m/t streets and tune only.
I have been to the track this year and am having a little trouble hooking up yesterday I was doing high 2.1 60's with a 13.00 at 110. the first 330' is everything. I did a high 2.2 and went 13.5. one tenth in my 60' gave me 4 tenths more in my 8th mile and half a sec in the 1/4.

I love reading posts about peoples time at the track and what they find. very nice write up!!!!

 

They ranged from 2.2 to the 2.375 on the last run. I was having a very hard time getting traction. Lot's of lost time off the line. Tire pressure was close to normal so next time I will drop it down to around 20psi and see how it does.

I anticipate close to 13 flat or possibly high 12's if I could manage a great launch at 110+mph....I will be focusing more on trap speed with this car since there are going to be some limitations with the stock tires on the launch....and I have no intention of getting drag radials.

 

110+mph would be a good launch!

Were you wot in 2nd and 3rd? Any clutch slippage?

 

Yeah. It definetly would have hit 110+ if I hadnt missed a shift on the last run...even so, it still got close to 109.

Once it got traction in 2nd, I gave it full throttle and did so for the remainder of the run.

 

Is your redline upped to 7k??
If so, do you feel like you save any time at all by shifting at 7k in 1st and 2nd??

 

Redline is at the stock 6200. With everything else still stock other then the tune, the powerband doesnt seem to increase at all above 6200. If you bumped it up to 7000 you would be able to end your run in 3rd since that would max at around 110-112mph...that might prove to be benificial for 1/4 mile times but at the moment I have no interest in reving that high....might be something for the near future though