This was my first time drag racing, after flubbing the first run pretty bad, I got the hang off it decently and got to make 5 runs altogether.

The Car has upipe/dp 3" to the axle, sti IC and custom tune Ecutek.

Here's my best pass (the other car was a stock taurus)

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/775147/timeslip1.jpg

One problem I kept running into was needing to shift into 4th at the very end of the track. I tried holding 3rd, but I hit the rev limiter, I tried getting into 4th a little earlier but that yeilded a slower time too.

I'm thinking about asking my tuner for a few hundred more rpm, it seems like 3rd tops at 95mph, and the car is still making decent power up there. Any suggestions about how to get better times? I feel like the car should be capable of high 13's.

Work on that 60 foot and a 13 should be no problem.

What should a decent 60' time be, without being to abusive? I know I should be under 2.0, but how far? I didn't feel like I launched as hard as I could/have, but I also was getting ZERO wheel spin (sticky 225 width tires on 7.5") with the sticky track, where as I can usually get a little chirp on the street.

I would bump up your tire pressure to mid 40's, then shoot for anywhere in the 1.6-1.8 60' range....that's a good solid launch without busting anything up too badly. Drag racing is hard on our cars, so if you want to be good, well....you know what I'm saying.

It could have simply been the weather ... Heat and humidity are killers ... These are my times from back on Father's Day at NED ... Pretty much the same exact mods as your own (basic Stage2 set-up), and damn close on the 60's ... From checking my slips with similar 60' times against yours it looks like your losing .2sec per timing/dist point ... So I'd put down the time differences as weather related personally, as I am by no means a shifting god ... If you shifting quick and solid, it's the weather ... If your shifting leaves something to be desired, there's a couple tenths per timing/dist easily right there and would put you right with me ...
r/t 1.010 0.994 1.059 1.191 0.527 0.764 0.723 0.620 0.813 0.652 0.701 0.731 0.640
60' 2.262 2.242 2.143 1.977 1.910 1.923 1.948 1.938 1.923 1.811 1.915 1.935 1.936
330' 6.021 5.967 5.851 5.687 5.624 5.634 5.614 5.656 5.591 5.344 5.587 5.601 5.612
1/8mi 9.129 9.073 8.940 8.780 8.706 8.712 8.656 8.755 8.659 8.361 8.663 8.646 8.654
mph 79.12 78.93 79.34 79.63 80.13 80.44 81.31 79.61 80.79 83.07 81.09 81.21 81.30
1000' 11.785 11.733 11.590 11.421 11.337 11.337 11.260 11.399 11.277 11.140 11.299 11.272 11.282
1/4mi 14.053 13.987 13.847 13.669 13.590 13.589 13.488 13.649 13.521 13.249 13.543 13.482 13.490
mph 98.19 97.90 98.79 99.16 99.73 99.85 100.94 100.27 100.56 102.22 100.87 100.62 100.75
Otherwise I'd simply look at where your shifting ... Different cars will pull a better time depending when they're shifted ... My times got better during the day due to shifting changes ... I initially shifted at 7100-7200 all gears, but ended up around 7200 (1-2), 7000 (2-3), 6900 (3-4) and yes I always had to shift to 4th ... No way around it ...

The weather may have definitely been an issue(80-70 degrees out over the runs and high humidity), the car didn't seem to be making as much power as I felt it should. My shifting is pretty clean and quick, I have a kartboy and bushings too...

The car makes 223 to the wheels on a dynodynamics in a shop that has most stockers making making 150-160...it just didn't seem like all the power was there...

I did drive 5 hours through lots of stop and go traffic before I got the dragway, I'm wondering if that could have made a big difference...perhpas the engine was stressing in the heat with the a/c and pulled a bunch of timing. In between runs I did pop the hood, but I didn't really do anything else to fit heat soak.

Also, weight was 3408 with driver.

If you can hit a 1.8 sixty foot you will be able to run 13s

Weather didn't help out. I had an '02 with an uppipe, downpipe and unichip and ran 13.87 at 97/98 down in southern Florida(1.91 60'). It was about 70 degrees outside, and about the same humidity. I'd say weather is keeping your mph down a hair. Wait a month or two and try again. Also, when I ran that hard I bounced rev limiter through the last 50-100 feet of the track. I consistently ran 13.9x while going into 4th.

BTW, I'm also not a light driver. I'm about 255...


Mika

The more I look at it, I realize that the power was just definitely not there. There is no reason that I should not have broken 13.5 and 100 when my 60 was under 2 seconds. I think that the drive up the track must have put the car in a very unhappy mode and there was no real chance for it to readapt. I did a shiv reset last night and the car instantly felt much happier. I may go down to Englishtown next wednesday and try again, I also come armed with at least a make shift water sprayer for the pit lanes.

Well chad you only gained 19.8mph between the 1/8th and 1/4th mile, maybe pulling timing. Next time ya go, spray it down, you can also turn pull the a/c relay temp so turning on the a/c activates the fan, but doesnt spin the compressor.

Just for reference my 2nd time ever at the track in My wagon with only a boost controller set at 14.5 psi I ran a 13.9@97.5mph with a 1.97 60

That makes more sense, I original thought my times due to being green at the track, but from what I can tell now, with the HP I put on the dyno (about the same as a stock STi at on the same dyno) and the 60' times, I should have been deep into the 13's.

Okay I think I figured it out now....

Though my 60ft isn't bad, when you look at the differences between my time for 60-330 and 330-1/8 with pezman's best run there is difference of .22 and .18 respectively. The gap narrow back down through out the rest of the run. So even though I'm launcing well I'm screwing up when I fully let the clutch in at the top of first or on the 1/2 shift. I'll see what I can do this weekend....

13s should be really easy. My friend with a lesser setup in a WRX ran a 13.3ish.

Your trap is slow too by 3-5 mph.

yea thats the first thing I noticed was the trap speed.....really slow. You should be at 13.5ish easy with a 1.9 60 foot. at about 101

Also, weight was 3408 with driver.

I'm guessing this is the culprit. That is quite heavy, and would explain the low traps.

you calling me fat? :-) unfortunately I had a bunch of stuff in my car too...what's a typical race weight for a wrx? I'm going to empty the car out as much as possibel for this weekend.

you calling me fat? :-) unfortunately I had a bunch of stuff in my car too...what's a typical race weight for a wrx? I'm going to empty the car out as much as possibel for this weekend.

Take out everything that you can. Take out all the spare tire stuff. Weight is not your friend.

Took the car to Lebanon Valley this weekend

I had less crap in the car, but a bit more fuel so weight was about the same (no scales, just guessing). Weather was a bit better, but I was only able to make a very small improvement of about .03 seconds in my best ET. I need to work out my launching a bit better, I'm going to try less rpms and being a bit more agressive with the clutch.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/775147/drag9-3-05.jpg

Took the car to Lebanon Valley this weekend

I had less crap in the car, but a bit more fuel so weight was about the same (no scales, just guessing). Weather was a bit better, but I was only able to make a very small improvement of about .03 seconds in my best ET. I need to work out my launching a bit better, I'm going to try less rpms and being a bit more agressive with the clutch.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/775147/drag9-3-05.jpg
You really need to work on that 60ft. 13's are there.

Um, what was the 10 second car you were running against???!!!!!

Lebanon Valley??? is that Lebanon Valley PA? or somewhere else

That was a very mean pure GTO, tubbed, roll caged, slicked but certainly not muffled...kept my mirrors shaking in the waiting lanes

Lebanon Valley is West Lebanon near Albany NY.

I'd second the fact that you need to work on your 60' times ... They're damn hard to nail ... I actually did better on my 60' times back on Father's Day then I did when I went up recently ... The track was very sticky the last time I went up (they were running the "Quick 8's" class) and I was barely able to get into the 2.0 60' times ... It was alot harder for me with the track properly prepped ... As far as your slips go, other then the 60' time, they're pretty much identical ... I'd look a bit more into where you're shifting like I had mentioned before ... That may be the key right there ... A good 60' time, and hitting the right shift points for each gear will help out alot ... Your mods say you should be pulling a consistent 13.4-13.5, so I'm really not sure what else to look at ... BTW: 3" to the axle? ... You don't have the stock muffler on there do you? ... If you do, you may want to consider just taking it off at the track ...

I have an STi muffler on the rear, its pretty free flowing compared to stock (straight through design), I can't imagine its holding me back at this power level (My tuner says if I go with a vf34 it will hold me back, but I want to do a back to back dyno to find out) I was actually thinking about pulling it for ****s and giggles anyway...

As far the 60 ft times go, I've come to realize grip is my biggerst enemy. I'm running 225 width bfg KDW's on 7.5" wheels. Making wheelspin very hard to come by. I'm at a point where I either don't hit it hard enough and bog a bit or hit it real hard and the clutch keeps slipping a bit from the grip.

I've been practicing my launches at night around my house...last night I made a nice 20 ft long rubber patch by reving the engine and then stepping off the clutch smoothly and quickly (rather than dragging it). That worked well, but that was on cold pavement, not hot prepper track.

Im hoping to go out again saturday, and when I do I will try hitting the throttle on the first yellow and then stepping of the clutch one the second to see how that goes. I'm also going to pump up my air pressure to about 45psi (tried 40 last weekend)

I think after this weekend I won't hit the track again for a bit. I want to get my snow's early and see if I can make some improvements when I can spin them easy.

Are you heating your manifolds up when you're staging? I know my car is more responsive on the launch when I've had time to keep the revs around 5k to heat things up.