First time drag racing, need tips/tricks!

[sammy]

Hey guys im planning on going to Calder shortly to run my BA XR6 (NA) its auto, 3" intake and complete exhaust system. Id like some tips/tricks i can use to get some good times and also safety tips when im out there.

For example to reduce the weight of the car im taking out the spare tyre and subs.
I know i have to wear a helmet and long clothing (hoddie and trackies)

But other than that not sure what else so any tips would be helpfull.

Thanks in advance
Sam

[iCER]

relax, its an NA, just go out and have some fun!

What tyres you going with? ill presume normal streets. So feel free to drop them down to about 18PSI.

Always use performance mode in the auto.

Make sure you do a decent burnout at the start. (roll forward a little about 10-20cm then hold brake down hard while you put the foot all the way down and flick through 2nd and 3rd gear) and let go of the brake and slowly remove foot of brake and roll forward through the burnout.)

Once at the staging lights, make sure radio, aircon etc are all off. Traction control is off, and that windows are all up. Slowly creep up to them as you can go past them. When both top and 2nd row of lights are lit up on the christmas tree, you are ready to rock.

Hold brake down hard, rev to about 3000RPM. When light turns green, (I usually) wait for the other car to go (just incase anything funky happens to either them or yourself at any stage of the run), then let go of the brake and mash the accel pedal. If you spin out, next run gently but firmly mash the accel pedal. If you still get worse then 2.3 60" footer, then drop the revs on takeoff by 200rpm. If you get no wheel spin of launch, then up the revs by 200rpm next takeoff. Keep going till it actually spins out. The harder you launch out of the hole with minimal wheel spin, the faster your time will be. Its all about feel and trying out different combos. Have a few cracks till you and the car is happy.

Usually wait 20 mins before every run for optimal performance. NAs wont get as hot as turbo's so may even be ok a little sooner.

All in all, have fun! If nothing break's then its a great day!
Good Luck.

[Parfrey]

What Icer said apart from doing a massive skid.. street tyres will get too slippery if they get over heated, so just do a medium sized one lol. If it doesn't have an lsd then a small skid will be ok cos your only heating the shit out of one wheel... or do one without the brake?
Start off by stalling it a little (won't go to 3000rpm if its got a stock stally) and then build up from there.. if its wheel spinning it feels faster but you'll be going slower.

Try to let the car/engine bay cool between runs, don't sit in the staging lanes with the bonnet down and engine running for an hour while you wait for a go at calder.

[iCER]

lol i never said massive skid! but ye!

[BLKPHN]

Go have some fun to get to serious about it cause you wont enjoy your day.

i found when i ran my BA XR8 with the 4speed auto the best times were achieved with no stalling it up but just lean on the accelerator when the lights went if i stalled it up it would just fry tires or just not pull off so quick.

[sammy]

Haha cheers guys, yeaa like as you guys said just go out there and have fun
Yeaa i got LSD on the XR.
I was also thinking of taking the headlight out but i really cbf removing the front bar to take the light off haha

So put it in tiptronic and off you go

[BLKPHN]

Just slide it across into sports mode don't worry about the shifting it into first etc.

[sammy]

Just slide it across into sports mode don't worry about the shifting it into first etc.

Yeaa cool well il let u guys know how it goes

[TAXI]

Don't take a headlight out.
Running a high 14 or 15 and no headlight is just gay and pointless.
No light and 9's would look ok.

[iCER]

how about lights in and 9s?

[TAXI]

Come on icer we all know your only good for a ten.

[SnipeZ]

Lol. Made my day


Cheers

[sammy]

Hahaha yea true now thinking about it is gay and pointless haha
Anyways guys thanks for the inputs really appreciate it

[rat]

Just make sure ya floor pan bolts are tight!!

It's a great experience and can only help you to become a better driver. Good luck!

[sammy]

Just make sure ya floor pan bolts are tight!!

It's a great experience and can only help you to become a better driver. Good luck!

The floor pan is the piece of plastic thats under the front bumper yeaa?
And thanks and would be a good experience

[SnipeZ]

Na was a fast and furious reference haha


Cheers

[sammy]

Na was a fast and furious reference haha


Cheers

Ohh lmaooo dw no floor pan is falling off

[Mr. CVE]

You will have a great time.
My opinion ( I have done this before !! )
Leave headlight in.
Leave tyres at 30 psi, steel belted radials that have bedded in don't work when you let them down as it changes the footprint.

Leave in perf auto first couple passes so you get the hang of it.

You will be pumped, but try to relax, don't worry about looking silly , we all started once.

Be carefull you don't get addicted !!

I started racing running 19's and 18's now pushing for 7's !!

[sammy]

Cheers mr CVE

[Mr. CVE]

Cheers mr CVE

No probs !! have a blast !

[sammy]

Will do il see if i can video record myself of the run

[Rollin]

Biggest rookie mistake is getting really focused on the skid and ending up going too far down the track to stage properly - lots of people end up staging with the REAR wheels instead of the fronts!

Watch other people doing it and try and find a marker point on/beside the track that people line up with when they are staging, so when you drive up to the start point you'll know roughly where you will need to stop to stage.

When I do a skid I start in the water but move out of it as soon as possible and get onto the drier actual track surface between the water and the staging point - don't sit still though because the officials might get upset you're digging holes in the track. Just crawl forewards nice and slow with a lot of revs in first (with more experience/power 2nd would be an option, but we're talking about an N/A auto here).

I've found this method to be the best for a car with street tyres as the tyres actually burn some of the sticky rubber (from actual drag car slicks) off the track and onto the tyres, rather than the other way around with slicks, where the actual tyre itself gets hot and sticky from the burnout.

Remember to breathe - you'll be probably pretty focused and feel like you're under a lot of pressure (remember your first time driving a car on a public road once you'd got your learners? Similar to that).

The reaction time has nothing to do with the ET or the miles per hour either, so don't feel pressured to cut an awesome light. Obviously don't sit there for 30 seconds after the green making sure your revs are spot on before launching, but a second or three getting it right at the start is better than wasting an entire run because you launched before you were ready.

If you get confident and want to try for a good RT, try leaving on the last yellow rather than the green, or even anticipating the last yellow if the car is a but of a slug off the lights. I'd recommend playing a lot with launching and stall speeds etc until you're happy before you start worrying about reaction time though, as RT only counts in competition, it's nothing other than bragging rights at a test and tune.

[sammy]

Biggest rookie mistake is getting really focused on the skid and ending up going too far down the track to stage properly - lots of people end up staging with the REAR wheels instead of the fronts!

Watch other people doing it and try and find a marker point on/beside the track that people line up with when they are staging, so when you drive up to the start point you'll know roughly where you will need to stop to stage.

When I do a skid I start in the water but move out of it as soon as possible and get onto the drier actual track surface between the water and the staging point - don't sit still though because the officials might get upset you're digging holes in the track. Just crawl forewards nice and slow with a lot of revs in first (with more experience/power 2nd would be an option, but we're talking about an N/A auto here).

I've found this method to be the best for a car with street tyres as the tyres actually burn some of the sticky rubber (from actual drag car slicks) off the track and onto the tyres, rather than the other way around with slicks, where the actual tyre itself gets hot and sticky from the burnout.

Remember to breathe - you'll be probably pretty focused and feel like you're under a lot of pressure (remember your first time driving a car on a public road once you'd got your learners? Similar to that).

The reaction time has nothing to do with the ET or the miles per hour either, so don't feel pressured to cut an awesome light. Obviously don't sit there for 30 seconds after the green making sure your revs are spot on before launching, but a second or three getting it right at the start is better than wasting an entire run because you launched before you were ready.

If you get confident and want to try for a good RT, try leaving on the last yellow rather than the green, or even anticipating the last yellow if the car is a but of a slug off the lights. I'd recommend playing a lot with launching and stall speeds etc until you're happy before you start worrying about reaction time though, as RT only counts in competition, it's nothing other than bragging rights at a test and tune.

Thanks man, yea mainly what everyone else has said here is just relax and just focus on stagging and launching off the lights

[Bob Lablaw]

Just done my first meet and wanting to get a bit better time, I couldnt go past 1700rpm launch otherwise just spun tyres too much, my best 60ft was 2.2 what could I expect if I change from 235/45 17's to 265/40 17, I want to run it like I drive on the street at the moment. Also just wandering what others might have run with street tyres

[brisxr6t]

Back when I was running street tires at drags and a 3000 stall I was managing 1.9 60 foot and 12.2 et at 118mph. Th tires were the crappy dunlop sp's that are factory on ba falcons, 235/40/17 i think they are, but at same time It did not have a lot of power to spin them up on launch.

[iCER]

i use et streets 24/7. does that count? I hear people with nitto nt05s doing 1.6x's

[justa6]

is that nt05 icer? or nt05r.

[JUSTXR8]

I know this is old but how did this go sammy? my mates BA started life at 15.2 now its in the 12s still on street tyres (yes it now has a power adder (NOS) but no turbo well yet)

You will have a great time.
My opinion ( I have done this before !! )
Leave headlight in.
Leave tyres at 30 psi, steel belted radials that have bedded in don't work when you let them down as it changes the footprint.:

Mate i do not agree with this hey. do you know how many people have told me this does not work? althow it does not work with everything but its only air and its free. I remember once at calder about 4 years ago i had my grey cortina there and kept letting the tyres down after each pass, this guy with a black XW with slicks and front runners on it told me its a wast of time, im like ok mate. at the end of the night i had cut 2 flat 12s and he was asking me how i did it

That car would never do better then a 2.2 60 with the tyres at 32psi but let them right down and it would do low 1.8s

[Mr. CVE]

I know this is old but how did this go sammy? my mates BA started life at 15.2 now its in the 12s still on street tyres (yes it now has a power adder (NOS) but no turbo well yet)

You will have a great time.
My opinion ( I have done this before !! )
Leave headlight in.
Leave tyres at 30 psi, steel belted radials that have bedded in don't work when you let them down as it changes the footprint.:

Mate i do not agree with this hey. do you know how many people have told me this does not work? althow it does not work with everything but its only air and its free. I remember once at calder about 4 years ago i had my grey cortina there and kept letting the tyres down after each pass, this guy with a black XW with slicks and front runners on it told me its a wast of time, im like ok mate. at the end of the night i had cut 2 flat 12s and he was asking me how i did it

That car would never do better then a 2.2 60 with the tyres at 32psi but let them right down and it would do low 1.8s

That's great.
Everyone has a different opinion.
There are always other factors as well.
track temp.
track grip levels
outside air temp
driver skill / experience ( gets better as the night goes on )

Did your steel belted radial tyres wrinkle up ?
How about the flatness of the tread on the ground ? how wide was that ? or was it 2 skinny lines ?

Even a full slick you want as much pressure in the tyres as you can handle. depends on weight of car, sidewall design etc.
I'll try and drag out a pic of my car on launch to show you.

[Rollin]

I've had better luck with less pressure too, but usually to about 25psi or so on 17s. As I mentioned above, you also get a LOT of grip from baking other peoples expensive drag rubber onto your street tyres, doing a skid in the water only is a waste of time.

[JUSTXR8]

I know this is old but how did this go sammy? my mates BA started life at 15.2 now its in the 12s still on street tyres (yes it now has a power adder (NOS) but no turbo well yet)

You will have a great time.
My opinion ( I have done this before !! )
Leave headlight in.
Leave tyres at 30 psi, steel belted radials that have bedded in don't work when you let them down as it changes the footprint.:

Mate i do not agree with this hey. do you know how many people have told me this does not work? althow it does not work with everything but its only air and its free. I remember once at calder about 4 years ago i had my grey cortina there and kept letting the tyres down after each pass, this guy with a black XW with slicks and front runners on it told me its a wast of time, im like ok mate. at the end of the night i had cut 2 flat 12s and he was asking me how i did it

That car would never do better then a 2.2 60 with the tyres at 32psi but let them right down and it would do low 1.8s

That's great.
Everyone has a different opinion.
There are always other factors as well.
track temp.
track grip levels
outside air temp
driver skill / experience ( gets better as the night goes on )

Did your steel belted radial tyres wrinkle up ?
How about the flatness of the tread on the ground ? how wide was that ? or was it 2 skinny lines ?

Even a full slick you want as much pressure in the tyres as you can handle. depends on weight of car, sidewall design etc.
I'll try and drag out a pic of my car on launch to show you.

I agree theres a lot of factors in it but its always worked for me. i was put onto it but a guy years ago that had a centura with a 265 in it, it ran less MPH than my car did (triple webered 250) but always went faster. years ago i thort a powerful engine made a car fast and these guys showed me heaps just stupid stuff but it worked. that centura runs 12s now and with basicley the same engine it had all thoses years ago

i never ran slicks a long time ago cause my car was not very good ,just a car built out of bits, it was ok for what it was but i did not go 5 seconds without busting somthing diffs axles tailshafts boxes clutchs (all before even getting to the track) the engine was good but nothing else was. it was fun but i had to pay for other things in life so i skimped on cars.

[OMY-747]

So is it better to have traction control on or off?

[Fsixed]

Traction control off