1st time to track with car?

[ramairvert]

couldnt hook up with stock f1s tires 60 foots were not good do you guys think it would do 12's if i hook


60 ft 2.231
1/4 13.269
mph 108.30

goal is 12's it was cold out 34 degrees was sliding all over track 3/4 down

great lakes dragaway

still not bad for a 2 ton whale

diablo 91 cai tune with mopar cai

[bennzsrt8]

heres a good rule of thumb .1 on the 60 foot will equal .2 and the end of the quarter. so u post a 2.1 60ft should be a 13.0 quarter also if u were sliding that far down it sounds like it is not a very good track!! i went 2 weeks ago and it was 35 degrees and the best my car went was 12.59 @ 112.89 mph with a 1.903 60 ft. and the only thing i have done is a diablo 93 cai program.

[stevesrt8]

nice runs.

everyone with one soon learns about the cold weather connection. These cars become raging monsters when the air is cold enough to get all the timing through our PCM.

The problem is then our crappy tires give it up when cold, too.

And of course it IS kind of tricky to launch a two ton whale!

[bennzsrt8]

yea if u can get it to hook in the cold these cars love the cold air!! and a 2.0 60ft with street tires and cold weather is a good good time. my 1.9 was prob the best that car will leave on street tires.

[Freedom]

Do you guys shift, or do you just stick it in D???

[srt8man]

I plan to go to the track with my SRT8 for the first time within the next 3 weeks, possibly this weekend. I have listed a few things I plan to do to help my times. Please let me know if I'm missing anything.

1. I plan to have about 1/4 tank of gas when I arrive at the track. Does anyone know if this is the best amount to have? I don't want too much gasoline weight added (over 8 lbs per gallon), but I do want a little weight back there to help with hooking up.

2. I plan to reduce tire pressure from 32 psi to 26 psi, but I'm not sure if this is optimal and finding the best setting may require some experimenting. I have the stock RSAs. Does anyone know what the optimal amount of pressure is for the stock RSAs (assuming a well prepped track and temps in the mid 60s)? I don't want any cupping, but I do want them to bite when I stomp it. I'm probably going to just leave the front tire pressure at the recommended factory stock setting because I don't think adding pressure would help very much.

3. I'm going to leave my child and booster seats at home

4. I've heard about pulling fuse 2, but it seems to make no difference when I've done it so I'm not going to bother with that when I'm there.

5. I'm bringing two big bags of ice and a cooler so I can use the ice bags to cool the manifold and engine before each run. I'm bringing a friend to hold my cooler between runs, and hopefully to shoot some videos.

6. I'm planning to let my engine cool with the hood open for at least a half hour between each run.

7. I'm going to press and hold the traction control button until the system is "disabled" before each run.

8. I'm going to go around the water box and do a short, dry burnout before each run.

9. I'm going to put it in first gear in autostick mode before I stage and I'm going to let the computer do all of the shifting automatically.

10. I'll probably have to experiment to determine the best launch RPM at the track. When I went with Cobra, I could always launch harder at the track than I could on the street. I've had lots of practice launching my SRT8 on the street, but this will be my first time at the track with it, and my technique for the street may not be aggressive enough for the track. On a good street surface, I get my best results by putting my left foot on the brake and bringing the revs up to about 1300 RPM and throttling down smoothly, but not too quickly. Depending on temperatures, I can usually floor it somewhere around 20-23 mph and am at wide open throttle in less than 2 seconds.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I apologize for the hijack, but I suppose this is all on-topic because this is related to my first planned trip to the track.

By the way, the track I'm referring to is the 75-80 dragway in Monrovia, MD. It's open for test and tune on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It just reopened. The people who own it were trying to sell it to residential real estate developers, but we all know how bad the market has been, so they decided to refurbish it and reopen, thankfully.

Here's a link to their website:

Page Title

And here's their schedule, for those in the area:

FRIDAYS
4 PM GATES OPEN
5 PM TEST & TUNE STARTS RUNNING
6 PM 1ST RD OF QUALIFYING BEGINS
8 PM 1ST RD OF ELIMINATIONS BEGINS
1/8TH MILE DRAG RACING (Heads Up!)
Test & Tune 1/4 mile
SATURDAYS
12 NOON GATES OPEN
1 PM TEST & TUNE STARTS RUNNING
5 PM 1ST RD OF QUALIFYING BEGINS
7 PM 1ST RD OF ELIMINATIONS BEGINS
1/8TH MILE DRAG RACING (Heads Up!)
Test & Tune 1/4 mile
SUNDAYS
11 AM GATES OPEN
12 NOON TEST & TUNE STARTS RUNNING
1 PM 1ST RD OF QUALIFYING BEGINS
3 PM 1ST RD OF ELIMINATIONS BEGINS
1/4 MILE DRAG RACING (Heads Up!)
Test & Tune 1/4 mile

There's a more detailed schedule of events at their website.

[srt8man]

It really depends on what you are doing. If you are launching from a standstill, it is best to start by putting it into 1st gear (autostick mode), but let the computer do all of the shifting for you, automatically. When I'm rolling along and preparing to pass someone, I usually use the autostick to downshift to the proper gear for the speed I'm going so I'm already in the right gear when I'm ready to pass. If you can live with slight delayed downshift, then just leave it in "D" for most of your driving, but beware of the "dead" zones. For example, if I don't get on the throttle quick enough in 1st gear with my SRT8, it ends up in second gear prematurely, and it wont shift again until I'm going about 80 mph!! The shift points are different with a regular 300C, but I believe the same principal applies.

Originally Posted by Freedom

Do you guys shift, or do you just stick it in D???

[dwstew99]

Good plan but gasoline weighs less than 6.5 lbs/gal. Lighter than water.

[srt8man]

Good point. You are right, gasoline is not as dense as water. I suppose the density will also depend on the temperature, the type and blend (methanol, etc.).

I believe my SRT8 has a 19 gallon fuel tank, so 1/4 tank of gas would weigh about 30 lbs.

Originally Posted by dwstew99

Good plan but gasoline weighs less than 6.5 lbs/gal. Lighter than water.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by srt8man

It really depends on what you are doing. If you are launching from a standstill, it is best to start by putting it into 1st gear (autostick mode), but let the computer do all of the shifting for you, automatically. When I'm rolling along and preparing to pass someone, I usually use the autostick to downshift to the proper gear for the speed I'm going so I'm already in the right gear when I'm ready to pass. If you can live with slight delayed downshift, then just leave it in "D" for most of your driving, but beware of the "dead" zones. For example, if I don't get on the throttle quick enough in 1st gear with my SRT8, it ends up in second gear prematurely, and it wont shift again until I'm going about 80 mph!! The shift points are different with a regular 300C, but I believe the same principal applies.

Thanks