MM Drag Day @ MIR - 7/14/06

[Beej]

Where's a safer place to do it than a dragstrip?

I'd almost feel safer on the street than a dragstrip.

That's ridiculous.

For the record, the track is 60 feet wide. That's 30 feet per lane, and there are only two walls. So there's 15 feet to a wall on one side, and 30 feet to some other asshole doing 130 on the other side.

[G.Irish]

Where's a safer place to do it than a dragstrip?

I'd almost feel safer on the street than a dragstrip.

Concrete walls hurt.

You can't be serious. At the strip there is no where for other cars, people, or animals to cross your path and the road is perfectly straight. That's just crazy. Even VIR is probably more dangerous than a decent drag strip.

[.RJ]

Why is it rediculous? If anything happens at that dragstrip while you're doing 100+, you're going to go down and you're almost guearnateed to end up implanted in a concrete wall. There's no runoff or gravel. In a car, that sucks a lot. On a bike, you're going to the hospital.

You dont have to go 130+ but, if you're not then whats the point of waiting 4 hrs at the dragstrip to get 3 runs in.

[.RJ]

At the strip there is no where for other cars, people, or animals to cross your path and the road is perfectly straight

You're right, and I dont go 130 on the street either.

My problem with the dragstrip is the proximity of the concrete. Would you do a trackday at Lowes Motor Speedway?

[G.Irish]

At the strip there is no where for other cars, people, or animals to cross your path and the road is perfectly straight

You're right, and I dont go 130 on the street either.

My problem with the dragstrip is the proximity of the concrete. Would you do a trackday at Lowes Motor Speedway?

Rovals are different because you're turning. There's a nice long wall of concrete along the front straight of every road course we go to too, but I've never seen anyone on a bike hit one of those. The bike actually gets more stable as it goes faster because of greater gyroscopic force. I wouldn't be worried about hitting one of the walls at a strip at all.

Can they be scary? Sure, I wouldn't fault anyone for feeling apprehension. Can you get hurt? Hell yeah. We've been at the track more than once and seen a bike guy get helicoptered out or sent to a hospital in an ambulance. But doing a couple of passes at the strip is not even as dangerous as doing a track day, especially at a place like Summit.

[.RJ]

I guess its just one of those "to each his own" things.

[Beej]

I guess its just one of those "to each his own" things.

I don't even think it's that. I can't think of a single place on the planet that is safer than a dragstrip to go fast in a straight line.

Is it risky? Of course, it's a sport. Are you arguing for the sake of simply arguing? Or is it just because it's not your bag. If it's not your bag, that's cool. I agree with most of what you say on here, but this is nuts.

[G.Irish]

I guess its just one of those "to each his own" things.

I don't even think it's that. I can't think of a single place on the planet that is safer than a dragstrip to go fast in a straight line.

Airplane runway? Salt flats maybe? Speaking of which, we need to watch World's Fastest Indian.

Is it risky? Of course, it's a sport. Are you arguing for the sake of simply arguing? Or is it just because it's not your bag. If it's not your bag, that's cool. I agree with most of what you say on here, but this is nuts.

We need a crazy talk emoticon *waves hands wildly*

[Beej]

Airplane runway? Salt flats maybe?

I worked on a construction project to build a runway, and I dunno. They're really not that smooth. I can't attest to salt flats though. I know that's where all the top speed runs are, but they scare me a little.

[white_2kgt]

I just got back from capitol, good times!

[Beej]

I'm still in. G's probably out. Shea, you going? I figure I'll get there hopefully around 6ish. Where are you coming from?

[Nis01]

Good 'ol work needed me for a 16 hour day. Sorry for not responding but really haven't had the time. This snuck up on me. Post your times and experience, I'd love to hear it.

[Ryan T]

I think a drag strip is definantely the safest place to go fast in a straight line. Besides, you really don't have to worry about hitting the wall until you have a car fast enough to really get squirrly off the line. I've driven more passes on a 1/4 mile than I can even remember with the fastest being a 13.1 and I've never had anything remotely resembling a close call with the wall.

[Beej]

MIR ended up being rained out so we headed to Capitol.

My group: Me in STi, Rob in VR-4, Brad in TT Stealth, Ian in 350z.

So we get there kinda early, and it's a usual variety of cars. These dudes in standard WRX's cornered the shit out of me to BS...but I did pick up some useful info about launching and whatever though. The 3000GT/Stealth guys I went with and the WRX guys all said that the best way was to slip the clutch, get it rolling, and then dump it.

1st run: So I pull up to the line. Let the clutch out a little, but not enough to grab, dump it (so it's basically a full dump, which I kinda wanted to try anyway) and I instantly bogged down. Hard. Like uh, 2.5 60' and 15.3 hard.

2nd run: I tried it again and basically the same thing. Close to crying after this one.

3rd run: Missed a 3rd run because this guy in an e46 M3 wasn't around, so our lanes got shut down before I could get it. Cool guy though. His family has an e30 M3 with 15k miles. Nuts.

4th run: I squeezed out a better (relatively speaking) launch with a 200lb passenger in the fourth run. 14.3@96mph, 2.1 60'.

5th run: Last run was the best. 14.1@97mph, 2.0 60'.

All in all, I feel like if I could've tried it 2-3 more times, I could've gotten it down to 1.8 or so and mid-high 13's. The last launch was by far the best...I just need to perform it quicker. If I could do the slip/gas/dump thing faster, I'd be much happier.

I'll get up two videos later. One is my first bog (I don't know how the damn thing didn't stall...and it took forever and three days to get out of the lag). The other is of my last run, but I was next to my buddy in his 3000GT. I didn't pay attention at all to the R/T, since it meant nothing in test and tune...so you get to see his launch instead of mine. And then it looks like I'm crawling as he walks me.

FTD of the group was Rob...he put up a 11.8@115. The last run (missed second, so final time was 12.2) he had a 1.676 60'. :o

Cliffs notes: Launching AWD takes some learnin', Rob's car is silly quick, clutch smells nasty, and loud cars get fucking annoying. Oh, and it seems most everybody's traps (in my group anyway) were a few mph off the mark. It was a hot, muggy night but I dunno. Funny.

[Dave]

Hard. Like uh, 2.5 60' and 15.3 hard.

Bwahahahaha. Seriously, I'm not really laughing at you, I'm just laughing cuz that's a number I can actually relate to. I've only done one run down a dragstrip, and I got a 15.8 with the supra.
Launching was definitely something that takes a true finesse and a lot of practice. When I was driving, I felt like I was going soooo slow and that it would never end; my favorite part was the quick turn at the end :-). Most importantly, you had fun and now have a benchmark for more trials with the car.

[Beej]

Ha, no worries. I got three runs in the S2000...but aside from that, I've never tried launching a powerful car...forget about a b00sted AWD one.

I wish I hadn't missed that 3rd run. It really felt like there was a lot left in the car if I could've just gotten a few more runs.

Oh yeah, and the other guys:
Rob (bunch of stuff VR-4): 11.8@115
Brad (exhaust, intake, boost controller TT Stealth): 13.6@102
Ian (exhaust, intake, plenum spacer 350z): 14.4@99

[ScottyB]

cool deal BJ. so what was the order of the day, just a fast version of the slip/gas/dump thing? what rpm do they recommend for sti's?

[Nis01]

Grats BJ. Sounds like a lot of fun. Your friend's VR-4 sounds like a beast. I'm sure you did a lot better than I would have done out there.

From what I've heard 4k-5k is a good point to slip the clutch for the launch... haven't attempted this yet.

[WRXtranceformed]

Dump the clutch!!! It's super dooper fun!

hahah

Slipping the clutch right is hard, but definitely the right way to launch. You'll probably kill about half the life of your clutch trying to get it down.

[Beej]

Yeah it's not really worth it to me to beat the shit out of the clutch just to learn to launch the thing. Fun to try it once in awhile though.

Yeah, I held it at around 4500, slipped just so the car rolled (rpms dropped a little), got on the gas, and then didn't "dump", but brought my foot off quick and smooth. I think that keeping it at around 5000 the whole time would be ideal.

Crazy sensation though, the way the car just fucking pulls off the line. Way different than the RWD cars I've owned before.