what should I expect to run??

richduty455

richduty455

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I'm getting the car ready for the englishtown meet on 4/4 and am getting curious.....what she's gonna run...I'll give yas the run down, if anyone has similar stuff done maybe you can get me inthe ballpark of what to expect......car has 140,000 on it, all this will be done by the meet

94 mark viii

new trans with shift kit
LMS chip
K&N filter with custom Ram air
air silencers removed
3rd cat removed, x pipe in place,
2.5 inch mandrel bent exhaust with magna flow magnapack mufflers
new fuel pump
ford racing wires and new plugs
fresh sea foaming

now if I cut a good tree are mid 14's feasable??? car seems to run strong
 
Last edited:
expect 16's. then be pleasantly surprised when you run better. I'm hoping to pull some 17's this year
 
yea.. dont "set yourself up" for dissapointment.

Keep an open mind, and enjoy the trip to the track.
Dont get frustrated if you dont run the mid 14 you expect.

When I went to the track in January, I said to myself.
IF the car runs 15.0 I'd be happy.
The car went 14.7, so needless to say I was pleased.

I made the mistake back in 99 or 2000 of "chasing numbers".
Do not do this.. it will be the most frustrating experience you have even gotten yourself into.

you car will "run what it runs".
Cars with similar mods to yours HAVE run mid 14's.

How much track experience do you have?
If you have little or no experience it can be a very daunting experience the first time out.

I'd suggest.. walking to the area where you can "see the tree".
watch for awhile.. 30 minutes to 1HR..
just watch the whole process...and this will give your car the cool down it needs to "make a good pass".


With that said.

When you make your first pass.
After you pass the burnout area... approach the tree very very slowly.
When the top set of lights (prestage) comes on you want to STOP.
then.. slowly, ease the car forwards until you get the staged light to burn and STOP. this should be 8-10 inches, so be prepared to STOP.

you want to "barely tickle" the staged bulb, this will put you in what is called "shallow stage" and will give you the best chance at running the lowest ET possible.

Dont worry about your reaction time at this point,because it "should suck".
just concentrate on getting the car staged as shallow as possible and you should have a good time.

good luck!

P.S. resist the urge to run back into the staging lanes and run again.
you want a minumum of a 40 minute cool down so your car can make the most power available.

I shoot for a 1 hour cool down between runs.

If you run back to the line and make what are called "round robin" passes... your mid 14 second car will be a 15 second car.
Dont get overanxious and make your car run slow.
 
cool.....yea i've been to the track multiple times, just never with a mark. i'm really shooting just to break into the 14's whether its a 14.99 I'll be happy to just break 15's....I'll def try the shallow stage and let it cool down....I'm stoked to go!!!
 
XLRVIII said:
I shoot for a 1 hour cool down between runs.

If you run back to the line and make what are called "round robin" passes... your mid 14 second car will be a 15 second car.
Dont get overanxious and make your car run slow.
Click to expand...

I usually wait 45 and then get into the lanes.... by the time you actually get to run its been about an hour and your still getting a decent amount of seat time.

"round robin" is sometimes referred to as "hot lapping"
 
richduty455 said:
now if I cut a good tree are mid 14's feasable???
Click to expand...

Cutting a "good tree" has no effect on your ET.
Reaction time and Elapsed time are two separate timers.

When the light turns green the RT timer begins, when the RT timer STOPS the ET timer begins.

SO you can sit there for 9-10 seconds after the green light burns and it wont affect your ET at all.

I wouldn't worry about RT at this point... you just want to get some good solid passes.
Concentrate on staging the car in the same place... in shallow stage.

If you want to work on RT.. then dont shallow stage, you want to "get in the beams a little deeper" to provide the best RT.
When you do that.. your RT's will go down, but your ET's will go up!
you have to ask yourself.. what do you want?
LOW ET?
or LOW RT?

Once you get a good handle on the process, you can adjust your staged position to give both good RT's and good ET's.. but..in the beginning your RT's SHOULD SUCK.. that's normal.. dont sweat it.

AS you gain more track time.. you can "cut good tree's" from the "shallow staged" position and have the best of both worlds.. LOW ET and LOW RT.

Dont try and get BOTH at your first time out.. it wont make for a "fun time at the track".
 
SPSully said:
I usually wait 45 and then get into the lanes.... by the time you actually get to run its been about an hour and your still getting a decent amount of seat time.

"round robin" is sometimes referred to as "hot lapping"
Click to expand...

that's a good point.. for sure.

I've gotten the best results for letting the car sit "for as long as I can stand it"...haha
 
the main reason I wait 1 hour is that is roughly the amount of times "between rounds" at our normal bracket races.

Since they run on a 1 hour schedule, I try to do all my TNT runs on the same schedule...thats just one of my stupid bracket racing habits that is very very hard to break.
it's just a consistancy thing...lol
 
XLRVIII said:
the main reason I wait 1 hour is that is roughly the amount of times "between rounds" at our normal bracket races.

Since they run on a 1 hour schedule, I try to do all my TNT runs on the same schedule...thats just one of my stupid bracket racing habits that is very very hard to break.
it's just a consistancy thing...lol
Click to expand...



BINGO!!!!!!!! Racing is all about controlling everything to be the exact same everytime. When you can do that, then you can adjust one thing at a time to see what helps and what doesnt. then once you learn exactly what your car likes, you'll probably do some new mod that changes everything and have to start over.... Gotta love this sport!
 
SPSully said:
BINGO!!!!!!!! Racing is all about controlling everything to be the exact same everytime

you'll probably do some new mod that changes everything and have to start over.... Gotta love this sport!
Click to expand...

that is what happened to me...(lol)

I went from a first gen with gears to a second gen with stock gears.
Now the gears didn't really change MUCH..

BUT.. the differences in the CARS made a HUGE difference in my adopted staging technique.

I use the side view mirror to get myself centered in the lane, then use the side view mirror to judge when I'm "approaching the prestage beam".

Rather than looking out the windshield I'd watch the track underneath my side view mirror and could properly stage the car.

Well.. the second gen mirror is in a different damned spot.

So when I went to the track in January... I rolled thru the beams on ALL 3 of my passes..
I felt like an utter and complete n000b.

Tiffany was YELLING N0000b at me from the burnout area.
I was quite embarrassed to say the least....especially since I have over 5K passes in a mark 8...
(hangs head in shame)

I will say this.."it aint like riding a bike"..you may REMEMBER all the things to DO, but implementing them is a whole different story.
haha

in my defense, I was trying to grab datalogs on these passes and "that little change" to the procedure was giving me fits...
haha
 
slower cars are better for bracket racing. it is so much easier with a 16 second car to be in the same 1/10 of sec
 
SPSully said:
slower cars are better for bracket racing. it is so much easier with a 16 second car to be in the same 1/10 of sec
Click to expand...

.1 wont win any races where I come from.

if you cant run within .01-.02 of your dial in and cut a .030 or lower light, you will not see the win light burn brightly in your lane.

the low 6 second (in the 1/8th) Hyabusa's seem to do really well in the brackets we run in. In fact, they are by far..the hardest to beat.

I'd much rather race against a 11 second mini van than an 6 second Hyabusa.
the bikes have a 40-50MPH advantage at the stripe, makes it terribly difficult to "judge" who's gonna take the stripe first.
 
My car with silencers out, muffler delete, chip, and tune up (no shift kit yet) will run 15.3 all day I have about 15 slips all with 15.33, 15.34, 15.32, etc... My best ever was 15.1. The launch and 60 foot times will determine your best times. My car has 169,000 miles now. Never been able to break the 15 sec barrier. Although this year Im gonna have a friend of mine who is really skinny (like 130 lbs) make a run. Because Im 340 lbs I think it would be cool to test the driver mod out, thats almost a 200 lb difference.
 
greenlinc said:
I have about 15 slips all with 15.33, 15.34, 15.32, etc... .
Click to expand...

SCREW numbers chasin...to hell with that 14 second pass.
YOU need to get that car into a bracket race.

With consistancy like you mentioned above.. you will LAY WASTE to the competition.

look at those links I posted above to the two types of bracket racing they have at englishtown.

Then find your local dragstrip..and get into their bracket program.

you can easily pocket 200-400 per race depending on the particular race.

For some, bracket racing literally "doubles" their weekly income.
(grins)
 
greenlinc said:
I think it would be cool to test the driver mod out, thats almost a 200 lb difference.
Click to expand...

the driver mod, would make your 15.1 pass a 14.9.. it wont help the 15.3's much other than making them 15.0's...

number chasing can be very frustrating.. go win some money with that thing!!!
then you can spend your winnings on making it run 14's!!!

what better way to mod your car, than to have the car "pay for itself" and "pay for it's own mods"...right?

Win two races..and you've got enough cash for a 410 swap!
Win 10 races and you've got most of the money for a blower!!!
 
very good advice in here. Aim for a 15 or so and you should be happy.

My goal with my 97 was to run faster then a 15 flat, 100% bone stock and ran a 14.945 that made my day. :D

Im hoping to run a little faster now, i've since deleted 3rd cat, added x pipe, straight piped the back, deleted muff's, k & n panel, and hopefully i'll have time to do the jmod...but i wouldnt be surprised if i dont. lol.
 
Lux, I'd not do the Jmod at this point.

THAT way you can accuratly judge what your exhaust mods did for the car.

If it were me, I'd put the stock paper filter back in.. so it's the same as the previous outing.

Then after a couple of passes, you'll get an idea of what the exhaust netted powerwise.
THEN drop the K&N back in and re-test.

Then go back to the track after you Jmod...and re-test

that way you can see just what each mod did for your car.

I'd be willing to bet.. the K&N is worth "zero". sorry to say.

FWIW, I have had all variations, cone filter on the maf, drop in filter in the air box..ect..
The fastest my car everr went was on the stock air box, with a paper filter.
 
XLRVIII said:
SCREW numbers chasin...to hell with that 14 second pass.
YOU need to get that car into a bracket race.

With consistancy like you mentioned above.. you will LAY WASTE to the competition.

look at those links I posted above to the two types of bracket racing they have at englishtown.

Then find your local dragstrip..and get into their bracket program.

you can easily pocket 200-400 per race depending on the particular race.

For some, bracket racing literally "doubles" their weekly income.
(grins)
Click to expand...

Ahh a great post.

richduty455 what is the main reason for going?
Just to see what she will run?

I am with Tommy on this....looking for a number is a waste of time.
I wouldnt care what she ran as long as it was constant.
Forget the shallow stage and work on finding the tree.

I would have more fun cutting the tree down instead of running some magic ET.
The car will run what it runs, the fun part is to see what you can do.
 
A lot of good info in here. 14s aren't out of the question but these guys are right, it's gonna run what it's gonna run the point is to have fun doing it.
 
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