New Personal Best @ St. Thomas Dragway

[5_Alive]

So I went yesterday (Sunday Oct. 19) to St. Thomas Dragway.

My new PB with the Speed was 13.86 @ 101.34mph, with a 2.1 60-ft.

Car's only mods are an Injen CAI, Greddy Type-S.. Running on factory Bridge' Potenza's that came with the car, and they have 37,600km on them. They were dropped to 20psi for the day. Only thing removed was the spare tire and jack.

I also managed a 13.9 @ 101.39mph with a 2.1 60-ft., which turned out to be my last run of the day.

These cars have lots of potential. Now, the only thing for me to do for next spring is get a set of DR's and go from there.
I'll get my time-slips up on here one way or another.

Most of the day I was pulling 14.0-14.5's, all in the 99.-101mph marks.
Also was against a 22km/h headwind pretty much all day.
Moe

[Fobio]

I'm not into drag myself, but these are good numbers nonetheless...on the US board, I've seen guys with more power mods do much worse...anything breaking into the 13's is worth some cheers!

How much would you think the head wind have affected you?

[mleblond]

lol I did 14.0 at 105mph on 94 octane and street tires....with a 2.2 60ft

but good job :)

[Wild Weasel]

Nice! I still haven't managed to get to a strip with mine. :(

Sunfire ran high 14's last time out though. :D

[silvermist99]

did you wheelhop with a 2.1 60'??

good time & excellent trap speed.

when were you shifting at? 6000rpm 1 & 2. then 5800 or so on the higher gears?

[5_Alive]

I am not sure about the head wind affecting me as much as my other close friends there with trucks, haha.

No wheel hop with the 2.1 at all.. I milked the throttle, once the car got moving, i mashed it, never lifted to shift, and kept shifting at 6k, into 5th gear at 5800rpm or so.

[WhiteSpeed3]

i give up for this year i spin way to much


some serious suspension and tires is needed for next year

[mleblond]

and get the launch control from Pat ;)

[Fobio]

and get the launch control from Pat ;)

hope Cobb comes thru with the flat-shift and LC for the AP...

[5_Alive]

I flat-shifted anyways? What does the Box do differently out of curiosity?

[Fobio]

I flat-shifted anyways? What does the Box do differently out of curiosity?

The box controls throttle for launch control, and also adjusts your revs when you flat-shift so you're not gonna bounce off redline...

[5_Alive]

Okay that's understandable. I guess that will save the car in the long run, and keep you in power band for your next gear?

[alhope34]

I've heard claims of guys from M3F getting around 13.5's by launching in 2nd. When you think about it, our 2nd gear is still shorter than a lot of other cars 1st gears.

[Unoriginalusername]

I've heard claims of guys from M3F getting around 13.5's by launching in 2nd. When you think about it, our 2nd gear is still shorter than a lot of other cars 1st gears.

you'd have to hate your car to do that

[alhope34]

you'd have to hate your car to do that

Why's that? 1st gear in the 03 Celica tops out at about 98km/h, I don't see how launching in 2nd in our car which tops out around 85km/h is any worse. Just hold about 3500-4000rpm and let the clutch out...launches perfectly fine.

[Fobio]

Why's that? 1st gear in the 03 Celica tops out at about 98km/h, I don't see how launching in 2nd in our car which tops out around 85km/h is any worse. Just hold about 3500-4000rpm and let the clutch out...launches perfectly fine.

I hope you're not speaking from experience, publicly anyway... :chuckle

there are so many factors involved in launching any car that I doubt just 1 change in technique will get you what you want.

you can play around with your tires and tire pressure (low 20psi is what I've been told, depending on temps)...you can brake-torque the car (left/right feet feathering clutch/gas, while right hand on e-brake to hold the car and left hand on the wheel, which coincidentally is how ppl start their cars on steep hills in places like Hong Kong)...you can flat shift w/ laucnh control...

to be honest, everyone of the things described is somewhat out of the ordinary to do to your car (unless you love drag racing and hate your/any car...:chuckle) that I would normally not resort to it as natural instinct...hence my preference to NOT do 3000 rpm clutch-dump launches...

I've already impressed my share of ladies already...hehe...

[silvermist99]

Why's that? 1st gear in the 03 Celica tops out at about 98km/h, I don't see how launching in 2nd in our car which tops out around 85km/h is any worse. Just hold about 3500-4000rpm and let the clutch out...launches perfectly fine.

I agree with you, I have a feeling launching at 4000rpm in 2nd will be a very quick way out of the hole. I don't do it to the car because I don't like riding clutches and not very good at modulaing it. I usually launch my car below 1500rpm in 2nd if I'm rolling over 5km/h & skip first alltogether. If I'm starting from a downhill position, I start in 2nd gear also.

In HK & China, people are taught to start in 2nd gear too, first is used on uphills.

[alhope34]

I'm not saying I've launched it in 2nd like that before, but it WOULD be a hell of a lot faster. Did anyone ever think maybe when Mazda did their 0-60 testing they themselves launched in 2nd to get the time of 5.4 seconds? Any gear is fair game to launch in if it will make the times faster. Launching hard in any gear isn't "good" for the car, but the driveterrain on the MS3 is really tough, tough enough to withstand 2nd gear launches. Saying that, I would never suggest anyone try it with the stock rear MM. That mount is already well overworked with stock power on normal launches.