We went to the 1/8th mile again last night; the group included Cheryl and myself, my best friend in his StageII SRT-4, his wife in her 06 Mustang GT 5 speed, a local dude in his 06 A4 GTO(LS2), and CaptG35 in his 05 5AT Coupe. I had high hopes: I wanted to get some more practice launching, and the conditions were forecast to be a little better than last time. The DA's for last night hovered around 2048 feet versus the 1977 feet of three weeks ago.

Overall, my night was awful. I had 20 runs, and missed shifts on 10 runs, including a run of 5 straight passes missing 2nd. I couldn't get it to go into second at anything about ~6200 rpms. Even then, I had to baby the shifter into place. It was ridiculous. I'm used to missing shifts on a few runs a night, but never with this frequency. Maybe my tranny is about to give up the ghost. It was rather frustrating. And to add insult to injury, I was down on power. With no changes to the car, I was down between 2 and 2.5mph versus three weeks ago. My best trap 3 weeks ago was 81.5mph, and I even trapped 80mph on a run where I missed 2nd gear. Last night, my best trap was in the 79mph range, with my misshifts yielding 77mph.

I don't understand the power issue. Cheryl trapped about the same as she did last time out. CaptG35 started out trapping 75/76mph, with a best trap of 77mph, and he's stock. I should be out-trapping him by more than 2mph. On the other hand, Josh in his SRT4 was trapping 77/78 all night long, with two runs hitting 79mph. Last time out, he was trapping 80/81, with one run into the low 82mph range. Our friend in the A4 LS2 GTO was trapping anywhere from 75 to 78mph, with one magic run where he trapped 80mph dead even.

So on the one hand, both Josh and I were down on power by a significant margin. The GTO wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it would be, and other GTOs for the night were also running mid-to-low 9's at ~77mph. Then on the other hand, Cheryl was trapping right at what she trapped last time, and the bone stock 5AT Coupe was running really strong.

Regardless, I had a few decent runs. For the night I had 5 8.8's, 1 8.9, 2 9.0's, 1 9.1, 5 9.2s, 1 9.3, and a bunch of other runs where I either shut it down or the timeslip was incorrect(sensor problems). On one of my 9.0's, I missed third for the only time of the night. 4 out of the 5 9.2's were the result of my missing 2nd gear, all at 77mph.

But on the good side, I had better success as launching. The first run of the night I feathered the clutch from ~6krpms, which resulted in a personal best 1.915. But the clutch stank for the rest of the night. After that, I decided not to feather it anymore, except for 1 more run. Here are my launches in order:

As you can see, my launch technique has improved dramatically.

Also, I drove Cheryl's car for the first time. Her car has mad wheelhop, much more so than my car did, even when stock. I don't know if that's a function of changes to the rear suspension(were there any?), more weight upfront, spring rates, tire pressure, or what, but hop it did. On the first run I launched at a little over 2 grand with a very quick feather of the clutch. It started hopping to the point where I became concerned, so I backed off, and proceeded to bog. The sixty foot was a dismal 2.4, and the ET was a 9.6. The second run was marginally better. I did another very quick slip of the clutch from 2k rpms, got less wheel hop(but still some), but stayed in it for a 2.3 sixty foot on my way to a 9.5 ET. Both runs trapped 78mph. I gotta say that I don't like the stock clutch on the 07, but the transmission is butter. I powershifted 2nd at an indicated 7600rpms, and 3rd at an indicated 7800rpms. The shifting action on both runs was uneventful, and exceedingly pleasant. I am quite jealous of the new tranny.

And I must reiterate how strong CaptG35's coupe was running. HE didn't run 77mph all night, but he did trap 77mph at least once. Cheryl's 04 5AT sedan, with spacer, ztube, and filter was consistently 4.5mph slower than my car in the eighth.

And here are some videos of the night(not as many as last time). The first is Cheryl versus CaptG35. He was down about 3 tenths and 3mph, but had a better light, so he got the win:
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This next video is myself against Cheryl. She rolled(slightly) at the light for a redlight, so the board showed no numbers. I ran an 8.8 on this run:
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This last video is myself versus CaptG35, and he had a passenger filming:
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That last video you posted was sweet. Your car really is moving and really runs away from that coupe.

As for the runs, I wouldn't sweat it. It appears to me that the Rev-up is really heat sensitive, much like my old VQ30 was. The LS series motors are very heat sensitive as are any turbo motor (SRT4) and would explain the weak showings. You 60' is showing major improvements. A low 1.9 60' is huge. It sounds like your tranny issue is potentially costing you some ET and a little MPH too.

 

I'll let him correct you for certain, Trey but I think Joshua was filming that last one and his friend was driving. At least, I *think* that is what he said.

It was a nice trip out. It was hot as hell and humid to boot. So bad that I had to leave the windows down or the windshield would fog up so bad I couldn't see. I hate that you can't run the AC! lol

For whatever reason, I couldn't drive for anything most of the night. I did get one 9.3 but that was by far the best and it ranged all the way from there to low 10's. I think the coupe's best time was 9.5, so yeah, compared to my 04 it was running quite strong.

 

Wow, it seems as if mishifts plagues you. Do you feel as if its a drivers error, or do you believe its a tranny issue?

Regarding feathering the clutch @ 6000 RPM's. You're insane . I don't think that's such a great idea; I just can't see how that would be helpful at all (launch nor the brutal punishment for the clutch & flywheel).

Good launches by the way. The keyword with your launches is consistency

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I can't imagine there can much driver error on a 1-2 shift assuming he's holding the shifter the correct way (basically pistol grip style). I think his shifting is problem is due:

1) A crappy OEM tranny
2) A too short OEM shifter lever (ie reduced leverage)
3) Years of racing abuse

One thing he could try is to find a weighted and talled ****. Even 1" would help gain some leverage.

As for his launches, he doesn't have much of a choice because the reduced moment of inertia with light flywheel requires him to raise launch rpms to gain the torque multiplication he needs to jump off the line. It's abusive and he risks snapping a half shaft, but that's the only way he's going to be able to make full use of the DRs.

 

Sounds like the heat did suck out some life of the coupe too because a 9.5 1/8 mile is only about a 14.7-14.8 run. With the G35's and most any VQ car, assuming they're NA, you can simply take 1.55 times the 1/8 mile ET and that will get you within .1 to .15 seconds of what the 1/4 mile ET will be.

 

This is the first time I have ever seen a G35 take off like that, the only other car that i have seen was a 500hp EVO. I guess u do have to shorten the clutch life to get a launch like that. You were on Drag radials correct?

Post some pics of ur car, it looks sick in the video.

 

It's partly driver error and partly the transmission and clutch/flywheel. I've always missed more shifts than the average person, and I think that's partly due to my aggressiveness. I hardly ever miss 3rd or 4th; when I do, it's almost always because my sweaty-*** hand slips off the shifter. As for second, I've described my problems with this gear before. At higher revolutions, it's almost like there's a lock-out in place; if I clutch in a tad earlier, I shift no problem. Or, I can ease the shifter, and I don't have problems. Regardless, both methods cost me ET.

As a result, each run is different. I am constantly walking the very thin line to shift as high in the rpm band as possible, as quickly as possible, without experiencing the lock-out issue. Some runs I cut it more closely than others, and on other runs I'm too greedy and bounce off the gate.

Compare that to my two runs in Cheryl's car. I mentioned that I had a streak of like 5 straight passes where I missed second. In the middle of this streak, I ran Cheryl's car back-to-back. I full-throttle shifter 1st just a tad after indicated redline, and full-throttle shifted 2nd at an indicated 7800rpms, on both runs. The transmission and shifter were butter-smooth, and I had no such issues. In fact, the only problems I had was coming off the clutch. Her clutch is so light in comparison to mine that I am able to clutch-in and move the shifter a tad bit more quickly than I am used to in my car, which means it takes just a tad longer to clutch-out in her car; I have to remind myself that the clutch pedal is still on the floor. It's kind of hard to explain. I'm sure that if I drove her car more often it wouldn't be an issue.

One thing I'd like to point out is that I never had this issue on the stock clutch/flywheel. I could full-throttle shift 1>2 effortlessly. I still missed shifts, like I always have, but not with the frequency that I do now. And I never experienced the upper-rpm lockout issue that I now encounter.

I noticed a thread on my350z where a guy described symptoms that seemed eerily familiar. One response suggested that the OP take off the shifter/boot assembly and check the alignment of the shifter plate. Sure enough, the OP said the guide plate was off like 1mm on one side, and that solved his problem. It's something I hope to look into when I get some time, and enough ***** to disassemble that area.

To further demonstrate the possibility that it's not just me, a few weeks after I got the clutch/flywheel installed, I had a local friend drive my car. I described my 2nd gear issues, and asked if he would give it a shot. He romped on first and shifted extremely quickly into second without issue, two times in a row. I noticed he was shifting at 6 grand(he has an LT1 Formula), and asked that he take it to redline. His next two attempts yielded misshifts and the lock-out issue, just as I had described.

Another anecdote: on this last track trip, I had my best friend drive my car down the strip for the first time. He tried to do a burnout(that was funny), then he staged. His launch looked ok, not bad for a first timer, but he promptly missed 2nd AND 3rd. He's driven my car on the street plenty of times. He said that in 2nd he just bounced off the gate, just like I do. In third, he hit the cross-bar in the guide plate separating 3rd from 5th; the spacing in his SRT4 is quite a bit wider than our 3>5 spacing. He still ran a 9.6, though only at 66mph.

 

I forgot to address your feathering question in my last post. Out of the twenty runs, I only feathered the clutch twice. Every other pass was a clutch-drop. But as Dave mentioned, the lightweight flywheel leads to some bogging off the line, so the feathering was an attempt to keep the rpms up.

After I smelled my 6000rpm-abused clutch, I began having second thoughts.

 

It's not exactly a pistol grip style. I grip the shifter as high as possible, grasping the ball of the shifter in my lower palm, with my thumb and index finger wrapping the top of the ball. I do this simply for leverage. Unfortunately, I have overly sweaty hands, so sometimes even this grip is not sufficient and my hand slides off the shifter. I've cracked my knuckles against the head unit countless times when my hand has flown off the shifter during the 2>3 shift.

And I would hardly call the OEM tranny crappy, but that's another discussion. Look for a new thread on that topic shortly.

And you're damned right about the racing abuse; that also includes daily abuse. I'm convinced that the lightweight flywheel/clutch somehow affected the engagement of 2nd at redline, be it the assembly itself or the guide plate that I mentioned earlier. Regardless, my abuse has no doubt contributed to the problem. I'm about 25k into my current tranny/diff fluid interval, so I need to change those fluids shortly. That might help a tad. I'm currently running redline in both the tranny and the diff, and I'm thinking about going back to OEM.

As for the launching, I was surprised by how little I bogged versus the last time out. I looked at the wear of the tires, and the outsides were a little more worn than the insides, so I decided to drop the pressure. For most of the night I ran the tires at ~16psi cold, with the last few runs at ~14 psi cold. I expected even more bogging because of the lower pressure, but I didn't notice it.

I'm also surprised that I cut so many mid-to-low 1.9's with clutch drops. The track, on that night, was arguably the most well-prepped track I have had the good fortune to visit. In fact, there were at least 5 or 6 cars that broke off the line while we were there.

 

Our first time ever out at the drag strip saw low 15's for most of the day, and I was the only g35 that got into the 14's(though barely with a 14.7). There was an 05 5AT stock coupe there as well, and he was running 15.3's all day. I can't remember his traps.

CaptG35's runs were inline with those times, until the end of the night. Considering he was trapping 74 and 75mph, then 77mph, tells me it was running quite strong. At 77mph, that's only 2mph behind me, and he's bone stock.

 

Thanks man. I particularly like that video myself. Shows the acceleration from a little different perspective than some of my other videos.

I've gone back and watched that video over and over again(surprise), and noticed a couple of things. First there seems to be no hint of bog. Second, after about 5k rpms, the car seems to just surge forward. It's not overly-obvious, but it's there if you pay attention. And the third thing I noticed is that I'm shifting into 3rd at like 10 feet past the 330 mark.

 

How does your friend with his 06 GTO trap below 80mph? His car puts out around 340-350rwhp stock and the same torque, he should be trapping at least 85mph? If you can out trap him the same night for most of the runs I say your car is flying down the track.