launching
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 374
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I assume you're referring to the drag strip, since you don't typically "launch" at the track. You have to find the right balance of letting the clutch out smoothly and steadily, adding gas, and starting RPM.
If you drop the clutch, you'll spin out the tires and cause undue stress on the car, and this is slow. If you have too low initial RPM, you'll bog down and be slow. Ideally, what you want is your tires to slightly slip as you accelerate, that's the fastest way.
Start out revving up to 3000 RPM or so, smoothly and quickly let the clutch out, while adding enough gas so that you're full throttle by the time the clutch is out and your engine did not bog while you did this. It's a tricky balance to get right. Starting at 3000 RPM may be a bit hard on the drive train, so when you're practicing, maybe start lower, but you won't be in the optimum power band.
If your wheels hop and shudder, you let the clutch out too fast. If your car lurches a few times, you're bogging the engine. If everything works smoothly, you're going too slow
Practice, practice, practice.
If you drop the clutch, you'll spin out the tires and cause undue stress on the car, and this is slow. If you have too low initial RPM, you'll bog down and be slow. Ideally, what you want is your tires to slightly slip as you accelerate, that's the fastest way.
Start out revving up to 3000 RPM or so, smoothly and quickly let the clutch out, while adding enough gas so that you're full throttle by the time the clutch is out and your engine did not bog while you did this. It's a tricky balance to get right. Starting at 3000 RPM may be a bit hard on the drive train, so when you're practicing, maybe start lower, but you won't be in the optimum power band.
If your wheels hop and shudder, you let the clutch out too fast. If your car lurches a few times, you're bogging the engine. If everything works smoothly, you're going too slow
Practice, practice, practice.
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 374
Likes: 13
I don't know about autos, since I never drove one, but from what I understand about them mechanically, when you're brake torquing, all that energy has to go somewhere, and it goes into the transmission fluid in the torque converter, which will heat up. I doubt that can be good for the transmission.
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That's why you only do it at the very last second once staged and the tree starts to drop the yellows.
I'll rev up to 3000 or so RPM while mashing the brake and then on the last yellow let off the brake and floor it. I have an X, so there really isn't any concern with wheelspin for me. It just goes.
With my manual trans car, it's a fine line to discover the point between where the car bogs off the line and where it spins up the tires.
It takes practice. I've made hundreds of passes at a drag strip with my manual Mustang and I still have to experiments and try different things to try to get off the line better.
Automatic trans a MUCH easier and can be more consistent. That's why Auto is usually better suited for drag racing when you are racing the clock.
I'll rev up to 3000 or so RPM while mashing the brake and then on the last yellow let off the brake and floor it. I have an X, so there really isn't any concern with wheelspin for me. It just goes.
With my manual trans car, it's a fine line to discover the point between where the car bogs off the line and where it spins up the tires.
It takes practice. I've made hundreds of passes at a drag strip with my manual Mustang and I still have to experiments and try different things to try to get off the line better.
Automatic trans a MUCH easier and can be more consistent. That's why Auto is usually better suited for drag racing when you are racing the clock.
never had a sports car or never had a manual?
what does sports car or import have to do with launching. Every car has its own way of launching and so does every person. There is no universal way of launching an import or a sports car. If there was drag racing wouldn't be interesting.
I have a 2005 coupe 6MT and went 14.05 @ 102.3mph bone stock. VIDEO - http://www.reidonly.net/videos/reid-G35-14.05@102.3.wmv
Here are some details of my passes with my car (copy and pasted from my thread - https://g35driver.com/forums/drag/21...s-tonight.html)
Here are some details of my passes with my car (copy and pasted from my thread - https://g35driver.com/forums/drag/21...s-tonight.html)
Launch:
The clutch engages pretty far out, so when I staged I let off the clutch to the point right where it starts to grab, then backed off just a tad. I took the rpms up to between 2500-2800 and then slipped the clutch a little bit pretty quickly, and as soon as I start rolling I drop the clutch all the way and then floor the gas.
Shifting:
I have the factory shift light set at 7000rpm. On the 1-2 shift I was shifting a tick before it went solid red. The 2-3 shift I let it just hit solid red for a brief second then shifted. 3rd gear I played with a little bit. On the 4th pass I let the rpms wind out a little more, netting me the much higher trap speed than the previous runs. On the 3-4 shift I wasn't even really paying attention to the shift light, and instead went off the tach (since it moves slower in the higher gears and I have more time to watch it than the lower gears). I have heard people say that when the tach shows 7300, its actually at 7000. So I let the needle hit between 7200-7300 then shifted into 4th, which was literally right before I crossed the traps. I could probably almost make it through the lights in 3rd gear on the rev limiter lol.
Hopefully that was detailed enough haha.
The clutch engages pretty far out, so when I staged I let off the clutch to the point right where it starts to grab, then backed off just a tad. I took the rpms up to between 2500-2800 and then slipped the clutch a little bit pretty quickly, and as soon as I start rolling I drop the clutch all the way and then floor the gas.
Shifting:
I have the factory shift light set at 7000rpm. On the 1-2 shift I was shifting a tick before it went solid red. The 2-3 shift I let it just hit solid red for a brief second then shifted. 3rd gear I played with a little bit. On the 4th pass I let the rpms wind out a little more, netting me the much higher trap speed than the previous runs. On the 3-4 shift I wasn't even really paying attention to the shift light, and instead went off the tach (since it moves slower in the higher gears and I have more time to watch it than the lower gears). I have heard people say that when the tach shows 7300, its actually at 7000. So I let the needle hit between 7200-7300 then shifted into 4th, which was literally right before I crossed the traps. I could probably almost make it through the lights in 3rd gear on the rev limiter lol.
Hopefully that was detailed enough haha.