We have test and tune fridays at the local drag strip here in Atlanta. My question is how to properly launch with a turbo 400 transmission and street tires. Not having a transbrake or anything like that, I assume I would stage, then depress the break and bring the engine up to about 2000 rpm. When the last yellow light comes on, off the brake and on the gas. If I go to the floor, the car will certainly spin the wheels. I think I would fair better if I did not bring the rpm's up and just started from idle. My engine is a torquey 427 small block. Any tips?

 

I recommend that you stay out of the water box. Sometimes the water drips down from the inner fender wells and gets on the tires. Do one burnout to clean the tires and pull up to the line. More than one burnout will begin to overheat transmission from the torque converter. Hold the brake on and bring up rpm's to 2000. I doubt you can do much more than this without slicks. Leave as soon as you see the last yellow come on. If you find your reaction times are still not good enough, stage deep or even turn of pre-stage light. You may have to shoe polish deep under your dial in so they know your intentions. Good luck..have fun.

 

Leave off idle--don't footbrake it. "Roll" into the throttle instead of hammering it. And stay the hell out of the water box on street tires. Drive around it, please.

 

Thanks for the replies! Do ya think a set of M T's street/strip tires would add to the fun? Could these be driven to the track? What is meant by "shoe polish"?

Thanks!!

 

At our track , faster cars will hold back their "dial-in" untill the last minute. We called that "the shoe polish advantage" when they sand bag you.

Any of the DOT approved soft tires can be driven to the track. You still have to be carefull what you drive over!

 

KLJ Often drag strips are not well groomed. So I have been on new paved streets that have superior traction.

I can tell you right now that your wasting your time going to a drag strip in any hot rodded 383's - 427's with street tires.

The shoe polish is about putting s "D" for deep stage.

ET streets and drag radials can be driven to and from the track. But if your going to have dedicated drag tires forget them and use slicks.

Every time your at a stop light around town practice your take off. I really don't think that your brakes will hold your motorback at 2000 rpm. I can't get about 1600 rpm before the rear tires start to smoke and push the front tires still locked up forwards.

 

M/Ts would help alot & also allow you to footbrake, at least up to a point- you'd have to practice to see how much RPM would work best. The "cheater slicks", while DOT legal, are not meant for extended street use so you'd want to buy 2 spare rims to mount them on & put them on the car once you got to the track.

White shoe polish is used to put your targeted ET on your window for bracket racing so the tower can read it & enter it as your dial-in for that round. This number is determined by you after you see what you can run during qualification runs & you can change it after each run if you want to. You should do a google search for bracket racing to familiarize yourself with bracket racing before you go to the track.

Also, I read an article on drag racing a few years back that strongly suggested using 2nd gear for your burnout to save wear & tear on your trans- I've done it & it definitely works. Good luck!

 

Since consistency is the key to winning, I suggest you come up with a repeatable routine. That's why I suggest a specific RPM to use. Rolling on the throttle would help with traction issues but unless you are able to do it the same every time, you will have inconsistency. When you power brake a Vette, the rear end squats and the weight is shifted more to the rear. Since you have an automatic without manual valve body you'll have no choice but to leave in 1st gear. Average your time trials slip times that are most compatible and add a hundredth of a second or two margin to avoid breakout. Adjust dial in as needed based on additional runs and cooler temperatures as your car will get faster as the air cools and your skills improve. Your torque converter should stall to 2k without spinning tires but if it won't, just pick a lower stall speed and use that consistently. As you can see, everyone has a different philosophy and different styles. The one that produces the most consistency will win you the most races. Once both cars are fully staged there is very little time to get set so get your RPM's where you want them while in the pre-stage and then let the car creep into full stage and concentrate on your side of the tree only. You must learn to ignore his/her lights as they will come on before yours if the other car is slower. Since it's a test & tune, they may just run you heads up instead of handicap though.

 

KJL:

Shoe-polish.....
is used to put numbers on most of the street-driven cars at the strip, because they don't have a permenant, vinyl-decal number on their windows.
In eliminations, you can use shoe-polish to write your 'dial-in' on the window, or the word "DEEP-STAGE" if you choose to do-so.....

If you are going to the track JUST to see how fast you can go, don't worry about deep-staging, a technique used for quicker reaction times, but one which prodices drastically slower ETs (by-now, I've probably confused you...)

When you are behind/in-in-front of the water-box, you can see 'the groove', where the rubber laid-down from the other cars is very 'flat':
between this, and out-board, the Black appears very shiny. This is because few other cars have left their rubber there....
Position your tires in the groove: it offers your best bet at traction.

For best ET/MPH, you'll need to vary your launch RPM/burn-out proceedure (to see which is best for you), as each car will have it's own traits and characteristics:
if you will be trying to win at the bracket-racing portion of the event, and be very consistent, try a more 'repeatable' starting line routine each time, as stated earlier.

Quick and fast may be fun, but consistency is what wins at the bracket races.

 

KJL, Where you going to run???

 

Atlanta Drag Way in Commerce has "Test and Tune" sessions on Friday nights. I have never done it before so I don't know all the details. It looks like it could be fun. I believe you can race as well if you wish.

 

I'm south of the city, Commerce is pretty far for me if I break something. I usually run at LaGrange Dragstrip.

I can't run anywhere at the moment, my trans hosed out on me a few weeks back, just got all the parts to put everything back together yeaterday. I was waiting on a converter for over 3 weeks, but it finally showed up, since then I have a few more boxes of stuff to put on too.

 

Thanks for all the replies, I have a manual/auto valve body. I am using a TCI Street Fighter Transmission. I can get it to 2k rpm but that is about it. I am also running 3.08 rear gear so that should help with the spinning problem. I think this track has a rule where of you run in the 11's you need a roll bar and other safety stuff. With street tires this may not be a problem but if I start messing with slicks, my track career may be short lived.

 

Atlanta Dragway has been owned BY the NHRA since the late-'80s, and at 11.99 or quicker, you'd need a bar, a fire-jacket, etc.

With slicks, chances-are, you'd shell the rear-end, or any of the several 'joints' in the I.R.S.
Stick with simple DOT tires, until you become 'serious':
you'll enjoy yourself more....

 

In some cases power braking does not give the best times. Depending on the set-up, SOMETIMES if you "flash" the torque converter you can launch at a higher RPM and do better.

 

Thanks for the input, I agree, the last thing I want to do is break something. I put my car on a dyno last night and I got 363 RWHP and 488 RWT. I am going to replace my 650 cfm Edlebrock with a 750 Holly and get rid of the 2" swirl torque carb spacer. Hopefully this may drop the torque a tad and pick up the upper end HP. I doubt with street tires I will need to worry about doing better than 11.99 seconds.

 

FOUR-HUNDRED and eighty-eight ft/lb RWTQ?


That's kinda high, don't you think?????

 

I was thinking the same thing. I dyno'ed my car 2-3 years ago, before upgrading heads & cam. I made 359 RWHP & 411RWTQ, so it seems a bit out of proportion...I'm curious about his combo now.

 

I'm gonna bump this to the top- KJL, how did it go???

 

Still have not got the carb yet. Should have it next week. I think the bigger carb and 1/2" open plenum spacer will boost the top end and drop the tq a bit. I guess I have a knack for building torquey engines. My 355 CID made 260 rwhp and 320 rwtq. Still have not made it to the strip yet.