Bear with me as this is the first car I've really gotten into messing with, and my automotive knowledge isn't stellar either. (More airplanes.. occupational hazzard )

So, I spent some time this summer modding my vette, with a target of breaking into the 12's (read 12.999 ), and did the following.

I added a Halltech Venom intake, a 160 Thermostat, and LG Street Series Long Tubes w/High Flow Cats. I also had the car tuned. It dyno'd at 345 RWHP/342 RWTQ, which were gains of 18/26 respectivley from my stock baseline on the same dyno. (These numbers were from a mustang dyno, which I'm told reads low)

The car also has a B&B Route 66 cat back which I added shortly after I bought it.

The car is an 06' A6 3LT base suspension car, on brand new (less than 1000 mi) stock run flats.

I got it out to the drag strip, and wasn't really impressed with the results. I am not a drag expert by any means and am still learning but here is the slip:

60' = 2.187
330' = 5.819
1/8 = 8.693 - 88.46mph
1000' = 11.141
1/4 = 13.192 - 110.29mph

This was the best I could manage across 4 runs. All are very consistant around the 13.1 - 13.2 mark.

So now with that out of the way, on to the questions:

Besides my driving... whats next?

I'm tinkering with two options, gears, or a cam.

Should I have seen bigger gains with my mods?


Look forward to some advice, thanks fellas'!

 

I see your car is an 06. With your mods, the car should be in the deep 12's. Has the engine had a professional tune since the mods were added?

 

What were the conditions for the day you ran? What tire pressures did you have the front/rear at(psi)?What were the temps of the oil/coolant before your pass?

 

Yes, as described above.

I also thought I should be in the 12's somewhere. That didn't pan out...

 

Well the run above was mid afternoon, mid 60's for the temp. No wind.

Tire pressures were at the normal 30 psi cold. Oil and coolent temps normal.

I should have mentioned above I also added a 160 T-stat. (I'll go back and add it.)

 

I ran 12.52,12.53@115+mph in 75 degree air with runflats,and bolt ons only(headers,tune,vararam). My rear tire pressure was at 28psi and i only managed a 2.03-2.05 60fts. You should try and drop your rear tire pressure to 24-28psi for the runflats. The tire pressure all depends if you hooking or not. There isn`t just one psi that works for everyone, it all depends on the conditions for that day.

Whats the elevation of your track?

 

Elevation should be around 1200 - 1300 ft or so.

I'll have to try tinkering with the tire pressure next time.

What was your car putting out RWHP wise with just the bolt on's you mentioned. I'm wondering if there is more to get out of my tune, that my tuner didn't.

 

I made 356rwhp and 352rwtq with headers,vararam,and tune.

 

Do you remember what type of dyno? Mine was done on a mustang dyno, which I've heard read low.

Any thoughts? Should I be looking for another tuner, or another mod? (Gears, Cam)

 

I would see how the tire pressure changes do.

If you goal is to run in the 12`s, just keep messing with pressures.

 

I'll definetly try that. What range of psi should I be using?

I think I'm leaning towards a set of 3.42's in the near future too... That should fix it!

 

I have an 06 C6 A6 with similar mods. I have LG LT's with high flow cats, but with the stock catback (I've since added NPP, but havn't run with that yet). You are running what I ran bone stock. In fact, I ran those numbers bone stock in 100 degree heat. Since my tune, headers, and cold air inlet (Honker knock-off) I've gotten it down to 12.03 at 118 mph. But that was with outstanding air for Phoenix with a 255 foot DA. But even average air (2000 foot DA) I run in the 12.17 to 12.20 range.

I'm not sure what is wrong, but it is not entirely your driving. All you can effect with your driving with an auto is your 60 foot time. I typically pull a 1.900. If you did the same you would run around 12.65 (still too slow). What is really the give-away is your trap speed. It's too low, should be at least 117.

Are you trying to paddle shift? Run in S full auto mode. Just let the car idle at the start line and nail it off of idle. At the most, just put your foot on the gas and bring the rpms up to about 1000 rpm, that's what works best for me. Run with the traction control OFF.

The last thing is you are not running cold air. Do the propped open shroud mod to get cold air. You may be heat soaking your engine in the staging lanes and thus getting warm air into the engine. This can make a big difference. If you can, swap out the inlet to a Honker.

Also, you may want to scan while you make a run to make sure you are not getting a lot of knock retard. There is something that is keeping you from running 117 mph. Since power required goes up to the speed squared, you are losing something like 13% from what you should be making.

Good luck.

 

Forget the 12's - gears, a converter and drag radials will easily get you into the 11's.

Go ahead, ask me how I know?

Christopher

 

This is exactly, what I am doing. Sport mode, Competive Driving mode on the traction, wait for the last yellow and nail it. Let the car do the shifting work.

 

Then it sounds like you are either getting a lot of Knock Retard or you are heat soaking before the run. Did you try raising the hood and letting the engine compartment cool for 90 minutes before a run, then push it through the staging lanes? You also need to do some scans. They don't necessarily have to be at the track, knock retard will show up on the street when you nail it. Your tuner may have put too much timing in the tune????

 

If you get gears, you better have HPtuners and know how to log/tune because you have a blast trying to dial in the shift points at the track with 3.42`s...Just ask Subfloor how long it has taken him to get the trans to shift when he wants it too....I don`t have that problem with the stock 2.56 gears. Thats not to say that i won`t add gears down the road, but be prepared to learn how to tune.

Some may say its a waste if you add power over gears, but it takes alot of time and patience to tune these A6 trannies with gears the right way.

 

Wow, easy there spin! I'm not an expert, never claimed to be and I apologize for that! Us noobs, wish we had you to parts shop for us 24/7!

Let's be clear, I'm not building a drag car. I go to the strip for FUN thats it. I didn't think shooting for mid 12's was to far fetched for a daily driver.

I agree the 60's suck... I'm on Run Flats, I expect that. I do realize improvment there would help.

3.42's are on the short list. You have a money printer I can borrow?

Ok, I can see your logic on the exhaust. But, while the small performance gain was great, I really did it for the sound and it sounds great!

Vararam, Halltech... All personal choice. You like the Vararam, got it. I was thinking some show, and more go when I decided and settled on the halltech.

Ahhhh, the carbon. You and my tuner agree on this. (The car ran the stock tune for 13k before modding) He recomended giving the sea foam a whirl. But I agree with you, it doesn't do anything excpet require me to change plugs and oil.


So, that brings us to reality. Having read many of your threads, I know you know your craft. So, what's next working with what I have? Low to mid 12's are my target. Bearing in mind, that I'm not trying to build a 1 bazillion horsepower drag monster. Unreasonable?

The 3.42's are on the list for sure. Researching a lot on those lately. Are 3.42's gonna kill my street driving? I like the peace of mind from my runflats (I can feel the heat from the flames on that comment already) Remember Daily driver!

Besides the gears, and maybe a set of drag tires, what else?

 

Spin,

Subfloor has 3.42 gears,3600 stall converter,cam,bolt ons and ran .10 faster than my 2.56 gears,3200stall converter,cam,bolt ons,fast90.
He cut a 1.55 60ft and i cut a 1.65 60ft.

Now Spin, have you tuned any of these cars with a 32-3600 stall with the 3.42 gears? I can`t comment about your tune, but Subfloor has tons of passes and has been tuning his and has numerous requests from the guys at hptuners on how to get the car to shift when he wants it to. The converter plays a big role in shift times as you know.

 

With the exception of occasionally hitting the rev-limiter if I don't get good launch traction (which will happen to any A6 even with stock gears and a converter) I've never had any trouble getting my car to shift properly at the track.

The only issue I have had was minor in that the car is supposed to shift based on surpassing a preset MPH and RPM plateau, but due to either the TCM or the HP Tuners software the car shifts solely based on MPH.

What this resulted in was my not having as much control as I would like in altering my shift points. As an example, if my car shifts from 2nd to 3rd at 62MPH/6800RPM and I wanted to keep the MPH but lower the RPM to 6700, I can't do it. The only way around this is to lower the MPH setting in my tune and the resulting RPM of the shift will end up being whatever it as for the lower MPH value.

Other than that I have no complaints.

Christopher

 

Thats funny, because i have seen your shift points and seen your posts over at HPtuners...Would you like me to continue?