Box, No Box......?
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 32,545
Likes: 2
From: Lithia FL
Cruise-In II & IV Veteran
CI VI Drag Champ!
Never having one myself what it does is launches the car for you at a certain time you give it.
On a full tree you will leave on the third yellow. This will most likely cause you to anticipate rather than react to the bulb. This can be a bad habit cause you are guessing. With a delay box you react to the first light and program the car to leave 1.x second after you have reacted thereby eliminating anticipation inconsistencies.
On a full tree you will leave on the third yellow. This will most likely cause you to anticipate rather than react to the bulb. This can be a bad habit cause you are guessing. With a delay box you react to the first light and program the car to leave 1.x second after you have reacted thereby eliminating anticipation inconsistencies.
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 32,545
Likes: 2
From: Lithia FL
Cruise-In II & IV Veteran
CI VI Drag Champ!
I used to think that. I thought I was trained to react to the thrid yellow when I can cut a .00x light almost at will.
Then I started doing pro tree races and trying to react to the top bulb...NOWHERE near what I do with a full tree
Then I started doing pro tree races and trying to react to the top bulb...NOWHERE near what I do with a full tree
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 15,175
Likes: 86
From: State of Confusion
Originally Posted by C3 Stroker
I understand,.....but you can just as easily react to the third yellow as the first one, and get just as good a reaction time, correct ?
at the time, technology allowed some enterprising racers to build a device, which they could pre-program to the thousandth-of-a-second (.001 ), to 'delay' the signal sent from the button on the shifter to the transmission, releasing the trans-brake, preventing a red-light.....
..... BUT.....
..... since they were still reacting to the 3rd bulb, they still had the chance to be 'anticipating' that bulb, so they began 'dialing-in' more delay, and leaving off the top-bulb, where they couldn't 'anticipate' ANY bulbs flashing:
about the same time, the first readily-available (but primitive ) 'practice' Christmas Trees were offered, and racers realized they could practice leaving-off the top-bulb to the 'first-flash', minimizing the chance of red-lights due to 'anticipation', and become very consistent on the Tree.
A 'good' bottom-bulb racer can usually go -.01 to .03 (old-style .490-to-.530 ) at-will, but the equivalent delay-box racer can-go -.005 to .02 (.495-.520 ), which is a much tighter 'window', offering better chance at success (less red-lights, and better 'worse' lights, too ), with fewer distractions:
a quicker opponent with a delay-box can program-in the difference of the 'spot' to your slower dial-in, and leave-off of YOUR top-bulb, known-as 'crossing-over', so once he knows all 4 Pre-Stage/Stage bulbs are lit, he can release his trigger on ANY flash he sees, and won't be distracted by your slower car 'passing-behind' the tree when his side is activated.
(this explains why the top Amber bulb at most tracks is 'pointed' straight-back, allowing each driver to see his opponents top-bulb {crossing-over}, but the 2nd & 3rd Ambers bulbs are angled-towards each particular lane, with a center 'shield' dividing visibility )
With LOTSA practice, you would become much-more consistent with a delay box & leaving-off the top-bulb for getting good Reaction Times:
they aren't called 'Anticipation Times', are they?
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,457
Likes: 22
Originally Posted by C3 Stroker
I understand,.....but you can just as easily react to the third yellow as the first one, and get just as good a reaction time, correct ?
Edgar, I use a trans brake running shallow staged on the pro tree. Only way I can cut a light.
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,457
Likes: 22
Originally Posted by REDGAR
I used to think that. I thought I was trained to react to the thrid yellow when I can cut a .00x light almost at will.
Then I started doing pro tree races and trying to react to the top bulb...NOWHERE near what I do with a full tree
Then I started doing pro tree races and trying to react to the top bulb...NOWHERE near what I do with a full tree
Edgar you see the light. 
Last season I cut a .000 light shallow staged and one of the ATCO hitters came up to me and said nice guess. At the time I didn't know what he was talking about. I do now. 
Team Owner
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 32,782
Likes: 11
From: Former NCM Drag Racing coordinator, National director Corvette Challenge Spring Hill, Tennessee: Whiting, New Jersey
Cruise-In VI Veteran
Cruise-In VII Veteran
And then ther guys like Panuzzo and me that foot brake off the top bulb because our reactions are getting slower 
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Top 10 C9 Corvette MUST-HAVES to Fix These C8 Generation Flaws!
Michael S. Palmer
10 Revolutionary 'Corvette Firsts' Most People Don't Know
Joe Kucinski
5 Reasons to Upgrade to an LS6-Powered Corvette; 5 Reasons to Stay LT2
Michael S. Palmer
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,924
Likes: 735
From: Youngstown Ohio
Thanks, all, for your input. It seems the electronics are a "reaction time aid", taking away some degree of guesswork , enabling better reaction times. Now if only I can get my car to hook consistantly, I would cut perfect lights (Ha !)
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 18,484
Likes: 1
From: Everyday you must choose between the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Fredericktown, OH
Originally Posted by C3 Stroker
Thanks, all, for your input. It seems the electronics are a "reaction time aid", taking away some degree of guesswork , enabling better reaction times. Now if only I can get my car to hook consistantly, I would cut perfect lights (Ha !)
Exactly. The driver still has to react consistently for the delay box to work. But, it has been proven that the human body reacts quickest and most cosistently to the first stimuli as opposed to the 3rd, or more of the tree isn't shielded. That's whay delay boxes turned into cross-over delay boxes. This allows the faster car to "leave" off the slowe cars first bulb. Heck, some now giver you the chance to leave off the opponents top bulb and your top bulb and can calculate which one is better. Then, some even have an override that if you think you missed both, you can go off your bottom bulb.
I always raced foot brack (no-box) and did pretty well. In the mid-90s, I used to run both classes once or twice a month. Back then, you could race all day long with .520-.540s in a no-box class as long as you could race the big end. In box classes, far too many people can go .50x - .519 all day long. And in a big tire car or dragster, they are very consistent.