m21sniper

1989 Turbo Trans am powered by the mighty Buick 3.8L SFI V-6 intercooled turbo motor. Those things fetch serious bucks, and are very fast cars(13.5 stock).

Ether that or it was one of the 301 Turbo T/As, but those are total dogs(Seems about right considering the ET the dude ran).

Oh...almost forgot.........NICE run.

all4woody

Tony,
Great run, keep going and your time will drop. I still have issues with spin at the tree, I also get a little wheel hop during burnout. What is your RWHP now?
Later, Woody

Rick Carter

You da man, Tony.

Tony

what reaction time would you like to see next time.?
Ill play a game of bloody knuckles with ya...you'll loose everytime
I have an idea of what deep stage is but can you explain it a bit?
I role forward until the first yellow light is on...then role a tad farther until the second one comes on ...STAGED...then i stop.

Should i role back a tad to the point the second light almost is ready to go out again.?

Woody, im at 403rwhp from my last dyno...1 yr ago now i think? I was at appx 3750lbs.. a pretty educated guess based on what i had in the car that night and fuel level and a previous trip to the scales a while back. its the 4spd auto as well.

12.5 would be awesome

Kaz

Good job Tony. Actually for a deep stage you should roll forward more until you're out of stage, then roll back juuuust smidgen till it lights up again.

AO

Hey Tony.

Just got back from a business trip and read your post. That's AWESOME! Good going!

m21sniper

For comparison last time i was at the track i pulled a .101 R/T(give or take a few thousandths) compared to the .6 somethin' you got listed on your slip.

IOW, i would've already been .5 secs ahead of you before you ever left the starting block. So instead of beating my 13.7 car by 6+ lengths as you would with equal R/T, you'd be chasing me down for most of the track. Conversely, if you beat my R/T by .5 secs then you'd have a double digit length margin of victory.

Makes a huge difference in the margin of victory(or defeat), and lets a guy with a slower car actually win because he left the other guy sleepin' at the lights!

I raced a Lighting that had a .4 better e/t then i did in the .101 run but i still beat him by almost two lengths because i snoozed him out of the hole.

I've included a good explanation of the various staging techniques below:

DEEP vs SHALLOW STAGING:

http://www.summitracing.com/landing/...3F23%7D&Type=6

"Shallow staging is the one to use if you are looking to reduce elapsed times. To shallow stage, just roll through the starting area until both the prestage and stage lights are on, indicating you are ready to race. This gives you the maximum amount of momentum-building rollout, which improves ETs at the expense of reaction times. If you are new to drag racing, we suggest you use shallow staging while you learn proper launch techniques.

Deep staging is used to maximize reaction time and get closer to the finish line. To deep stage, roll the car up until you trigger the prestage and stage lights, then move up further until the prestage light goes out. That puts more of your front tire ahead of the stage beam, which means there is less tire before you roll through the stage beam and trigger the ET clock, giving you a chance to cut a better light. However, that reduced rollout also puts you more at risk of redlighting if you don't time your launch just right. Deep staging takes a lot of practice, and may not be allowed in bracket class depending on the rules at your track.

There is a third type of staging, called late staging, that is more mind game than anything else. Late staging is used to throw off your opponent's concentration. After you light the prestage bulb, wait for your opponent to completely stage--then wait some more before you roll into the stage beam. While this technique might work on new guys, veteran racers are too busy watching the Tree to notice. Also, most starting line officials discourage the practice by starting the countdown lights the second the late stager lights the stage bulb, giving him no time to react. To put it bluntly, don't late stage.

In the next installment of Drag Race School, we'll talk about rollout and how it can affect staging. Rollout is the distance your front tire travels at launch to move out of the stage beam and trigger the ET timer. For now, though, the most important thing is to choose a staging technique that works for you and stick with it. If you stage the same way for every run, you will be more consistent--and consistency wins bracket races."

What you're shooting for is an R/T in the .1 range.(even lower for a deep stage once you get really good).

HERE'S THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART: ALWAYS REMEMBER YOU GO ON THE LAST SET OF YELLOWS.

The lights flash, yellow, yellow, green in .5 sec intervals once the tree is started. As you can see, if you leave on the LAST set of yellows and factor in your .6 R/T it will become a .1 R/T(because you left .5 seconds 'early'), and you'll win a hell of a lot more races, and get a lot of cheers from the crowd! By launching on the last yellow you are compensating for the delay in getting the data from your eyes to your brain, and then getting the message to "GO" from your brain to your foot.



You should NEVER see a green light.

Hope this helps.

m21sniper

The best way to execute the technique you're talkin' about is to let your burnout carry you past the staging lane, so that you have to back up before they can set the tree.

The tree operator will start the lights once you're both staged(shallow or deep), so creeping into the block, then backing up does not work well. Believe me, i learnt that lesson the hard way!

PS: You will actually run a better ET on a shallow stage, but the deep stage will give the best R/T, and win you the most races.

Imo000

Nice number Tony!!!

After seeing your time slip I had to look at mine just to see what kind of a race would our cars do. I have to say it would be one heck of a run. You would beat me but only by a nose.

Here is my best time slip (This was before the intercoler went in). The cat had stock 225s tires at 36psi. Just like you, nothing was taken out of it to make it lighter.

R/T........0.603
60'.........2.027
330........5.518
1/8........8.370
MPH......86.69
1000.....10.809
1/4.......12.872
MPH......108.96


Sniper,
You are comparing two different types of drag racing. The one Tony and I went to was set up in such a way that perfect reaction time is 0.500. Anything less is a red light. So Tony was only off by 1 tenth, and that is actually not bad considering he only ran twice.

m21sniper

Ah, no pro tree at your tracks?

At Atco and Maplegrove, the two tracks i go to, a perfect R/T is .001.

Never seen one of those. Best i've ever seen is a .040 or thereabouts.

Imo000

I beleive all the NHRA christmas trees look the same its the sequens they get turned on changes. For certain type of racing the track Pro tree sequence is used but for most amature races they use a different setup. The amber lights come on one at a time, and the time interval between the lights stays the same all the way down till green. This is alot more predictable and easier to catch a perfect light (.500sec). The pro light sequence in not as much predicatable, right?

m21sniper

The pro tree goes yellow-green instead of yellow-yellow-green. All the ambers light at once, then the green(at .5 intervals). The pro tree only takes 1 sec to cycle vs the 1.5 sec of the amatuer tree. I really don't know what's up with the .5 perfect, but the pros- and the two tracks that i've been too(only been to maple grove once, but i've been to atco dozens of times over the years) have a .001 perfect R/T.

I wonder why they use two different systems.

mark kibort

are you running a 1/4 tank too? If so, what are you taking those bum gallons for a ride for???? get it right before the reserve light goes on! 1/4 tank could be 20 extra lbs right there.
109mph top speed, what rpms are you at when you cross the line? 2.2 auto?
how about tires. drag DOTs???

great job, thats fast!

maybe you do need that 3.09 on the auto!

Mk

Imo000

Mark,

I can answer some of the question from my point of view. Ideally an almost empty tank is most logical, but in reality, if you have traction problem a full tank will only help. It will make the car a bit heavier at the same time it will get you out of the hole faster than an empty tank.

To run a 109mph in an ’85 5-speed, 3rd gear is almost enough to run the ¼ mile. Because it’s almost enough I have to shift into 4th otherwise the rev limiter would kick in ~50 ft before the finish line. Even though the rev limiter was slightly raised by the chip change it was still not enough to run the car without shifting into 4th.

I have stock rear end with LSD and the tires were regular semi-old DOT rubber. There was nothing race prepped on the car , even the tire pressure stayed at 36psi.

Sniper,

I’m not sure why there are two different methods to activate the tree, but ever since I’ve been going to the track (+10 years) I never seen the pro tree in use during an non NHRA competition. They do use it during “test & tune” days but only for cars that are NHRA legal.

Jim R.

Tony,

Nice run!

Damn, I wish we had a local track here still. Only so much you can do on the street.

It would be interesting to see how a higher stall torque converter and drag radials would work for you.

Jim