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better reaction time


jason-1995fbody
04-13-2005, 05:03 PM
i run a street class with my 95 firebird but my lights are shitty to say the least .60 / .90/ or red lights :banghead: run street tires and it only ran like 16.0 et last year but have done a lot incuding nos and tips or tricks to cut a better light

chevytrucks92
04-13-2005, 08:49 PM
unless .000 is perfect where you're running, then .6 is not that bad for a footbrake only.

However, if .000 is perfect, then you need to try leaving on the 2nd yellow light.

jason-1995fbody
04-13-2005, 10:29 PM
yeah i tryed that thats how i got the red lights just dont see a .6 much compition when everyone cuts a .560 or better (.500 being perfect)

chevytrucks92
04-13-2005, 11:14 PM
Well, try leaving as soon as you see the 3rd yellow light come on. Or maybe try to leave as the 2nd yellow is getting ready to turn off.

I really can't offer you much help on the matter other then what I already said becuae I use a trans. brake and a delay box. But just from being around racing for the past 13 years or so, I can say that to be successful with a street car, you have to be on the gas when the 3rd yellow light is on, and in a slow vehicle, when the 2nd yellow is on.

If that doesn't work and the best you can do is .600, then you'll just have to try and make up for it with your dial in, and I know street cars are not that consistant, but you'll just have to dial for dead on every time and not give yourself in wiggle room.

benchtest
04-14-2005, 12:04 AM
Try deep-staging.

jason-1995fbody
04-14-2005, 08:49 AM
hey thanks lots of good advice ill try it out this weekend and see what hapens

AWP9521
04-14-2005, 11:15 AM
Deep staging has it's merits but unless you deep stage just enough to turn off the pre-stage lights then there is no accuracy in it as you really do not know how far you are into the stage beam. I agree that leaving on different aspects of the tree (second yellow or third yellow) will change your RT but if you do not stage exactly the same way every time then all the adjusting of when to leave on the tree goes right out the window. You have to be consistant even on staging the car to the line, staging a few inches farther into the beam can drasticly affect your RT. I recommend once you light the pre-stage bulb stop the car, then inch the car very very slowly into the stage beam until the front of the tires just break the beam and light the stage bulb and no more, try to do that procedure every time then try leaving on the end of the second or the lighting of the third amber and see what your RT is. You only have so much time to play around with getting the RT's down during time trials in a racing session unless it's a test n tune session, but if you stage the car exactly as I described every time then that takes one variable out of the equation and lets you only focus on the tree and when to leave.

chevytrucks92
04-14-2005, 01:16 PM
AWP9521, you are exactly right! I had a problem with red lighting out of nowhere last season and that was the reason...not staging the same way every time.

I only started driving last year, and the first 4 or 5 times I staged exactly like you said. I always stop the car when I bump the pre-stage bulb, but after 4 or 5 runs, instead of inching the car into the stage bulbs I just held the brakes and let it roll untill the bulb came on. At the time I didnt realize I was doing it, and this went on for like 4 weekends! I would come up and have a good solid .51x reaction time, maybe have a couple in a row, then out of nowhere I'd red .470 or have a terrible green of like .550, lol.

We were at the point where we were going to change delay boxes to see if that was causing my problem when my Dad said just inch into the stage bulbs and see what that does. Now you talk about being relieved! This was in the 2nd round of eliminations, and I of coures had to buy back in due to a redlight, and we added a bunch of time to my box and I did what he said had like a .540 something, but man I was relieved! The next round, we took about .020 out of the box and I came with a .524 and my problem was cured! I wound up making it to 3 cars that night and in my final round, I had a .514 reaction time and wound up breaking out by .001 seconds, lol.

Anyways, you give good advice in how to stage. That makes all the difference and I should have thought of that myself since it gave me fits (and doubts) about my reaction times for nearly a month!

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