Drag opinion

Howdy! My 1998 GSR with AEM CAI ran a 15.3 @ 92 mph a few months ago. I was looking at different times on dragtimes.com and I noticed that my 1/8 time was 10.1, where a lot of the 15.3 gsr's had 1/8 times around 9.9, 9.8 etc. When I launched, for my best time (15.3), I reved all the way up to 6,500 rpm, and litterally dumped the clutch. I was geting fed up with not being able to spin my tires any. To my amazement I didn't spin tires... all they did was skip and hop for less than 1/2 a second. (I did no burnouts beforehand). About a week after I went to the strip, my I noticed my clutch feeling worn and low. Is it possible that my clutch was slipping (even just a wee bit) when I was trying to launch. Would that explain why I couldn't spin tires even with dropping the clutch at 6,500rpm?

You said it was 150k with the same clutch? Get a mechanic to check it out they go after 90k from what I hear.

And for lower times, grab some drag radials and burn those puppies up.

Burning up street-tires gives you really no significant difference in traction cause they have grooves etc. You should drop your 1/8 to the 9.9 mark with drag radials

If its a daily driver ocnsider a stage-1 or stage 2 if its mostly track consider stage 3. Not much 'feathering' the clutch with 2-3 from what I hear.

Yeah it could be slipping even thoguh your foot is off the gas and not getting100% power to the drivetrain right away

My car has 78k miles on it. Original clutch (previous owner lived in a large city, lots of stop and go traffic). What I was saying, is that I could not spin my tires, even with dropping the clutch at 6,500rpms on the track. Drag radials would not help me in the slighest bit because I obviously was not having any problems with traction since I could barely get my street tires to hop. I was just wondering if my inability to spin my tires was due to a slight bit of clutch slipping.

And burning street tires will warm the rubber and make it softer and grip better, it doesn't just help with drag tires (it's just more noticeable)

I was saying that street tires really don't show much of a difference unless they are the street tires with 1 groove ment for street/track racing.

As for the clutch. If you can't even chirp your tires at 6500 there is a big problem with the clutch or you have a severe power problem

I doubt its a power problem since he ran a 15.3.

Check all your bushings and suspension components, even engine mounts. Sounds to me that you are having problems keeping planted. Stiffer engine mounts will help with wheel hop so I'm assuming that if they are shot you will get more wheel hop? Have you noticed harsher shifts? more cabin vibration? anything like that? Hows the ride quality been lately?

Ride quality has been fine. I haven't noticed any difference in the harshenss of shifts since I've owned the car. I have put 10k miles on it, and the only thing that has changed has been the clutch feeling more worn, and weaker. The wheel hop I was speaking of was, more like *grip, spin, grip, spin, grip, spin, grip* I was suprised that I couldn't just spin on the track. I can do it on the street, but I have to rev it to 4,500rpms and release the clutch as quickly as possible. I agree, not a power problem (15.3 isn't bad)

If you drop almost any car at 5400rpms and you dont smoke 'em, something is up with the clutch or drivetrain

To me, it seems like my clutch is just slipping and not gripping immediately, and allowing power to escape until it catches fully. I mean, dropping the clutch is pretty stressful on a worn clutch I imagine, and that could cause it to slip some?

well if it were the clutch slipping you would notice your RPMs jumping every time it slipped so in the case where you say it would grip,spin,grip,spin. every time it gripped or rather just didn't do anything the rpms would spike, and when it was spinning the clutch would be grabbing.

Hrmm... it was a while ago. I can't quite remember if I noticed any rpms slipping...

This is quite an old thread, and I wouldn't think that axels have anything to do with my clutch feeling worn.

new clutch and LAKEWOOD TRACTION BAR will get your 8th's down and get your 1/4 into the 14's but why are you launching so high i do my burnouts at 6000 and launch between 3-4000 depending on weather you dont want your tires to spin on launch thats why you warm them up in the water pit before launch

What I was saying is that my tires wouldn't spin! I couldn't break them free. Which seemed really unusual, specially dropping the clutch at 6k rpm.

oic, well then it sounds like you got some damn good tires or its your clutch. the clutch is basically the only thing that connects the engine to the wheels. change your clutch then if you still get wheel hop look into the traction bar or suspension work. but while you have the clutch out look into buying a good light weight solid flywheel to get your engine reving faster. with almost 80k mi. on the stock clutch you should like the way a new one feels even if its not the problem at this time.

Heh, I had some relatively worn down Michelin Pilot Supremacy 195/55/15's on there at the time. Not the best tires, so I'm guessing it's something to do with a worn clutch. I'm working on some other things right now in life, so the car is going to have to be driven til the clutch fails or slips too much to drive.

just dont push it too far. i let mine go too long and it flew apart and i got stranded in the middle of the night