Take it to the track

Well tonight I took the stang with a couple of friends out to Crapital Raceway. It was my first time actually racing my car at a race track. I had no idea what to expect. My first race I accidently left the traction control on and ran a 15.1 at 95 miles an hour. The second time I thought I would give it a little more and I roasted the tires for what seemed like forever in first gear. I ended up with an even worse 15.8 at 98 miles an hour. Well you live and you learn. Better luck next time I guess haha.

Takes time to get used to.

I FINALLY got some decent short times recently. And I have been racing the 1/4 for almost 3 years. :lol:

Well tonight I took the stang with a couple of friends out to Crapital Raceway. It was my first time actually racing my car at a race track. I had no idea what to expect. My first race I accidently left the traction control on and ran a 15.1 at 95 miles an hour. The second time I thought I would give it a little more and I roasted the tires for what seemed like forever in first gear. I ended up with an even worse 15.8 at 98 miles an hour. Well you live and you learn. Better luck next time I guess haha.

what were your E.T's?

With the 98 mph trap speed i'd say your car is good for a 14.4 sec. 1/4 mile. I really don't think traction control slows down a car as much as everyone thinks. Some people on LS1tech.com got in the 12's w/ vettes using traction control, so go figure.

Anyways, good to see some honesty. What were your 60' times on the runs. If I can analyze that I can see what is going wrong (Obviously traction). Your trap seems healthy from what i've seen of 4.6 stangs (Honestly I don't see stock one's trapping at 100+mph).

Time to get an LSJuan. J/K

(Wanna buy my car? :p )

moved to non-spec.

My first one was a 2.4 60ft and the second time was even worse with the tire spinning at 2.8. Isn't the ET the 1/4 mile time?

My first one was a 2.4 60ft and the second time was even worse with the tire spinning at 2.8. Isn't the ET the 1/4 mile time?

Yeah, I think 98 T/A just hasn't hit the track yet himself (He won't have to worry, he's got an auto). Your 60' times are atrocious. You gotta nail that to get a decent 1/4 mile run. It might be due to excessively bad track prep though (LACR rarely ever sprays VHT, maybe your track is the same).

yeah im sure youll get better. im curious as to how id do at the track... ive never gone with my car. its slow i know that much though.

i've been to the fayetteville 1/4 track a few times to watch but just havnt run my car yet. only thing holding me back is my wealth vs. how much i value my tires haha. i cant afford to be roastin my street tires bein a poorr college student. one of these days i'll get a pair of DR's for the rear and just use them at the track.

i've been to the fayetteville 1/4 track a few times to watch but just havnt run my car yet. only thing holding me back is my wealth vs. how much i value my tires haha. i cant afford to be roastin my street tires bein a poorr college student. one of these days i'll get a pair of DR's for the rear and just use them at the track.

No need for DR's. You've got an automatic. Just tech it up to 1500rpms, whilst holding the brakes, and roll into the throttle. It's an instant 2.0-2.2 sec. 60' and 13 sec. 1/4 mile. It's when the automatic owners brag about skill that irritates me.

yeah i kno it doesnt take much skill to drive an auto,, never realized there were that many advantages to having an A4 tho. a lot of ppl who dont kno anything about cars immediately think auto=slow, which is what pisses me off. ppl in rustang gt's and other slower cars are always like "too bad it's an auto" and then I just say "you wanna race?:evillol:" i kno the auto mustang tranny's are shit compared to GM's autos. how bad is it on your car to do that brake stand start (i think that's what it's called)? btw I aprecciate the advice man :thumbsup:

yeah i kno it doesnt take much skill to drive an auto,, never realized there were that many advantages to having an A4 tho. a lot of ppl who dont kno anything about cars immediately think auto=slow, which is what pisses me off. ppl in rustang gt's and other slower cars are always like "too bad it's an auto" and then I just say "you wanna race?:evillol:" i kno the auto mustang tranny's are shit compared to GM's autos. how bad is it on your car to do that brake stand start (i think that's what it's called)? btw I aprecciate the advice man :thumbsup:

No problem's with giving you advise. I use to street race alot years ago, and know that passing on experience is a virtue.

Anyways, I thought a brake stand was hard to do. It wasn't until Stig did it that I truly wanted to do it (Hey, I can't let him get away with it with a car he owned for less time then i've owned my own). With your car you have it easy. Just lightly apply the brakes, and gas it. Make sure the car doesn't roll too far forward by applying brake pressure.

For us M6 guys, you usually have to hope you don't have an idiot staging personnel at the track, as i've had them walk right in front of my car while I was in the burn out box. Basically I hit 4K+ rpms, release the clutch, and immediately step on the brakes (not too hard, as it will stall the engine). Usually the car will roll just a little bit forward, and then stop as you apply brake pressure. It's bad for the discs though from what i've heard. Definitely only something i'd wanna do w/ DR's at the track.

Avoid the water box at the track if you are on street tires :D

Yeah I know my 60 ft times were terrible. I need to work on that pretty bad. I knew they were bad when I was doing them. Oh well that was only my first time.

how bad is it on your car to do that brake stand start (i think that's what it's called)?

Its pretty bad on them actually. Really hard on your torque converter. That will build alot of heat and heat is an automatic's worse enemy.

Its pretty bad on them actually. Really hard on your torque converter. That will build alot of heat and heat is an automatic's worse enemy.

^ hes right. a tranny cooler should help that though shouldnt it. those arent very expensive at all.

Some decent info in here.

Remember this...don't warm street tires. They get slicker as they warm up.

Some decent info in here.

Remember this...don't warm street tires. They get slicker as they warm up.

yeah there's some great info in here, and thanks again for all your advice guys. i guess i'll only do the break stand at tracks and not at lights for fun or anything haha. i have yet to do it even once tho because i'm tryin to keep it in the best shape as possible since i paid for it myself and definately can't afford another one while i'm in college.

^ hes right. a tranny cooler should help that though shouldnt it. those arent very expensive at all.

A tranny cooler will help control heat while the car's moving, but as far as "stalling" the car (hold the brake and gas at the same time), its not really going to help.

Coolers are not very expensive (maybe $30 or $40 at Advanced or AutoZone), but they really don't help unless you're moving. You see, instead of routing the transmission fluid through the radiator, it routes it through the cooler,which you mount in front of the radiator. The idea is the air in front of the radiator will be cooler then the 180*, maybe even 210*(depends on what your vehicle's temp runs at) coolant going through your radiator.

Honestly, there's no real cure for that. That's why torque converters don't last forever. Doesn't matter if its a stall converter or not, they still build heat when you stall the car. What we try to do is stay off the converter as much as possible.

I know I always wait to bring the rpms up on my car (or whoever's I'm driving) untill the other guy has both of his stage lights on. Some people even wait untill the tree has started.

A tranny cooler will help control heat while the car's moving, but as far as "stalling" the car (hold the brake and gas at the same time), its not really going to help.

Coolers are not very expensive (maybe $30 or $40 at Advanced or AutoZone), but they really don't help unless you're moving. You see, instead of routing the transmission fluid through the radiator, it routes it through the cooler,which you mount in front of the radiator. The idea is the air in front of the radiator will be cooler then the 180*, maybe even 210*(depends on what your vehicle's temp runs at) coolant going through your radiator.

Honestly, there's no real cure for that. That's why torque converters don't last forever. Doesn't matter if its a stall converter or not, they still build heat when you stall the car. What we try to do is stay off the converter as much as possible.

I know I always wait to bring the rpms up on my car (or whoever's I'm driving) untill the other guy has both of his stage lights on. Some people even wait untill the tree has started.


That's extremely helpful information. I honestly didn't know that converters weren't cooled by tranny coolers during a brake stand. I thought tranny coolers were more useful. I suppose it still extends the life somewhat though.

Well they'll def. keep the transmission fluid cooler then what it would be if it didnt have a cooler.

A tranny cooler will help control heat while the car's moving, but as far as "stalling" the car (hold the brake and gas at the same time), its not really going to help.

Coolers are not very expensive (maybe $30 or $40 at Advanced or AutoZone), but they really don't help unless you're moving. You see, instead of routing the transmission fluid through the radiator, it routes it through the cooler,which you mount in front of the radiator. The idea is the air in front of the radiator will be cooler then the 180*, maybe even 210*(depends on what your vehicle's temp runs at) coolant going through your radiator.
In the case of the low-end coolers your right, but if you’re really going to be working your transmission that hard you should be running something like this:
Fan coolers. (http://www.bulkpart.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=2&Product_Code=13730&Category_Code=derale-fan&Product_Count=2)

I would expect something like that would be able to more then handle the transmission’s cooling needs even when doing brake stand. And if it didn’t there are bigger ones.

I always assume people seriously into drag racing knew about these things and used them, but based on your post I guess I was wrong.:dunno:

that still wouldn't help much. with a brake stand, most of the heat build up is in the torque converter. a tranny cooler cools the tranny fuild, which does not get shared with the torque converter. so a tranny cooler would help keep the tranny cool during a brake stand, but the torque converter is still going to build up heat

I always assume people seriously into drag racing knew about these things and used them, but based on your post I guess I was wrong.:dunno:

I don't even use a "low end" transmission cooler. I usually run a short distance so no realy need. Plus my car never gets above 160*.

And like I said before, there is no cure for building heat in the converter when you're stalling the car.