My partner and I drag-raced her Mustang a few nights ago. I've posted three time slips here: her fastest (marked with an H), my fastest (marked with an R) and a weird "outlier" where her trap speed is significantly faster than any of our other runs (maybe an error in car numbering -- there was no 45 on track, and the booth did say it was for 46).
What can you teach me based on the data? I suspect she is faster because she doesn't launch as aggressively, so she has less wheelspin).
She beat you in the first 60 feet. Is her launch different from yours?
From top down, .500 is the time between the lights. Meaningless, in the greater scheme, because it's either that or a pro tree, where all the yellows flash on, then off half a second later.
Dial in is the time you select, the time you figure to run. If you dial a 14.0, and your opponent dials a 15.0, the tree comes down differently on his side, he leaves a second before you, so whoever gets to the finish first wins. Unless you go quicker than your dialin, which is called a breakout.
Which brings us to reaction time. That is the length of time between the last yellow going out and your front wheels leaving the timing beam. For time trials, meaningless. For competition, critical. The combination of reaction time and dial in is the package, so a .000 reaction and a 14.000 is a perfect run, and unbeatable. A .500 reaction and a 14.00 puts you on the trailer.
60 foot is a measurement of the quality of your launch. A 2.40 60 foot kinda sucks, but for a street car on street tires, the 60 foot is a really tough thing. Suspension, driving, tires, track prep all come into play.
1/8th mile elapsed time and speed are pretty self explanatory, as is the 1/4 mile. MPH is more indicative of horsepower, et more indicative of traction and suspension prep, because a lot of et comes in the 60 foot.
I hope some of this makes sense.
Her 60' is a full tenth better than yours. The launch is the most important thing in drag racing as that determines how much initial acceleration you have. If you both drive the car more or less the same down track there's no way to catch up to what she will do because her initial velocity was better. This also explains her higher MPH than you.
The outlier run is your car with a timing malfunction in the speed trap at the end of the track. Likely the initial beam didn't catch your bumper for some reason and instead tripped on the tire, making the trap a foot or so shorter which gave the artificially high reading.
Even your 1/8th mile MPH is higher, telling me you staged really shallow on that run, if in fact there was no car 45.
I’m guessing this is a 4.6 GT, or older 5.0?
The best pass for my 2016 V6 Camaro is 13.909 @ 100.75mph. I know the 60’ was a very low 2.0xx. My friends 2010 4.6 GT has a best of 13.96. We have some really good grudge races in test-n-tune nights.
Thanks everyone! I was certainly too aggressive in my launch. She didn't know how to do that, and my takeaway is that's a good thing. I guess it's another example of "fast looks boring".
If you weigh more than her your times will typically show that. I'm light for a guy and have always been able to run my buds cars quicker than they could just because of my weight. I'm only 135 lbs and driving cars in the 14 second range I'm usually .2 - .4 quicker with a little higher MPH.
The second timing light for MPH is well past the finish line as well. I think it’s 60’. The first one should be 60’ before the finish. If you kept your foot in it well beyond the finish line, that could account for your 103mph. It looks like it was a close race with the car in the right lane, so I’m guessing you stayed in it longer than the previous passes.
Timing lights should be BEFORE the end of the strip, there is typically one a bit before the end.
Now, depending on where your track's scoreboard is, it might SEEM like it's beyond the finish, but the timing lights are before the end.
On the outlier pass, the 1/8th mile speed is up vs the other passes as well, so I doubt there was any timing malfunction.
The 2.5 60ft suggests you spun the tires more than the other passes. Tire spin effectively lengthens the track and will trick up the MPH on a run.
hybridmomentspass said:Timing lights should be BEFORE the end of the strip, there is typically one a bit before the end.
Now, depending on where your track's scoreboard is, it might SEEM like it's beyond the finish, but the timing lights are before the end.
The speed trap lights are a set of lights, one set before the finish, and one set after the finish. They have nothing to do with the E.T., which is set at 1320’.
It’s actually 66’ before, and 66’ after, I just found. Makes sense, as that makes 132’, exactly 1/10 of 1320’.
For NHRA Pro racing, where they run 1000’ now, they only use a set of lights before the finish line to allow for even more shut down area.
She beat you in the launch. a tenth in the 60' is worth about two in the quarter on stuff like this. In a car like this on a decent street tire I try to break 2.0 i only have a couple of times, but I do know people that do it regularly. I think you probably have the mph to get into the 13s or real close on street tires.
racerfink said:It’s actually 66’ before, and 66’ after, I just found. Makes sense, as that makes 132’, exactly 1/10 of 1320’.
For NHRA Pro racing, where they run 1000’ now, they only use a set of lights before the finish line to allow for even more shut down area.
Where did you see this at?
Ive raced on NHRA tracks, as well as IHRA and local ones, Ive always seen the ET and MPH pop up at the same moment at the end of the track, not just after (and, yes, I know that at 100+mph that those 66' you mentioned would go quickly)
Also, according to NHRA site, "The start-to-finish clocking is the e.t. Speed is measured in a 66-foot speed trap that ends at the finish line."
In reply to hybridmomentspass :
https://wediditforlove.com/trapspeeds.html
hybridmomentspass said:Also, according to NHRA site, "The start-to-finish clocking is the e.t. Speed is measured in a 66-foot speed trap that ends at the finish line."
For cars that run 1000’.
I'm not sure about boring normal speed trap lights,but NHRA moved them to before the finish line a long time ago, because they had great concern about what the insurance companies would say when somebody ran 300mph. 66 feet less put that off for several years.
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