Alright my wonderful students, welcome to the Duane Black School of Driving Drag Racing Course. Tuition is free, and there are no books to buy, only this thread to read

Many people have posted on the Monte Carlo Forum about drag racing and asking for tips to cut that faster number. I have compiled many resources, experience, and tips from others to make this thread on how to make for a better timeslip. You don't have to do all of these things, but every little bit helps.

I: First Things First
II: At the Track
III: Preparing to Race
IV: The Race
V: Conclusion

I: FIRST THINGS FIRST

Check your car out before you go to the track. Check transmission fluid, oil levels, and coolant level before heading for the track. Whenever you fill up before going to the drag strip, use good fuel. I'd recommend Amoco Ultimate or another good brand of 93 octane fuel. Run a bottle of Fuel Injector Cleaner or some SeaFoam thru your car. You might even want to consider dropping some octane booster in your tank.

Empty your trunk of everything unnecessary, even your spare tire if your that daring. Clean out the interior of your car as well.

Check your tire pressure. Personally, I always cut the best numbers when I'm around 25 psi. I've gone lower to no avail at all, I've even run slightly slower. I'd say 25 is the ideal for having the most amount of tire on the ground and not running the risk of blowing the tire.

Just before leaving home for that drag strip, grab a cooler and swing by a convenient store. Buy some ice. Take the ice with you to the track. This is for laying on your intake manifold and air box to cool it off when you reach the track.

II:AT THE TRACK

When you pull thru the gate, you will probably immediatly pay for your admission and pay to race as well. You will be asked to sign a waiver (it basically says you race at your own risk, their not liable for you getting killed), and probably will be issued a number. Sometimes, you will have to get this number put on the side of your car in shoe polish or some equivalent so the tower can read your number and so they can keep people who haven't payed from racing.

Immediatly find a nice spot to park. Some tracks may issue a pit stall, but most of you reading this will be driving a street car so you will probably not get one. Find a good parking spot and raise your hood. This will let the heat accumulated while driving to the street to escape the engine. Place your ice on the air box and intake manifold. The cooler it is, the more air can go thru (since colder air packs tighter than hot air) the engine. Let everything cool off. If this is your first time at the strip, try to find somebody to tell you exactly where the finish line is so you don't let off your throttle too early.

Another good trick is the headlight ram air. On the 6th generation Monte Carlo's, I know there are just two clips holding the light in and a wiring harness to unplug. On other Monte's, I'm not sure. However, on 5th-7th generation Motne Carlo's, the air box takes in air from behidn the drivers side headlight. Take the headlight out. This allows air to go straight thru the hole where you light goes and into your airbox, thru the throttle body, and making power. Every little bit helps.

Preparing to Race

Now it's time to race. Take hte ice off your intake (it's probably water now) and lower that hood. The track will probably have 3-4 staging lanes and a bye lane. Pay attention to track officials,assometimes lanes will be reserved for bikes, another fordragsters, andmaybe one for street cars. Make sure you get inthe correct lane. The bye lane isusually forpeople trying to get by or somebody who needs to race right now for some kind of tournament style racing.

Don't let your car idle in this staging lane.You may even choose toraise your hood and look out theside window until you reach the beginning of hte line and ready to hit the strip. Sometimes you can sitfor al ong time in these lanes, especiallyif there is some mechanical difficulty or an accident on the track.

Once your in position, watch the cars ahead of you (unless your hte first one out that night) to get a good idea of the pattern for heading on to the track. When you reach the end of the staging lane, you will be instructed to move on to the track. If you're on street tires, go around the burn out pit. Just give the tires a good "scratch", orjust a couple second burnout to get the trash off of them. You are nowready to stage and race.

IV: The Race

Alright, it's that long anticipated moment. STAY CALM!!! If you get too excited, you're going to screw up. Turn your traction control off if you have it. Pull hte transmission into 3 and leave it there... you gain nothing with manually shifting. You may find one or two people who claim they do better manually shifting.. these people are few and far between. Turn your A/C off as well... you don't want the condensation on the track (it pisses the guys with the slicks off) and it will take some of your power too.

The next trick that cna help that ET of yours is to stage early. As you proceed towards the start line, you will notice the Christmas Tree's stage lights, which are going to be a series of two lights. Teh first set comes on when you approach the line, the second set when you are oriented properly. Proceed slowly to the start line, when the first set of ligths come, slow down more, to a mere crawl. As soon as that second set of stage lights comes on, STOMP THAT BRAKE PEDAL!! STOP THAT CAR!!! This is called staging early. IT is perfectly legal, so don't worry. The starting line is a few inches long. By staging early, you will take longer to roll off the line.Most of you reading this will be going for the best ET possible, and this is what you want to do. If you're actually trying to beat the guy next to you to the finish, this may not be the best thing to do. However, I do it every time, just learn to leave the line a little earlier

Your reaction is how fast you roll off the line, the lower your reaction time. the better The clock for your ET does not start until your front tire rolls off the line. You can sit there for 5 seconds after that green light comes and your ET will not be any different than had you got a .11 reaction. This is where the staging early thing comes in. Your car will take a moment to roll off the line if you staged early. However, by the time it rolls off the line and triggers the clock, you will already be going .5-1.5 mph, depending on how well you staged and how long the line is. This means that when the clock started, you weren't virtually stopped.. you were already going a little. I know, it sounds complicated, but bear with me.

If you're actually in a race to beat the guy beside you, you may want to stage as late as possible. However, most of you reading this are going for teh best ET possible, so for you, I recommend staging early.

Once your opponent has turned both of his stage lights on, BE READY.Most of you reading thiswill be in automatics. Hold your brake down,rev up to about 1500 rpms (give or take). When the stagelights are on for both sides, the 3 yellow lightsare about to come down and thegreen lightwill to come on.

You need to be getting on the gas and going when the third yellow light comes on. By the time your eye sees the signal that the last yellow is on, sends that signal to the brain, and your brain processes it and tells your foot to go, AND the car starts to go AND hte tire rolls off the line, the light is green. I know, all those thousandths of a second of your brain processing information... and those hundreths of a second the car will take to go,but thats how you get a good reaction time. You can actually get just as good of a reaction time staging early as late, you just have to learn exactly where to hit the throttle and start going.

For most cars, you don't want to floor it immediatly. Ease into the throttle. If you turned your traction control off (like I told you), you will spin easier but you need it off to get the best take off possible. For most Monte's ,you should be at wide open throttle in about 1 second.

The part from here on out is straight forward. Hold that throttle down and go. A part many people don't pay attention to is keeping the car straight. You can pick up an extra tenth just keeping that car straight. The shortest distance between 2 points (in this case, the start and finish line) is a straight line. (I know ,astro physics says otherwise, but for all practicality, a straight line is the shortest distance). Your an automatic, don't worry about shifting. LEave it in 3 and go. I've tried it before.. shifting manually gets you nowhere... let the automatic shift when it wants.

Make sure you don't lift until you get to the finish line. Many people screw up and lift too early.. don't be one of tehm. After you cross the line, you will exit on one side or the other. The exit will be on one side or the other most likely (yeah yeah, obvious right?), if the exit is on your side of the track, go ahead and exit. If not, wait for hte car in the other lane to exit first. For example, if you are in the right lane, and the exit is on the left, wait for hte car in the left lane to exit before you. Even if you whooped that 1992 "turbocharged" Honda Civic by 7 seconds, don't exit until he does unless the exit is on your side. You will see people not do this, but don't do like them. This is just being a courteous drag racer and helping to avoid an accident. The only exception to this is if you get beat or if that guy has a mechanical problem and is stopped halfway down the track. Otherwise, if the exit is on the opposite side of your, don't exit until he does.

Somewhere along the way back to the parking area or the pits will be a booth. There will probably be a kind 'ol chap there handing you a time slip. Take it and say thank you. Don't look at it. This holds things up. Move on down the way some and park your carbefore examinig your time slip.

IV: Conclusion

Thank you very much for reading and coming to the Duane Black School of Driving. There isn't much else that you can be taught. Only experience can help you from here on out. Good luck, go turn that number

 

Good Write-up!

 

good tips!!!

 

It is a good write up. I must add, however, that people with older cars, like myself, that have automatics do get better times when shifting manually. I have been bracket racing since 2005 and I have done both and the outcome was better Ets when shifting manually.

 

some do... like i said, you don't find many. my car has been computer tuned to shift at just the right point too.... so you have to take that into account when i give my numbers.maybe if you changed the pressure points on the lines in your transmission, you'd do better just leaving it in drive as well.

 

nice tips

 

I've been told that as well, but I'm waiting to throw in a nicely built 700-R4 OD tranny.

 

 

IS it better to be in Third rather than Drive? If so why and how much of a difference is it?

 

i was wondering that myself