Drag Racing from the driver's viewpoint

[sameerrao]

Courtesy: fritzintn @ Ferrarichat. Very interesting!

Here is how I relate to Drag Racing. You slip your Nomex jacket on and slid over the bar, if you're like me you barely fit. Slip in the very unfomfortable seat and start to buckle up the 5 point harness. if it is adjusted right, there is no slack and you can only reach 6 things, the steering wheel, switch panel, the shifter, the fire extinguisher and the door handle. needless to say these things need to be in arms reach, because you can't lean. Or you shouldn't be able to. I always turn the ignition on the let the oil accumulator dump some oil on the bearings, then turn it back off. I now push the fuel cable on and spin the motor over to prime the engine, then flip the ignition on. A rumble reverberates through your entire body, if you're running methanol or a combination of methanol and nitromethane, your chest vibrates and your eyes start to water. This is a good time to close the door to help with this a little bit. You want to be moving so the exhaust comes out behind the car. As you ease onto the apron blipping the throttle a tad to get it rolling, people start to snap photos. You bakc up into the water and just blip the throttle once. Now is where you "feel" what kind of power you're about to unleash. With just a "blip" of the throttle in the water, the tach hits 7000 rpm. This ain't you're Dad's Oldsmobile is what you think. Now the slicks are wet so you just idle forward untill your buddy stops you. Yes you NEED a buddy because drag cars sit so low you can't see s*** and you need to know where the "good" rubber is to do a burn out. later this same guy/girl will put you in the groove. ( good rubber ) WHY? because you can't drive INTO the groove if you're spinning at 7000 RPM. bout all you can hope for is to keep it out of the wall or the other guy. Now you pump the brake and hold the button on your shifter that is the "line Lock". it keeps the front brakes locked while the back ones are "free". The slicks are slightly wet so you give it some throttle. OK here is where the difference in a methanol car and gas car comes in. When I had a GAS car, you just ease down on the throttle untill it starts to spin and ease up at around 5000 RPM. Now in a methanol car you BARELY push the throttle and ZOOM it's sitting on, yeah you guessed it, 7 grand. So you TRY to hold it at 5. Now if you could happen to look up at the crowd, they are going wild, starting to dissapear from tire smoke that rolls up over the windshield. People close to the car have all suddenly put their fingers in their ears. Snap shots are going off from the fence. All this takes about 5 seconds, you shifted into "high" already when the tach hit 7 grand so you let off the line lock and the whole world comes unglued as the car drives itself past the starting line, whether you wanted it to or not. At this point, you put it in reverse, you have to reach over and use two hands on the shifter because it is an NHRA Reverse Lock out shifter. You flip the transbrake button to engage reverse and you can't see s*** behind you, you just try to keep it straight and you DONT give it any gas because you WILL run over someone. Sometimes, your buddy will come back you up by standing in front of the car and directing you. Valuble guy this "buddy" or budette. Now you let the buddy get you in the groove, he/she does this by getting your tires in the same spot where the others have run and laid down the "good" rubber. You ease into the first beam idling, now you hold the line lock and bump it BARELY into the second beam. This is called shallow staging ( we've all heard of "deep" staging right? Well shallow staging is done on a car that has a VERY good 60 ft time and is done for consistancy. if you BARELY flicker the bottom bulb on, you KNOW where you are in the beams each and every race. That way you get a running start at the tree and run the EXACT same reaction EVERY time. Now you set the transbrake and wait. Seconds later you see a flash of yellow and you relaease the button. Nothing happens! It's not supposed to. After you release the button, on the second light you floor it. Now the car sounds like it is going to come apart at the seems because it is on the "launch" rev limiter. missing on every other cylinder. Finally the last light comes on and you have to tighten your grip on the steering wheel because even though you are all the way back in your seat, your head snaps back an inch and hits the top pad of the seat which is agaisnt the roll bar. It has to be braced solid against the roll bar ( NHRA ) rules or the seat would break bolts after a few passes and you'd be in the back of the car. the rush you get here cannot be described. it is directly portional to how fast the car is. Some cras see the stadium lights and they have to look out the side window to see where they are. No steering here, the wheelie bars ( or not ? ) are steering the car. The launch immediatly causes you to have to "drive" the car, unless you're lucky enough to own a high dollar dragster, the car usually slides from one side to the other side. Your job is to compensate VERY slightly and keep it in the groove. You "hope" you don't have to fight the car as mike said, let it have some track, don't over compensate, let it drive straight. if you overcompensate, say hello wall. It can and will happen quick. If you drag race FAST cars long enough it WILL happen to you. Now the car settles down ( usually ) around the sixty Ft maek. Everything you've just done from the launch till now has happened in under 1.35 seconds. Hopefully you haven't had to "peddle" the car due to traction issues. Peddling the car is getting out of it all the way then back in then out ..etc etc. that's what you see the Top fuel guys doing when they blow the tires away. In a street car you'd almost come to a stop if you did this. In a drag car, the torque and throttle response ( comp ratio helps ) is so high you barely notice you've slowed any. the middle part of the track isn't too bad if nothing wrong has happened thus far. BUT there's always a chance you could get into someone's trans fluid or oil from the last pass. In which case it would be a REAL driving chore. It'd be like riding on top of a 1000Hp pinball gettin thrown from bumper to bumper while you tried to keep it straight. needless to say if you keep it straight running through OIL , and if an NHRA sponsor SAw you, .....You'd be hired on the spot. Frank hawley would call you to give him driving lessons. In a 11-12 second car with slicks it MIGHT go through it, MAYBE. In a street car 11-12 second car with tread tires, you'd probably cruise right through it. Easy drive. Now as you reach the 1000' foot mark ( this has taken less than 7 seconds ) you come to the next big danger spot on the track, the "BIG" end as us Drag racers so fondly call it. the big end is a study in itself, here is where racers like to play games with 3000 lb 1000HP missles and badly undersized brakes. what's the biggest overlooked system on a drag car? You got it, the Brakes! I've seen guys with great brakes use them to slide across the finish line, trying to sandbagg. if you're caught sliding the tires, you can be ejected, this is HIGHLY dangerous at 130 MPH plus. Sandbaggin however is legal and is another topic in itself. if your car is capable of 150 and above, you'll need a REAL spoiler ( air dam with sills ) on the back AND some laundry. the spoiler keeps your rear tires on the track, at those speeds the whole back end tries to lift and then as air gets under it, starts to "fish tail" have you EVER fishtailed doing 155mph on the autobahn???? ON SLICKS with soft side walls??? I didn't think so. What's laundry you ask? Well that's a chute of course, NHRA required when you go that fast. Trust me if you ever need it you'll be glad you have it. it takes 250 ft to fully deploy and if you're rocking back and forth trying to "save" the car, a Quick hand on the chute can save your life BECAUSE INSTEAD of lockin the brakes and sliding at 150, the chute will jerk the car back straight. A good driver like Jeggie will pull the chute at the MPH cones RIGHT at the same spot EVERY pass and it will be fully deployed just past the finish line. if you're in a REALLY fast car you WILL have to finish line drive 100% of the time. this is where the most deaths occur. You better have your helment and safety gear on, if you lose it at this speed without it, you're toast. All this happens in less than 9.5 seconds. Count it out in your head. 1001, 1002 etc.... there's no time for thinking, you do it instinctivly. if you don't graduate up to faster cars gradually, you have NO INSTICNT to go by. chances are you'll wreck. if you do wreck on the big end, folks that havent will always ask you or say, " man I bet you s*** your drawers"! LOL. while that may be funny it is the furthest thing from the truth. you simply don't have time to s*** your drawers, you're too busy steering. matter of fact you don't even realize you have no front tires, you're still rasslin' the wheel unless you wind up on top or on fire. In which case you're just trying to get out. so why does everyone think it's so easy? after all its just a straight line? mainly because in a 12 second and slower car its like a sunday drive. In a 8-9 second car it's like trying to tame Niagra falls and ride it all the way down strapped to a surf board. In a 12 second car you can say stuff like "comone baby" as you shift to second. you can look away and glance at your guages like jay said. In a 9 second car you think " oh s***" then cross the finish line, and say DAHM strasight! JS PS: one way to tell if you're going REALLY fast is by if you have time to look at your guages. I have an oil pressure idiot light that shines bright red if I lose oil pressure. I'd love to check out the tach and stuff. the truth is I can't. No time. you check your water temp before the burnout and then you just dont look at the guages anymore. You might glance at the oil and tach as you cross the finish line, maybe... This will be a long one - but there really is no short answer. The easiest way I can explain it is drag racing itself is not hard, being GOOD at it is. Then, when you actually drive a "fast" car, it can become quite difficult just to drive it in a straight line, let alone get a good time in it. There are a couple points in this. The key is EVERYTHING PERFECT - EVERY TIME. Inother motorsports you can always make up for a bad corner in the next one or on the next straight, or the next lap. It's also endurance. You may have to sacrifice sheer speed for fuel milage, tire or break wear, or transmission parts, etc. In drag racing, you get one very brief shot. Any mistake is a huge percentage and will genrally cost you the race. First I'll focus on DRIVING: Driving a 14 second car is not hard. things aren't happening real fast, you typically aren't putting enough power down to overpower the tires except at the launch. At most, you may chirp the tires on a shift. The car will typically go straight with no drama at all. Your only going 95-100 mph typically. Low to mid 12 second cars are where things start happening. If it is a stockish car, you only have to worry about driving. if it is a car you have modified to now be 2 seconds faster than stock, you are also worried about your investment. Now you are checking oil pressure and fuel pressure, maybe boost or bottle pressure during the run. You likely also have a good tach and/or shift light. Things happena lot faster. You are probably shifting to 2nd not far past the 60' lights and usually by half track, you are almost into 4th gear. That's 3 gear changes in about 8 seconds and maybe 7-800 feet. You have enough power to blowe the tires off in 1st or 2nd easily so you have to be careful. High 10s. Now we're cooking. You have a lot going on with gauges and shifting. Your launch is hard enough to throw you back in the seat and CAN be hard to grab the shifter. You are hittgn 125 by the end of the track and easting up concrete in a hurry. The power you have can easily overpower the tires so a good launch is critical. Even still, the car fights for grip for about the first half of the track. As it does that, it is pulling you side to side so you are fighting to keep it straight. Since you have suspension set up for launching, the car wants to sway easily. You are also in a roll caged, safety harnesses car with all kinds of restricted vision and movement. You can really feel the engine lumping and it's hard to hear anything going on over the noise. Now you are in the mid 9s. It is night and day different than the mid 10s. The launch feels like you got hit by a semi truck when you were riding a tricycle. You see sky for a moment and lose sight of teh track - you go by "feel" on whether you are straight or not. The power is so violent is tries to pull every direction but straight. By 660'. you are around 115 mph - faster than a 12 second car at twice the distance. because of teh very loose suspension that gives you the excellent weight transfer to get a good launch, you are now bouncing around on teh track. You are still rapidly acclerating even though you are probably lightily spining the tires at 115 mph. The soft tall sidewalls on teh back tires allow for a lot of sway, so you do your best to keep it straight. By top gear, you now have both hands on teh wheel and you glance once more at you r guages hoping everything is all ok. The car is shaking so hard, you can't read them, only note where the needle appears to be pointing. You cross teh line at 140-150 mph and now you aren't done. You have to stop. You send all the weight to the skinny front tires and the back tires want to lock up wile they bounce like playground balls from the sudden weight shift. 8 second and faster- I wish I knew. I can only imagine how expontially faster it is. That's just how it feels on your body. Now you have to actually get a good e.t. THE LAUNCH Slower cars (12-14 sec) are much more forgiving. A good launch to a bad launch may be a tenth of a second or two in e.t. After the launch and teh 1-2 shift, it all feels the same. 10-11 second cars hit you pretty hard. You are dropping the clutch at 4K-5K on a 6K rpm engine and everythign shakes. A good launch gets a good time. A bad launch is either a spin which kills your time and can be dangerous since you have no control over teh back of the car. A bog can break parts and can hurt your time more than a spin. Next - 2nd gear comes VERY fast. Once you get over teh actual catapult of teh launch, it's time to shift. it can be quite hard to nail that 1-2 shift exactly when you need to. 9 second car. Again - huge difference. You get pounded in the seat and the 1-2 happens like NOW! Bad tire spin now can put you in the wall or the pther lane before you have time to react so you really have to feel the car instantly. Your butt, eyes, hands, and right foot all need to be wired together to react. You don't have time to think, you have to Do. Experience in slower cars is a big plus here IMHO. SHIFT POINTS. The most critical part of maximizing performance down track. Missed sift points mean slow e.t.s or broken parts. Fast or slow, you need to maximize the area under the power curve. Miss a gear or a shift. You lose momentum - race over. Shift too early, you waste available horsepower. Shift too late, you start to slow down and risk parts on the over rev. TUNING: Minute precision is where it comes into play. My tire pressure gauge reads in 1/4 psi increment and there is a big gap between the marks - enough to guestimate even finer detail. A half psi difference in slick on a 9 second car is enough to put you into the wall. At speed teh tires grow different, it pulls you to one side, and once it starts swaying and spinning, anything can happen. It usually isn't that drastic, but easily can be. My car kept pulling me to the right on launch and I would overcorrect it to the left with the steering wheel. It's bad enough I spin the tires about 100 feet. I found the problem was the rear wasn't perpendicular to teh car by less than 1/4" I expect the results to be dramatic. Friction/scrubbing is a loss in time. Tire pressure, shock and chassis setting, launch and shift rpms, etc - everything is in very fine detail. Small changes can make big differences. See below why that matters. TIMING: Think about a bad corner entry on a road course. Might cost you half a second on a 1:30 course. That's about a half percentage of time on the course. Not desired, but can easily be made up. Say it makes a 1/4 second difference at the drag strip. Think how small a quarter of a second is. That's 2.5% of the run. The same amount of time is 10x the impact. We deal with improvement and loss to the 100th of a second. Not just because it is what is printed, but because every thousandths means something. I spent hours trying to find hundredths ofa second. I spend cubic dollars trying to find another few tenths of a second. END: Anyone can race a car on the dragstrip. That's a beauty of the sport. Just show up and drive. But to be good at it takes a lot of practice and dedication to understand what is going on and how to improve on it. Drag racing enthusiasts know what is a good time and not a good time and can spot problems and know how to fix them. In much the same way as an autocrosser can spot a bad line or see that someone had slowed too much entering a corner or had too early of an Apex, a good drag racer can see suspension problem causing a bad launch, hear early or late shifts, see ways to get a better time. I'll try to gather some videos for Wes to host to show what it takes to drive a quicker car and get good times. Now - in all this, I also did not go into bracket racing adn what it takes to learn your car's reaction time (not just yours) how to get better reaction times, and how to choose the proper dial in. That is a whole other novel.

[m3mys3lf4ndi]

yup, quite interesting but im still not convinced to try drag racing
it might be fun but for me still track racing is the best of all
every sport when u entering in to the highest level gets more interesting and had a lot of small things that counts. u just cant do anything profesionaly w/o pro equipment...

but anyway very nice lecture cheers

[astonmartinandy]

Wow that's interesting to see it as the actual drivers do. I guess it takes a lot more skill to drive in a straight line than I thought

[FordGTGuy]

lol you bet your azz man.

hood scoops will take all your vision away having to worry about redlining or in bracket racing breaking your set time. Both will automaticaly make you lose.

[FordGTGuy]

Originally Posted by FordGTGuy lol you bet your azz man. hood scoops will take all your vision away having to worry about redlining or in bracket racing breaking your set time. Both will automaticaly make you lose.

Anyone can race a car on the dragstrip.

this is very untrue.

need proof watch the videos of people breaking their cars in half off the line from not knowing what they're doing.