Vic
VCA Venom Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2000
- Posts
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I finally did it, and went to the drags with the SoCal VCA. (The ever gracious Hugh and Sherry Hoard hosting)
It was a hot day! Sun was beating down pretty hard. The track was VERY greasy, and slicker than snot on a door knob. Arrived at the suggested 12 PM, waited in the line for registration. There are 500 cars there, lots of Accords, Civics, some Camaros, a few trucks, and even a few SUVs. Awesome! About twenty Vipers from the SoCal VCA showed, including several on Hoosiers, and a few blown ones, too. We stand around looking at each other, shooting the breeze.
After an hour and a half, we are told to park in lot 2. So we move over to lot 2. About 2:30, we get teched. I realize I forgot my helmet! Lance was kind enough to lend me his. Then we wait until the 4pm start, but its not our run group yet. After an hour or so, our group goes. This is probably typical for the drag strip, but its my first time, and it seemed very slow!
I had heard many different techniques for launching the car with street tires. Some people told me to let it bog off the line, just 1200-1400 RPMs. Others said to launch at a higher rpm.
When its my turn to go, I'm real nervous for NO good reason, because I didn't know what to expect. We are herded into the staging area, and you can see billows of blue smoke, as cars ahead are doing their burn-outs. You can hear the stacatto blast of some of the higher horsepower machines, as they thunder down the track. As we inch forward, it becomes clear that I am getting staged next Hugh Hoard, who has a blown Viper, with about a zillion horsepower.
I go around the water pit, (trying to follow more advice), but I get one tire wet, because the water is all over the place. I skip the burnout, because I heard it somewhere. Funny how we collect tid-bits of advice that ultimately don't help us! Or at least not today.
Its our turn to go! I pull up to the staging lights, 1st set, inch forward, 2nd set, good, I'm ready to go. Hugh pulls up in the left lane, and his car is making this deafening roar, like I'm staging against a jet plane! I can't hear my engine rev, and instead of looking at the tach, I step on the gas, so I can hear if its running! What a dumb move that was, because now its revving way higher than need be, and I look down, and see its hovering at 3000 RPM! When I look back up, I'm staring at this strange green light. Oh! That means GO!
Drop the clutch, spun all the way through first gear. I'm doing really great, I think to myself, the crowd wants to see my spin my tires! Hugh is half way down the track, as I shift into 2nd, and continue to spin.
When its all over, I got a 13.51 @113.2 mph! Yeech! Well, its my first time at the drags, and the track is slick, I say to make myself feel better. Lots of the other Vipers were also in the mid to low 13s, and everyone agreed the track was very slippery.
Next run follows in about 2 hours, give or take an hour. Who's counting?
Next time up, I still miss the light, but I don't spin as much, only holding the revs at 2000 or so. I was going to launch at like 1200 RPM, but I got excited, and when the light turned green, I mashed the pedal to the floor and dumped the clutch. Spin, spin, spin. Somethings wrong with my launch technique! But I was still doing better than the guy next to me, until I went from 2nd gear to 5th gear. (Who needs 3rd or 4th, anyhow?) So he caught me at the end of the track, and beat me by a few hundredths. Time was 13.34 @ 107.88 mph, still not good, but at least its coming down.
By this time, it was cooling off. 3rd run came up quick! Said Q. of Star Tech Viper advised me to let it bog off the line, and just use the torque to pull out of the hole, and don't spin the tires.
This last run, I use the water box, do a big as burnout as I can muster, to try to heat up the tires.
We stage, and I just let myself cool down, relax, and told myself not to let the excitement get the best of me, don't forget to launch easy, at low revs. So we stage, got a better reaction time, but we didn't get so "jiggy" with the gas pedal! Car hooked up much better, and just scooted forward, no muss no fuss. Didn't miss third this time, and came home with a 12.876 @ 110.87 mph. Looking at the time slips, most of the Vipers went from the mid to low 13s, into the 12s, by their third run. So my results were pretty typical of the other drivers. Some guys were in the low 12s, but they may have been running Hoosiers, or maybe they were supercharged. I dunno.
I know this 12.87 time of mine ain't great for a basically stock Viper, but it was a really hot day, and it was my first time. At least I improved consistently! I learned a lot about how to launch the car, and not get too excited. Next time, we'll be better prepared! Next time, I'll experiment with the possibility of not going into fourth gear, and letting it bang on the rev limiter across the traps?
Thanks to the organizers, for a very pleasant and fun day, after all was said and done. VCA rocks!
It was a hot day! Sun was beating down pretty hard. The track was VERY greasy, and slicker than snot on a door knob. Arrived at the suggested 12 PM, waited in the line for registration. There are 500 cars there, lots of Accords, Civics, some Camaros, a few trucks, and even a few SUVs. Awesome! About twenty Vipers from the SoCal VCA showed, including several on Hoosiers, and a few blown ones, too. We stand around looking at each other, shooting the breeze.
After an hour and a half, we are told to park in lot 2. So we move over to lot 2. About 2:30, we get teched. I realize I forgot my helmet! Lance was kind enough to lend me his. Then we wait until the 4pm start, but its not our run group yet. After an hour or so, our group goes. This is probably typical for the drag strip, but its my first time, and it seemed very slow!
I had heard many different techniques for launching the car with street tires. Some people told me to let it bog off the line, just 1200-1400 RPMs. Others said to launch at a higher rpm.
When its my turn to go, I'm real nervous for NO good reason, because I didn't know what to expect. We are herded into the staging area, and you can see billows of blue smoke, as cars ahead are doing their burn-outs. You can hear the stacatto blast of some of the higher horsepower machines, as they thunder down the track. As we inch forward, it becomes clear that I am getting staged next Hugh Hoard, who has a blown Viper, with about a zillion horsepower.
I go around the water pit, (trying to follow more advice), but I get one tire wet, because the water is all over the place. I skip the burnout, because I heard it somewhere. Funny how we collect tid-bits of advice that ultimately don't help us! Or at least not today.
Its our turn to go! I pull up to the staging lights, 1st set, inch forward, 2nd set, good, I'm ready to go. Hugh pulls up in the left lane, and his car is making this deafening roar, like I'm staging against a jet plane! I can't hear my engine rev, and instead of looking at the tach, I step on the gas, so I can hear if its running! What a dumb move that was, because now its revving way higher than need be, and I look down, and see its hovering at 3000 RPM! When I look back up, I'm staring at this strange green light. Oh! That means GO!
Drop the clutch, spun all the way through first gear. I'm doing really great, I think to myself, the crowd wants to see my spin my tires! Hugh is half way down the track, as I shift into 2nd, and continue to spin.
When its all over, I got a 13.51 @113.2 mph! Yeech! Well, its my first time at the drags, and the track is slick, I say to make myself feel better. Lots of the other Vipers were also in the mid to low 13s, and everyone agreed the track was very slippery.
Next run follows in about 2 hours, give or take an hour. Who's counting?
Next time up, I still miss the light, but I don't spin as much, only holding the revs at 2000 or so. I was going to launch at like 1200 RPM, but I got excited, and when the light turned green, I mashed the pedal to the floor and dumped the clutch. Spin, spin, spin. Somethings wrong with my launch technique! But I was still doing better than the guy next to me, until I went from 2nd gear to 5th gear. (Who needs 3rd or 4th, anyhow?) So he caught me at the end of the track, and beat me by a few hundredths. Time was 13.34 @ 107.88 mph, still not good, but at least its coming down.
By this time, it was cooling off. 3rd run came up quick! Said Q. of Star Tech Viper advised me to let it bog off the line, and just use the torque to pull out of the hole, and don't spin the tires.
This last run, I use the water box, do a big as burnout as I can muster, to try to heat up the tires.
We stage, and I just let myself cool down, relax, and told myself not to let the excitement get the best of me, don't forget to launch easy, at low revs. So we stage, got a better reaction time, but we didn't get so "jiggy" with the gas pedal! Car hooked up much better, and just scooted forward, no muss no fuss. Didn't miss third this time, and came home with a 12.876 @ 110.87 mph. Looking at the time slips, most of the Vipers went from the mid to low 13s, into the 12s, by their third run. So my results were pretty typical of the other drivers. Some guys were in the low 12s, but they may have been running Hoosiers, or maybe they were supercharged. I dunno.
I know this 12.87 time of mine ain't great for a basically stock Viper, but it was a really hot day, and it was my first time. At least I improved consistently! I learned a lot about how to launch the car, and not get too excited. Next time, we'll be better prepared! Next time, I'll experiment with the possibility of not going into fourth gear, and letting it bang on the rev limiter across the traps?
Thanks to the organizers, for a very pleasant and fun day, after all was said and done. VCA rocks!
