First time at the 1/4 track

[crackleking]

First time to the track with my stock 98 rt viper. I could not get the tires to grab, even with a good burn out. Probably too heavy on the start. Car should turn very low 12's, but finished at low 14's. My friend that was with me, said at the start, I lost about 1 1/2 to 2 seconds with tire spin. I was not disappointed. I got good experience, and next time, I will do it a different way, and get the low 12's that the car will do. Even with a low 14, the car finished at 112 mph. I was at the Fayeteville track in N.C. There were hundreds of cars there, and, guess what, I had the only Viper. Even with bad tire spin in the beginning, once it got going, I could not believe the pulling power of this car. Also, I was surprised, I did not have to go to fourth gear.926927

[Alley]

Tires are a must. I can't stress this enough. Get at least a nice drag radial. Launch at a lower RPM and let the torque do the work.
I run Hooser drag radials and rarely launch over 2k RPM. I also have 3.73 gears though which gets you through 1st gear very fast.

[Rare Snake]

My very first run ever was last summer, and it was ugly. All I remember is the time, 14.77. I spun like crazy, shifted slow, and got 5th instead of 3rd. I got beat by a stock looking Grand Prix GTP with slicks on it! hahaha

It definitely takes some learning, it took me over a year to figure out all the things I was doing wrong in my '01 GTS. I got good use out of my Go-Pro as a learning tool lol! I went out with my local Modern Mopar club for a track day earlier this summer , and came home with a new personal best of 12.3 @116, which was a big improvement from the year before. I think that's alright for a pretty much stock Gen 2.

I find I usually run right around the 12.6 time, I believe your car should be right around there too once you get used to it. :)

[slowhatch]

Everyone has to start somewhere. Couple of tips;

-Focus on your launch and not the tree. Your ET will not be affected by waiting at the line after the light turns green. Only your RT (reaction time)--which has no bearing on elapsed time. Sit there, "pre-load" the clutch (bring the revs up, back out of the clutch right up to that last mm of travel that will cause engagement). This will allow you to modulate engagement much more accurately/smoothly as you will start getting drive-line engagement instantly. If you're clutched in all the way, the excitement of the launch and the dead space in the clutch travel will most likely cause you to either slip too much or too little. Also, focus on the launch, not the guy in the next lane. Once everything becomes muscle memory, you can start focusing on handing out the beat downs :)
-Your 60' times are key. Every tenth at the 60' translates to around 2 tenths at the end of the 1/4 mile. I would be shooting for 1.8-2.0 60' times on street tires.
-Practice rolling into the power smoothly as you are feathering the clutch out (on stock gears you should be launching 2k-3k rpm and slipping the clutch until you are rolling and feel it bite in--you should be WOT at this point). Abrupt inputs/clutch drops usually result in a bog or tire spin--neither of which result in good 60' times. Its all about practice, period.
-Your trap mph, is the average speed attained over the last 10' of the track (not the instantaneous achieved speed at the finish line, as most assume). It is indicative of your cars power, and usually is not changed drastically by how good/bad your launch is. However, slow shifting and poor atmospheric conditions (humidity, heat, ie. density altitude) will have a profound negative affect. You are about 4-6mph shy of where you should be at.
-Focus on getting your shifts done at redline, and in an expedient manner. The faster you can shift, the shorter the loss of acceleration, the quicker your ET, the faster the mph. A few tenths of second lost due to slower shifts will translate into slower times at the end of the track.

[slitherv10]

Everyone has to start somewhere. Couple of tips;

-Focus on your launch and not the tree. Your ET will not be affected by waiting at the line after the light turns green. Only your RT (reaction time)--which has no bearing on elapsed time. Sit there, "pre-load" the clutch (bring the revs up, back out of the clutch right up to that last mm of travel that will cause engagement). This will allow you to modulate engagement much more accurately/smoothly as you will start getting drive-line engagement instantly. If you're clutched in all the way, the excitement of the launch and the dead space in the clutch travel will most likely cause you to either slip too much or too little. Also, focus on the launch, not the guy in the next lane. Once everything becomes muscle memory, you can start focusing on handing out the beat downs :)
-Your 60' times are key. Every tenth at the 60' translates to around 2 tenths at the end of the 1/4 mile. I would be shooting for 1.8-2.0 60' times on street tires.
-Practice rolling into the power smoothly as you are feathering the clutch out (on stock gears you should be launching 2k-3k rpm and slipping the clutch until you are rolling and feel it bite in--you should be WOT at this point). Abrupt inputs/clutch drops usually result in a bog or tire spin--neither of which result in good 60' times. Its all about practice, period.
-Your trap mph, is the average speed attained over the last 10' of the track (not the instantaneous achieved speed at the finish line, as most assume). It is indicative of your cars power, and usually is not changed drastically by how good/bad your launch is. However, slow shifting and poor atmospheric conditions (humidity, heat, ie. density altitude) will have a profound negative affect. You are about 4-6mph shy of where you should be at.
-Focus on getting your shifts done at redline, and in an expedient manner. The faster you can shift, the shorter the loss of acceleration, the quicker your ET, the faster the mph. A few tenths of second lost due to slower shifts will translate into slower times at the end of the track.

What he said^^^^^^^^^^^:t1236:

[Nine Ball]

No traction, no winning. Tires mean a lot at the drag strip. A good set of drag radials works MUCH better than any street radial. Yes, a good driver can finesse a street tire off the line, but it takes many many many runs and practice to do it consistently. The drag radial lets the car do more work on its own.

[crackleking]

thank you for your reply. It was very educating. I grew up in the sixties with muscle cars. Did a lot of drag racing on the streets, and all my cars were autos so never had any real practice with the clutch. This was the first time I was at a drag strip with a manual. It was exciting. The first run, my car hooked up nicely, but I red lined and never had a time for it. I suspected, I would have been in the 12's. Second run, I stood there spinning, and the third, same thing. I am going to get change my rear to 3.55's. See how I will do with that next spring.

[MoparBoyy]

TIRES TIRES TIRES..

you'll get there. i just went on Sunday, it was the first real time i dragged my viper

http://driveviper.com/forums/threads/1008-Went-to-the-drag-strip-yesterday