First time to the drag strip

[Vipes]

I took the Viper out for a few quarter mile passes last evening for the first time. I've only been to the drag track a couple times with a 3.0 liter car over 10 years ago so my driver skill expectations were low. Although it was very hot and humid, it was a great night to go since a storm just missed the track and only 15 street cars showed up. I would have gotten a few more runs in but there were 2 crashes. I must say the car was a lot more challenging to launch than I expected because of the tall first gear. I had 4 runs, 11.8, 11.7 and two 11.65s, best 60' was 1.9, worst was 2.1. I had a blast though and plan on giving it another try once the humidity and temps cool off. My goal is to get the sixty down to 1.7.

Car: 2016 Viper TA
Mods: ARH Headers/Exhaust/HFC, Arrow PCM
DA: +2,625
Tires: 345/30/19 Nitto NT05R Drag Radials
Results: 11.65@127.4, 1.93 sixty foot

[slowhatch]

Not bad at all for such a high DA with your first time out.

You should be in the 1.6s on the short time with those tires. Every tenth on the front end will be 2 tenths on the back end. How are you launching? What tire pressure?

Here is a post I made a while back with some drag racing tips;

This is what I do, everyone has their own flavor.

1. Set NT05R pressures to 19psi cold. (Will be around 20-21psi after small burnout)
2. Sit your seat straight up so you are not thrown off of the wheel/shifter/etc at launch.
3. Turn off your AC to eliminate chance of the condenser dripping on the track. Roll up the windows, helmet on.
4. While stopped hold the ESC button on your wheel for 5 sec to fully disable trac/stability control. Do NOT use launch control, this is not a burnout contest.
5. If GT/GTS or so equipped with bi-mode shocks, set shocks to "RACE". Firmer rear suspension will shock the tires more but lessen the chances of wheel hop. Wheel spin > Wheel hop.
6. Do not drive through the waterbox if you're not on skinnies up front. You will drag water up to the staging area and piss everyone off.
7. Drive around the water box and back in (use your backup camera to gauge when your rear tires are in the wet).
8. Slowly move a few ft out of the water box. Do not be that guy to do the burnout in the box.
9. Stop. Rev to 4500rpm, abruptly dump the clutch while flooring the gas and jump on the brake with your left foot. The car will momentarily lurch forward and then should be stopped by the front brake pressure. Modulate the pressure between your feet to keep the rpm up, while keeping the car from moving. Too much brake and you will stall. Not enough brake, and you will drag the car forward doing a rolling burnout.
10. Do a burnout only until you see smoke. Always remember you are not John Force.
11. Doing a lengthy burnout will do nothing but waste tire; and in some cases, if the compound is overheated and becomes greasy, impair traction. You are also cooking the clutch fluid as you sit motionless at high rpm. Your header primaries pass directly next to your clutch line. They will not tolerate extensive burnouts without impacting clutch engagement in your subsequent pass.
12. When you see smoke roll off of the brake while still on the gas and you should feel the car really dig in and launch forward toward the staging area.
13. Try not to hit the poor bastard sweeping the track at the staging light as you roll out of the burnout.
14. As you roll towards the staging lights, pump the clutch a few times to try to circulate the fluid.
15. Trip the first yellow staging light (pre-stage).
16. Stage as shallow as you possibly can. ie. army crawl the car up as slowly as you can to trip the second staging light (fully staged). This will allow you the maximum amount of roll-out (around 3 inches) before the 2nd beam is "untripped" and the clock begins. If you stage "deep", ie. roll any distance past whats required to light the 2nd staging light, it will mean you have less roll-out and it will negatively affect your ET.
17. Once you and the adjacent party is staged the man with the "button" will drop the tree. If you are here to turn times, ignore the guy to the left, ignore the tree, and ignore the crowd. Let him go, focus on your driving.
18. Launch rpm will vary with track prep, atmospheric conditions, tire temp, tire compound, tire pressure, on and on. I usually start at 4k rpm on my first shakedown pass and work my way up to see what the track will hold.
19. Bring the rpm up to the desired point.
20. I usually "pre-load" the clutch. As I'm staged at launch rpm I will back off the clutch right up to the engagement point, and hold there. This allows me to the smoothest possible exchange between clutch and throttle when its go time. Since the engagement point likes to move around in the clutch travel as the fluid heats up this keeps things consistent and ensures you are starting to grab the flywheel the instant you start to feed additional throttle. If you hold the clutch to the floor chances are you will feed more rpm than desired by the time your left foot actually backs off to get to the engagement point. Again, this is just my experience. Do what works for you.
21. Smoothly exchange throttle and clutch. The stock clutch will slip before the drag radials do at 1st gear torque levels if you're hooked up. So as she starts to get moving you can come off of the clutch completely and go WOT.
22. Shift like you want to go home on a trailer.
23. Profit.

Practice, practice, practice. The dragstrip is usually quite humbling for those who either expect a magazine number on their first pass, or those who like to tell people drag racing is "easy". "Just hit the throttle and go man, nothing to it!". The people on this board who turn the times have hundreds of passes under their belt and probably a decade+ of experience. You will learn with every pass you make.

[Jack B]

Your 1/8 mph seems low. Either your clutch is slipping after the 60 ft mark or your tires are spinning past the 60.

[Steve M]

Thanks for posting the DA and the time slips...makes it much easier to compare to other runs. I'd say you did pretty well considering it was your first time in a long time, and the first time in a Viper. These cars have a lot of potential, but it isn't easy putting it all together.

Hopefully your clutch holds up better than mine did in my Gen 4...a long first gear and drag radials don't seem to mix well.

[Jack B]

Thanks for posting the DA and the time slips...makes it much easier to compare to other runs. I'd say you did pretty well considering it was your first time in a long time, and the first time in a Viper. These cars have a lot of potential, but it isn't easy putting it all together.

Hopefully your clutch holds up better than mine did in my Gen 4...a long first gear and drag radials don't seem to mix well.

Is the G4 a drive by wire throttle

[slowhatch]

Is the G4 a drive by wire throttle

Yes, same as the 5s.

[Hamrhead]

Damn your car sounds good....

[racegate]

Not bad for your first time! You should try it again when it cools down/becomes less humid in the next couple of months as that will help the power significantly.

[nwa_viper]

I had similar results last weekend when I took mine for the first time also. My car is a stock ‘16 SRT with 3.91 gear swap. I cross the line on the rev limiter in 4th gear. My 60 ft isn’t near as good on the factory Pirellis. My time is the left lane.

43B7EA8C-5685-4AE3-8C40-9126141634F4.jpg

[TT32VGT]

Anyone try running a shorter wheel and tire setup? If I would've run stock size on my hci c6z06 i would've never run 10.3-10.5.. running a short 26" tall tire really helped with the tall gearing

[Jack B]

Anyone try running a shorter wheel and tire setup? If I would've run stock size on my hci c6z06 i would've never run 10.3-10.5.. running a short 26" tall tire really helped with the tall gearing

you have to go to an 18" wheel, then, you have 26" options, BTW some G2/G3 wheels fit the G5. All the aforementioned fit with spacers.

[slowhatch]

Anyone try running a shorter wheel and tire setup? If I would've run stock size on my hci c6z06 i would've never run 10.3-10.5.. running a short 26" tall tire really helped with the tall gearing

Yes, Andy did it on his HC setup, ran a 26" tire on an 18 to shorten up 1st and get the 60s down.

[Reaper]

Looks about right to me. I took my car once, this past spring, to our 1000' track. After a couple runs to get the hang of a launch, my best was a 2.0 60', 7.91 in the 1/8 mile at 97.55 mph and on to a 9.90 in the 1000' trapping at 118.9 mph. Only mod is a Arrow PCM. I'll go back again this fall for a test n tune. I was thrilled with my trap speeds but not so much with my ETs. I know thats up to the driver to get that, the car showed big power in its MPH. Its all practice.

[Rare Snake]

DRAG.jpg

It took me 3 summers to get a time I was happy with, these cars are a bit tricky to launch until you get used to it. OP, those are damn good times for first time out, good job man!

Dason

[OTHER SNAKE OWNER]

I've been down the track around 20-25 times in my life (none in my ACR-E). In my 03 Terminator. Making around 680/598 rwhp/rwtq on current Whipple pulley /current weak sauce tune. Full weight with me is 3838 and that is with weight mods like chromoly tubular K, chromoly tubular A-arms, lighter front seats, rear seat delete, and weight drop due to SRA swap (I run on 305/35/18 MT ET Street II's DRs). I'm on double adjustable Afco coilovers front and rear. I run a Magnum T56 with a Spec 3+ clutch. No shift light inside. Rowing is hard to learn to be fast, and just as important, to be consistent. A few selected pics to either make you feel better or fell worse . As you can see, I'm slow.

Keep at it. My last pic is my reason for doing it. Raise my sons with a car habit then they won't have any money for a drug habit

side tire warm.jpg
front staged.jpg
total weight.jpg
weight distro.jpg
12.058 at 133.42.jpg

[OTHER SNAKE OWNER]

11.295 at 132.50.jpg
Jax at TRP.jpg

[Jack B]

where did those weights come from, nice touch

[OTHER SNAKE OWNER]

where did those weights come from, nice touch

If you're asking me, I borrowed my friend's scales like these:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/icp-170154-pc

[viper04]

Nice run! Viper are not the easiest cars to get down any track.

[The_Ruski_Driver]

Wow that DA hurts! My car is bone stock and on factory 2012 tires ran 11.7@129.4 mph on the third pass close to sea level ( Track Elevation: 515 feet) . I agree, launching is tricky.

Slip.jpeg

[Jack B]

I do not know your circumstances of your run, but, I have looked at the MIR DA in December, it could easily be -2000. The OP is close to +3000, that means a hp diff of approx 12%

Wow that DA hurts! My car is bone stock and on factory 2012 tires ran 11.7@129.4 mph on the third pass close to sea level. I agree, launching is tricky.

Slip.jpeg

[Vipes]

Update:

So I decided to take the car out to the track for the second time, 1 year and 2 months later. The car spend most of that time in storage since I was moving around for work. I'm glad to be back home, just paid the VOA renew dues and looking forward to actually participating in an event or two this year. Same mods and same tires listed in the first post. The only difference this time is it was January in Orlando with great weather. Temps in the low 60's, DA -50.

First Pass: 11.3 @ 128 with a 1.9 sixty. Launched at 4k rpms and bogged a little. I felt pretty good about this run but the end of 1st did sneak up on me fast and I bounced off the rev limiter.

Second Pass: 11.1 @ 129 with a 1.9 sixty. Launched at 4.5k. Okay now I'm pretty excited and realize if I can just learn how to launch the car better I could dip into the 10s. Based on the clutch smoke people tell me I leave behind I think I'm just letting the clutch out to slow so I decide to let it out a little faster on run 3.

Third Pass: 1.7 sixty. The launch felt great and I knew this was setting up to be a really good run. When it's time to shift into 2nd I press the clutch and I just dont feel the car go into second, it's just not there so I don't let the clutch out and give up on the run. It took me a while to find third after skipping second.

Fourth Pass: I passed up the line on the burnout and go to put the car in reverse and it was very difficult and took me a while to get the car into reverse. Sure enough pretty much the same result as the 3rd pass so I let off and didn't finish the run.

I let the car sit for a while and took my time airing up the tires. I decide to head home and when I'm pulling out of the track I redline 1st and the 1/2 shift goes in perfect and everything was normal driving home.

All in all it was a fun night and got to meet a few of the other local viper owners that came out (awesome group), some pics below.

I'm plan to have everything inspected, clutch fluid flushed and swap in an aftermarket clutch before I visit the track again.

PS: Thank you slowhatch for the detailed advice!

[Vipes]

[blingnoring]

Great job Vipes!!

[Steve M]

Nice improvement! How did the other Vipers do?