So after years of saying "man, I wanna run nex time", I finally bit the bullet and entered my first competition at the track. The event itself was slated for Sunday April 7th, but I was there for Saturday's test session as well. Also, this time I was packing a little someting extra, a set of borrowed Nitto 555 drag radials (thanks Nick ). Considering my 60' times on stocks were always in the high 2.3 and up range, I was figuring I should pull an east 2.1 60' and high 13's all weekend...... ahh the bitter sting of disapointment.

After bolting on the Nitto's and lining up, I figured I'd take some shake down runs on the new wheels on 6psi. So I go ahead and do a dry burnout..*BAM BAM BAM*! Incredible wheel hop on the burnout alone! Hmm ok, line up at the light, 4k rpm, 3rd amber lights up and ii'm off with a quick slip of the clutch..*BAM BAM BAM*, for like 2-3 seconds all I get is violent wheel hop, the kind that makes you wonder how the hell my dash didn't crack in half... this was the story of my weekend.

Try as I may, up the pressure, lower the pressure, high launches, low launches, all weekend the single best 60' I could pull was a 2.31, also got a 2.35 and a 2.36, the rest of my passes (18 altogether between Sat and Sun) were all 2.4+ 60' times. It frustrated me so much, that after 2 passes Sunday, I went ahead and switched to my stocks, my next pass then netted me another sad 60' time, but also a 14.23 while missing 4th which was actually one of my best times of the weekend... on my stocks, go figure.

As for how I actually did, here are some #'s from the weekend:

Best 60'- 2.31 (wheelhopping like a jackrabbit)
Best E.T. (6psi)- 14.63 @ 95.01mph
Best E.T. (12psi)- 14.16 @ 100.30mph <-- strange coincidence, I ran 100.3mph on about 3 or 4 seperate runs..
Best Trap- 101.71mph

Oh yea, as for the actual competition, I guess between the wheelhopping, almost losing my DP (found it hanging by 1 bolt on Sunday) and almost losing a headlight on a pass, my mind was just a little cluttered, so when I lined up against a turbo Suzuki Swift (16.00 dial-in), I was a little to edgy and wound up redlighting (.345 R/T) and handing him the 1st round win. Sucked too cause his R/T was a horrible 1.2 and he missed 3rd, so I should have walked away with an easy victory in my first ever competition.. oh well. There's always next time

 

Oh yea, here's the only video I've encoded thus far from the weekend. My 2nd best pass..
http://www.makuragi.s5.com/videos/Dave%2014.1.wmv

 

yeah i have that same problem
my car hops like crazy
only way i can get it to prevent wheel hop is if i launch at a low rpm and feather the gas but it will bog out
i plan on getting some traction bars
hopefully that will fix the problem for me
ive heard good things about them

 

dont know what to say,you have 2500 posts to your name, you know what you gotta do now right?
P.S> pretty sure you can take the drag radials thru the water box also.

 

ES engine mount inserts and Z10 traction bars. Though I've heard of people still hoppinh even with that setup

 

what was the lowest tire pressure you tried

 

I belive 21 or 22psi in the Nitto's was the lowest, gradually worked up to something like 28psi, no help though..

 

what kind of suspension do you have done, like springs and shocks(struts) ???

 

i owuld have gone down to 15

 

AroSpeed springs, Tokico blue's, Ingalls camber upper control arm.

 

Wow that low?? Somebody who I spoke to at the track actually told me to up the pressure if I'm hopping too much to help induce more spin and less hop..

Well, I'm looking at getting a set of BFG DR's myself so I can go for some revenge after the build up.

On a bright note, one thing that I didn't think about till after I left the track that kinda made me feel a little better. My previos times were all done with absolutley no exahust, right off the DP. This time I was running a complete exahust, makes me wonder how I would have run on open DP considering I did just as good now, even on my stocks Ahh yes a glimmer of hope

 

Good work actually getting up to Moroso ! At least you were able to enter and compete.. props on that !

Damn bro... got beat by a 1.3L ?

 

Next time muh man.. Most important is that you didn't snap anything from that nasty wheelhop and the car is still in 1 piece... well that downpipe can be a pain.


Nick

 

lol, no I had a few bus lengths on him, but he won the "race" right off the line unfortunatley

Nick, yea I mean all n' all, it was alot of fun. I've never run infront of such a mass of people before, and considering how relativley empty (only a couple thousand) it was, I can't imagine how it'll be in July and August for the big shows (NIRA/Toyo/IDRC etc..). Fun stuff, but next time I'm putting on a 13 second show dammit!

 

vtc_civic
have you ever gone to a dyno
if so, what did you put down

 

nope, based soley on weight and trap speeds, I'm laying down between 195-200whp guestimated.

 

checked yr motor mounts??? are they in one piece? how is your alignment?? lower the pressure to like 12-15psi, slip more clutch, lower start rpm, tighen up the rear end, weigh each side of the front of the car and even that out . silly ? do you have a LSD or a spool? what are your shocks valved for?? what lbs springs you have upfront???

 

cool
what psi would that be at?