There is this long stretch of pavement on the way to my house. It is silky smooth of approximately 1/3 mile long before it ends by a traffic light. Since it hardly ever have any cars on it late at night, I usually use it to test my cars.

It's a right turn rolling start at the green light, as soon as I make through 80% of the turn I will mash the accelerator all the way down while in 5k 1st gear. Quickly shift to 2nd as my shift light blinks at 8000 rpm (corrected) and the car boggs a bit and continue through the gears. Usually, I will get to 95 mph till I am close to the traffic light and brake (approximately 300 feet away) Sometimes I will get up to 100+ mph if everything is perfectly right. And all this is done with a Comptech Ice Box.

Tonight is different, I am not driving the ITR but my mom's 00' Non-S 3.2 TL 225hp with 100 more tq than my R. I know from previous experiences that sequential shifting of this car is really retarded as the gears tend to be more slower than having it change by itself. So here I am, exiting the turn at around 10mph and should be the 2nd gear of the car. I floor it at 80% completion of the turn, tire squeek abit but quickly gains control and the torque carries the car away. The car shift nicely by itself at around 6k redline and I start to notice how fast it clinchs up the speedometer. At the usually stopping point, it's already at the 100mph mark and I start to brake for the red light.......I came to seconds of mindless moments as I questioned myself hard about what is going on.........this TL should be 1 second slower than my R from 0-60 and 0-1/4 from magazine comparisons (I am not magazine racing, but this is the only way to gets some facts). If it's achiving 100mph trap speed as easily as my R, does that mean my car is a high 15sec 1/4 mile car?
The only explanation I have for the R to have similar performance if not worst than the TL is the gap between 3rd and 4th which I have to shift up at 3rd's limit...at 85ish mph.
I am not into Drag racing, but acceleration is still an important aspect in any form of racing.


Anyone think of other explanations? I change oil regularily with Red Line and the car is 12,000mi with yet any tune-up except a transmission oil service at the dealer. Runs on 94 octane Sunoco and ran hard quite often at AutoX and two lap days...etc.
I don't shift slow, Nakaya from BM vcds is my big idol so I have similar style of shifting by copying him. But no power shift or half-way-clutch shifts.

I also have a VAFC as I got a cheap deal on it and had it install pretty flawlessly. The mechanic drove around with it setting at 4800 engage and 4500 disengage. After I learned this will hurt performance, I changed it back to stock setting at 5700 in, 5400 out. I am not sure of whether or not the mechanic changed anything else,.. so is it possible for anyone to post the default values of VAFC for stock ITR other than VTEC engagement points?


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 7:11 AM 11/18/2001]

 

The rolling start is throwing you off... published times are for zero to 60, not

10 to 60... If you allow your mom's car to not spin it's wheels on take off, you eliminate one of it's weakest moments in the 0 to 60 dash... the compromise between full throttle and wheel spin... once traction is not a problem the car is going to move with all of the torque the motor can put out... then it's just a matter of who has the best power to weight..

Something to keep in mind when the camaro beside you wants to race you from
a rolling start...

 

So if I have both the TL and ITR lined up in a stright line with 10mph rolling start, will the result be similar?
TL will spins very little from a 10mph roll, I know it pretty well. I drive it 80% of the time than my mother.
And besides, I had the TCS(traction contorl) on in the TL, with it turned off, I can run even faster with the TL.

ITR will bog 2nd gear, but I can try my best not to bog 2nd while having the most thrust out from the shift.
Will the result be similar?


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 7:13 AM 11/18/2001]

 

Your mom's car has a torque converter, which give it some advantage over your car( no bog ) It probably doesn't lock up until 2500 rpm or so, and the torque converter lets the motor stay in it's power band, but at a maximum lock up rpm ( afore mentioned 2500 rpm ) The engine revs will stay there( if the wheels don't lose traction ) until the drivetrain speed matches the engine speed. At that point the torque converter will be fully engaged and the motor will start to increase rpm..

This all happens quickly and seamlessly, and is the main reason dragsters use auto's.. Great torque multiplication off the line..

Now for a manual transmission..

You need to dip your clutch when you go for it to get the motor into it's power band.. yea the clutch will slip a bit, but it's a great way to get a jump on someone during a slow rolling start.. like below v-tec in 1st gear.. No it's not good for your clutch, but every now and then it's no big deal.. You'll find that the car stay's in the powerband and the wheel spin generated is not too bad..

As far as comparing your mom's car with yours, who really knows.. But I can tell you something...

This fasination we have with 0 to 60 is really not a great measure of your car's overall acceleration.. Europeans have been measuring 20 to 50, 40 to 70.. since the early 1900's.. in fact the acceleration of cars in top gear used to be the big yard stick... Your car is geared to come out of second gear at 60... think that's a coincidence? Wonder why the JDM honda's are ALL already in third gear at 60?

Cause the overall 0 to 100 isn't important to them.. 30 to 60 is, as well as 50 to 100.. see my point? All european cars are geared to drive, not to accelerate from rest..

 

Thanks for clearing up. Not that accelration of 0-XX matters that much, but still a bit of curiosity as performance of a car in U.S is measured this way.......


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 7:38 AM 11/18/2001]

 

You actually believe all that crap I'm dishing out? heh heh..

Glad to help...

 

I only believe what sounds logical. Indeed, I do care more about acceleration of my car when coming out of the apex rather than traffic light battles (although this wins fame and chicks). And I know as some Germen ITR owners here suggested of German's persepective of car performance, which is similar to what you've said.

 

just curious whats your modifications neo? why does it say shift at 8k?

 

Just an Icebox with other handling goodies.
I have a BLACK autometer Pro-Comp shiftlite.....a 5 inch mechanical without the BIG *** shift tube. It does not have the 3-400 rpm differences our factory gauge have. I have it rotated and sitting on the left under the A-pillar and had the shift light aimed right at my eyes. It's usefull in any kind of racing, road race or AutoX as sometimes the big bad V8 or FM QRE Shadows next to you made you temperorily deaf to your engine's tone.

Here is a silver: It glows in amber at night and the shiftlight is bright yellow....very matchy to my car.





[Modified by nEoMuGen, 8:24 AM 11/18/2001]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 8:31 AM 11/18/2001]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 9:58 AM 11/18/2001]

 

so with that tachometer are you setting the redline yourself or does it do it according to the ecu or something?

 

Setting it myself manually through the switches on the tach...I set it at 8000 for that 1/4 sec of reaction time to let my foot get off the accelerator to shift....so I am pretty close to 8400rpm when I shift.

[Modified by nEoMuGen, 8:33 AM 11/18/2001]


[Modified by nEoMuGen, 8:34 AM 11/18/2001]