I recently took my car to the local dragstrip. On my the third launch for the quarter mile I got a 'slow down' message in first gear. It lasted no more than one second, and it was after the 60' but before the 300'. I believe the light came on right before the car was about to change gears to 2nd (in auto). Within a second the light disappeared and the power came back on, making it look as if I had missed the shift. I don't have that much power, a gst tune and a catback only. I don't believe this is a result of heat, as I gave the car a good hour to cool and tried another run with the same result; at which point I just stopped out of fear of destroying my tranny.

I have 3 speculations as to what it could be; #1 being I launch too hard (using the tapping method, but I don't go above 3.5k rpm, I have done this before with no slowdown), #2 the auto sst cannot 'keep up' on 1st to 2nd gear change and triggers 'slowdown' at redline, and #3 being that I spike boost out of the gate (can a boost spike even cut the sst out?)

I don't think I have done any damage to the car, as I said, the slowdown message doesnt last more than a second, not a hint of burnt clutch smell, and it was pretty cool (about room temperature) last night.

Didn't try manual shifting; although I should of.

My best run was a 13.3 on the first launch, which was at about 3k rpm

Anyone have a similar experience?

 

This is normal...heat build up is easy to do at the track.

What are you doing at the waterbox? If your just driving around it and straight up to the line you may not be tapping the gas quick enough causing the tranny to build up heat while your tapping and then over heating right after launch.

If you do a "mini launch" at the waterbox to get gravel and exess water off the tires then that is also building up heat.

 

I go around the waterbox and only start tapping when both cars are staged. I only manage to get about 3 taps off (on the third I go) usually coinciding with each amber. Thats why I find it hard to believe it heats up that quickly. I also am now speculating it may have something to do with a change in Bryan's v2.6 beta throttle response, as I found this post with a similar problem

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/09...9-how-bad.html

I just wish I was logging at that time so we could use the data...

 

They must start the amber quickly after both cars stage. At our track there is at least 5-10 seconds between staging and green.

If the issues described in that thread are true it sounds like that might be the issue. Improved throttle response and the tapping method are not meant for each other.

 

I have had a similar experience. Me and my friend were screwing around and I was power braking. One foot on brake, other on gas. I was holding it down for, 5 seconds? And I got a warning saying "(I can't remember exactly but) Transmission overheating". I was flooring it everywhere for maybe 20min and then I power braked and this happened. Only happened once. I have been to the track as well and did the same thing. I would floor it out of the water box then wait for the other car then hold down the gas as soon as the ambers turned on. But no warning message then. hhhmmm????

 

Your tapping way to slow, you need to tap faster. When i launch i don't start tapping until just after the first amber and i get at least 5 taps then go on the 3rd amber(the car takes a bit to get off the line). I get Reaction times of .5 regularly.