Well, last night was my first time at the drag strip with the evo. My mods are in my sig, I was hoping for 12's but I just couldn't sem to get there. I had a half tank of 91 and half 101 octane. The temps were about 90F with low humidity. These were my runs.

13.651 @ 102.500 - 2.424 60 ft. This was my first run so I was a bit nervous. I bogged the launch at 4k rpm and shifted just into redline on each gear. When I got back around I was told I should launch at a higher rpm and slip the clutch into gear. I tried that on my next run.

14.779 @ 103.463 - 2.789 60 ft. Can you smell the clutch from here? It felt like a delayed reaction. I tried to slip the clutch in at 5500 rpm but it just wouldn't grab when I let off. It went all the way up to 7k - 7.5k then grabbed and went. I missed 2nd gear completely. It took 3 attempts to get it into gear which resulted in that ****ty time. I felt pissed off and to me it seemed launching at that high an rpm was hurtful more than helpful. All I could smell was clutch from here on out.

13.713 @ 106.839 - 2.519 60 ft. I decided to go back to launching at 4k again. But the same thing happened, it felt like a delayed grab. It seemed to just go up to around 6.5k - 7k for a few seconds and then grab. This time I decided to power shift through the gears 3-4 which I guess helped my trap speed? But again the clutch smell was overwhelming.

13.671 @ 105.514 - 2.265 60 ft. My friends said I should probably call it a night at this point. As the heat was probably not helping at all. Again the cluctch smell was evident. I decided to just slip it at 3k rpm and bang the gears at around 7200 rpm, just into redline.

I just could not get a decent launch outta my car. Now I've done a lot of reading as to not drop the clutch and to just slip it into gear. I tried that as best I could but I think I'm just not doing it correctly. Coming from a front wheel drive mx-3 and rear wheel rx-7 I never really slipped anything. So I'm thinking due to lack of experience I'm just not doing it right. I start off by bringing the rpm up to 4k and keeping it there then slowly feathering the clutch in to sort of "feel" it then I let go slowly and when I'm fully off I mash the gas pedal.

What am I doing wrong here? I'm inclined to think I can get a better time out of my stock clutch here. Any opinions/suggestions?

 

you should be able to cut a 1.6- 1.7 60ft with good driving figure every 1/10th off your 60ft its about 2 10ths off your 1/4 mile time. what were you trapping at?
when launching the car dont rev and hold it there reve up and down inbetween 5-6k slip the clutch a little to get the car moving side step it you should be down to at least a 1.8. Dumping the clutch does nothing besides either spin the tires or just straight up hurting the drivetrain.

 

His traps speeds are listed...his best was 106. That would be a 12-sec run easily with just a decent launch.

Hey, antonio, don't sweat it. You just haven't learned how to launch yet, and believe me, it takes a while if you're new to this. I've been drag racing AWD DSMs for 7+ years, and it still took me 8-9 launches before I got a nice, solid 1.76 60'. Only 3-4 of those others were even 1.8 60's, so I know it's tough. 4k is definitely not enough. You need to at LEAST be using the factory launch limiter (5k rpm in neutral), or if you disconnect it, go ahead and try to use 5500rpm with a feathered slip.

Your mods are good enough for low 12s with little effort, as long as you're tuned well with the Ecutek. The only other variable may be your elevation. All the other AZ guys are much slower due to the elevation, so that could be another factor, not to mention the heat is never good.

 

yo we will get it figured out. i pulled all my slips to look at what i'm doing as well:

1st run on 03/11:
r/t .048, 60' 2.225, 330ft 5.827, 1/8th 8.858, mph 82.66, 1000ft 11.447, 1/4th 13.626 @ 105.53mph

1st run on 04/01:
r/t .227, 60' 2.313, 330ft 6.029, 1/8th 9.070, mph 80.58, 1000ft 11.651, 1/4th 13.816 @ 106.74mph

2nd run on 04/01
r/t .245, 60' 1.902, 330ft 5.401, 1/8th 8.397, mph 82.45, 1000ft 10.951, 1/4th 13.099 @ 107.02mph

 

Yeah I figure it's my launch but I'm just questioning my technique. The only thing different I've gathered from the post is to release the clutch up until the car starts moving then let go and gas it? I'm gonna try again this weekend but I'm probably gonna practice a few launches at 5k.

 

Yes, in words, that's exactly how I do it. I tach up to about 6k and feather the clutch a little...when it just starts to grab and begin rolling the wheels, I let it rip. If it catches right, there is no clutch burn and no bog. That's how I got my 1.76 on the stock clutch, but others are able to do it using the 5k launch limiter.

Have you experienced the 5k thing yet?

 

I think I'm going to go out and try that right now. I guess since I'm already staged the little roll wouldn't cause me to redlight at all?

After my dynoflash I didn't seem to have it anymore, in neutral I can rev as high as I want. I don't have it with the ecutek flash as well. When you launch at such a high rpm, does it grab at 6k and continue up? When i tried it at 5500rpm it seemed to be delayed a sec or so and then it grabbed but the rpm was well over 6 - 6.5k. Does that make sense at all to you?

 

Oh, ok, it was removed by the flash.

Hmm, red-lighting isn't an issue unless you plan to do competition drag racing/bracket racing. The issue is that you don't want to roll far enough to trip the light, otherwise your timer starts and you haven't launched yet. My first launch ever, I apparently did this, because my launch was perfect (no bog, no spin), but I only got a 1.92 60'. I was baffled, but realized that I must have rolled too far forward. You really have almost no room to roll, so it's not so much rolling as it is getting the clutch to grab before release the pedal completely.

I think you messed up on that run where the clutch slipped. When mine grabs, the rpms go down naturally, which is when I hammer the throttle while simultaneously releasing the clutch. If done improperly, I can see how it would slip and increase rpms if you gave it gas too soon.

 

damn!! i hate launching awd cars, it takes a lot of practice to master it. took me at least 10 times to get my 60' time down to 1.8

 

I think that was the trick I needed, allowing it to roll a bit before complete disengagement of the clutch and hitting WOT with the gas. I tried it at a few diff rpms and felt a much better pull. I tried launching as low as 3500 and was able to get a nice launch it felt? Why are some suggesting to launch as high as 6k?

 

Because you will completely bog below 5k. At 3500, you don't have any power whatsoever to launch the car.