Come on now, I know everybody can't be hitting 13.2's every single time. Everybody can't be having perfect launches w/ perfect shifting. Tell us some times when you goofed up or how you felt staging and pulling out to lane and seeing those 3 yellow lights go by in a flash.

this past weekend, while racing my cousins STI. I totally f'd up. When my lane was pulling in to run. I got in my car, put on the on helmet. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. My left leg all of a sudden felt weak with no strength to push down the clutch. Call it adrenaline rush, call it anxiety, call it fear, call it excitement.. call it watever, you want.

Then we lined up at the lights.. Reved to 5K rpm and held it, waiting for the lights to go boom, boom, boom, BING!. The guy comes over to me "you gotta strap your helmet before i can let you run down the strip". There I was keeping an eye on my cousin (first time running at the track) to make sure he tied his strap! Then they stalled us, told us to back-up. There was too much smoke from the previous run that they had to go make sure there wasn't any debri or oil on the road.

Once that was cleaned up, they moved us back to the spot. I was paying too much attention to the STI that when I looked at the RPM I was at 6.5K. Trying to get the launch down to 5K the yellow lights start going down. Next thing I knew it was green. The STI jumps forward, I let go of the clutch ever so slightly while pressing the gas. RPM was probably somewhere around 3.5 - 4.5K, didn't have time to look down. Instead of the car jumping forward, it boggs. I get it going again still on on first gear then shifts to 2nd and it won't go in, finally after 2 tries I finally get it into 2nd gear. By the end of the track the STI was long gone. Time slips showed a 15.3.

I could just feel my whole body shake from all that adrenaline rush after passing the 1/4 mark. It sure was intense and now I think I'm hooked..

Share your bloopers and experiences from the track.

 

Ive bogged a few launches, but i dont have any stories like that about myself. My friend, however, took his 72 corvette to the drag strip (he was only 15 at the time), and when he was coming up to the line, he overshot it, so he had to put it in reverse to get to the starting line. I was watching from the sidelines, and as the lights started i heard him rev his engine, then the green light lit and he shot off, only he shot off backwards. He had forgotten to put the car into 1st gear before launching. So, he launched in reverse, but caught it after about 20 feet or so, put it in gear, and drove off to run about a 22 second 1/4 mile. Also, later that night, he wound up SHATTERING his clutch so badly that when he revved the car it sounded like someone was shaking up a bucket of coins. His parents fixed it for him though, and bought him a brand new sti a few days later. Ive also watched a friend stall his car off the line in his bmw 325i. That was really funny because everyone was laughing at him.

 

Yeah, you're right, we're not hitting 13.2s every time! Only when we mess up, haha.

I've screwed up a few times:

1) In a semifinal heads-up in an Import race, I went against a slightly slower car who beat me off the line, but I was catching him in 3rd, and when I tried to shift to 4th, I went to reverse instead. Luckily, I didn't actually go into gear and destroy the tranny, but I did lose what should have been a fairly easy win (hard to mess up 4th gear) and a shot at $300 (2nd place). I had no chance at 1st place vs Al Blaha who was running 10.9s in his 1G that day...

2) A few weeks ago, I was in a bracket race against a much slower car, and again I messed up the 3-4 shift by somehow going into 2ND. I spun the revs to 9500 or so, but let off immediately. I lost the race and almost lost the tranny (again).

No screwups at the starting line that I can remember other than obliterating my clutch on a launch back when I had my first 1G.

 

the car went into 2nd at 7500rpms in 3rd? holy hell, i thought it'd laugh at you if you tried that.

 

I blew the BOV off the upper intercooler pipe at about the 1/8th mile mark and limped the second half of the track to the finish. Ended up with a 14.6 at 79MPH and still beat the Mustang who was going all out. Might not have been funny to him and it scared the crap out of me...but afterwards it was funny .

 

Any body get nervous?? Adrenaline rush?

 

[QUOTE=Warrtalon]Yeah, you're right, we're not hitting 13.2s every time! Only when we mess up, haha.


Good one!!..

 

In almost 8 years of drag racing, I still get very nervous with butterflies each time. I usually have to wipe the sweat off my hands right before I launch.

 

Butterflies.. that's the word I was looking for!..

Warrtalon, Thanks for being honest. Funny how you get butterflies before and after the run. During the run you're too focused on hitting the right shift points; working the clutch and gas pedal.

 

HA HA, This happened to me a couple weeks ago. I was so busy concentrating on holding the revs up, that when I looked up the lights had already dropped and was green.

The S.S. in the next lane had already launched a full second before me so I had to play catch up. Then I got locked out of 4th gear and had to wait for the revs too drop before being allowed to shift into 4th. But still ran a 13.5.

 

world cup finals last year, i'm the last one up to qualify for my group (cars that are running mid 11s or lower). it was giong to be my first time running with my new tune. i go to start my car and it won't start. so they run over with the jumper box, pop the trunk and jump the car. i roll up to to staging and my car starts spittin and sputtering. i give it gas to keep it running and the idle drops and i start shooting flames out my exhuast. then she dies and i couldn't restart her. so with my father there (down from ct to watch me race) i have to get pushed back off the waterbox in front of MIR's largest event draw.

 

I find it best to go to the track solo and just meet friends, then you don't have to worry about who's in the stands, blah blah blah. I try my best to race the light not the person next to me. The thing that throws me off the absolute most is those damn rotaries that are so f'n loud they mess up your idle at the stage. Trips me out when the car wants to die cause the maf is all screwed up from the vibrations.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have ever done that! The first time I took my modded 2G to the track I slipped into reverse hell and I nearly dropped a load when I did it! I laughed my head off when I saw it on video...back up lights came on for a split second....crazy.

 

I've never experienced that despite lining up against 9- and 10-s all-out race cars with open headers, so it must be specific to the 03/04 models.

 

At OSW we have some crazy loud side exit open header rotaries and they do it to me every time. I try to steer clear of them, give me a freaking headache. Yeah, open header V8's mess it up as well. Orlando is 10 second rotary happy, there's at least 2 or 3 there a night.