People always need to remember that the launch, 1-2, and 2-3 shift is what makes the pass good or not. Consider one of my times vs. Matt Smith:

Mine 60' 1.719, 1/8th 7.535 @ 94.5, 1/4 11.605 @ 122.08
His 60' 1.702, 1/8th 7.265 @ 99.27, 1/4 11.312 @ 122.87

You can clearly see when he beat me.... his launch was slightly better but the main difference is the 1-2 shift/2-3 shift. Im not sure if I short shifted the hell out of first or the tires spun when I hit second but thats obviously the difference. The cars trapped almost the same, the launches were close. Its the shifting that made a HUGE difference between these runs... think if it made a difference from an 11.6 to a 11.3 from just the first few seconds of the track. The rest of the track doesnt matter... then its whatever the car can do.. and even with mine making obviously more power it wasnt able to catch up. Consider this for the power difference:

Mine gained 27.58MPH vs his 23.60.... So my car with more power, trapped lower and got a slower ET. Just because your car makes more power doesnt mean anything at all...

 

Thanks for some good info, I love reading stuff like this!

 

This is very true, which is sort of the same reason why our cars in general can run faster ETs with a lower trap MPH than higher HP cars... we can get off the line a lot better and cars are left playing catch-up.

 

Well its also why heavy american muscle cars making 400hp/400tq w/ huge slicks can run high 10s where as our cars dont.... They get off the line with 1.1 60' times and have automatics that shift perfectly and quickly but they end up trapping at a mere 120.

 

Actually, Trina, this is a bit misleading. You don't necessarily have more power. He just was more efficient in the first half, which led him to hitting a higher MPH at the 1/8th. You just hadn't gotten up to speed yet from either slower shifting, poor shifting, or different shift points. For instance, I often hit 90-91mph in the 1/8th, but I only hit 113 in the 1/4. There are plenty of cars that trap around 113-114 in the 1/4 but only hit 86-88 in the 1/8th. Their cars aren't more powerful - they just don't make proper use of that power in the front end. The back end consists only of holding your foot down while in 4th gear. Matt there was probably already in 4th gear well before the 1/8th, whereas you were probably just getting started in 4th.

There's more to relative power than looking at MPH difference from the 1/8th to the 1/4.

 

warrtalon....do u believe powershifting makes a difference in our cars? and do u think the possible difference it makes is worth the damage to the clutch?

 

Of course, powershifting always makes a difference, regardless of the car. It really comes down to your ability.

I don't worry about damage to the clutch as much as I do about damage to the synchros. I'm pretty sure I've damaged my 4th gear synchro from my 70+ 3-4 powershifts.

 

I think your partially correct but I believe my car still made more power. By him being more efficient in the first half of the track, it gave him more room to accelerate.... Since he got through more shifts faster, he had more time to accelerate in 4th. Yes shift points and such play some part of it but its still relatively simple to figure out. Here is another one of my older passes....

60' 1.852, 1/8 7.848 @ 90.71, 1/4 12.053 @ 118.93

The temperature and everything was almost identical (It was 6 days earlier... same tune/boost). Its a much slower MPH and worse ET but the 1/8-1/4 gain was still almost identical at 28.22. I credit the difference of .5 mph or so due to wind resistance. Never the less.... same car, same mods, same tune, worse driving = .452 seconds slower with a 2.67 mph difference but only a 0.64mph difference in the last half of the track.

Put simply, the better launch and 1/8 time = the more time you have to accelerate.

 

This is very true of the 60' and 330' times. If you knock off a tenth from your 60' you will typically see .2 seconds on the 1/4 ET.

It sure makes you think about the possibilities when comparing time slips. Below is a run that I had against a built automatic with a stall converter. I beat her out of the whole by .054 seconds but she caught me at the end. She was .021 seconds faster at the 1/8 mile, had a .03MPH slower trap speed, and had gained .075 seconds from the 60' to the 1/8 mile. I am pretty sure most of her gain from the 60' to the 1/8 mile is caused by the extra gear shift for me from 2nd to 3rd evident by her .06 second gain from the 330' to the 1/8 mile. In the last half she was .114 seconds faster but her trap was also 2.16MPH faster. I am sure that I was in fourth at the 1/8 mile and she was in third. My better gearing would imply that her car had more top end power or she was in her power band for longer in the last half of the race. It would be nice to know how much longer my shifts were taking than hers and how much of a difference was made by gearing in relation to the power band of the engine.

- .054 60'
- .039 330'
.021 1/8 mile
.085 1000'
.135 1/4 mile