hey i ran friday night on the 1/8 i ran a 10.924 don't have that many mods better launches i will be 10.7 or 10.8.for a car with a 120 hp and ways about 2800pounds i think that is pretty damn good what do you expect out of 4door grocery getter. go under drag racing go to is this good, check out my times.

 

Hey I see your from NH, I am from Boston and I race on Street nights in Epping (New England Dragway) 1-2 times a month. Is this where you do your racing?

And about your times, you should deffinatly be able to drop your 60' to at least 2.5-2.4 which would be good for .3 or even .4 off your 1/4 times..

My buddy 5 years back owned a 1996 Toyota Tercel 4-Speed with a whoopin 93 hp and managed a 17.4@80Mph.. Now he's running 15 flat in his 2002 modded Celica GTS

 

I do 16.603 @84.55 with my lancer oz (rrm testpipe, rrm magnaflow muffler) i think a stock lancer will do about 16.9 something !!

 

Hello UNHdude,

I haven't been on this board long at all (maybe a day or two) and I'm no expert at drag racing but you are being misinformed by a lot of people here.

First off....(very important) your reaction time has NOTHING to do with your 1/4 mile time. Please understand that. Your reaction time just measures how close you are to tripping the staging beam after the light turns green. You can have a perfect reaction time or leave the staging light a day after it turns green, if all other conditions remain the same (launching rpm, weather, grip, etc) you will get EXACTLY the same 1/4 mile time and mph. For more information on dragracing or bracket racing (terms and such) please visit this site:
http://www.staginglight.com/guide/
It's an excellent read.

One thing that is VERY important (I can't emphasize this enough) is your 60ft time. This is what you have to work on. Your 60ft time is 'bad'. You have a FWD so don't feel bad. A 'good' 60ft time with a FWD is 1.8-2.1. A great 60ft time is 1.5-1.7s. You aren't likely to get those 60ft times on street tires. At best you can probably get a low 2.3 on street tires (2.2? if you are really, REALLY good). Average FWD 60ft times can range from 2.4-2.6. I'd say you are just out of range and getting on the bad side but it could be worse. A rule of thumb is 1/10 off (improvement) off your 60ft time is equal to 2/10ths in the 1/4 mile. That's why this is so important. You have to launch better. I can get high 2.3s - low 2.4s in my FWD with skinny 195s because I did a LOT of bracket racing but FWD is new territory for me. Good street tires help.

You want more information about launching your FWD? Here are some good reads:

http://www.cnw.com/~redline/launching.htm

http://www.turbomopar.com/handling.html

Apply this information and you will go FAR. You do not have to add anymore power to your car and you can probably shave off .5 seconds just by changing your tire pressure and modulating where/how you launch. Good luck and I understand your frustration. I hope I could help.

BTW: I don't kow how encouraging this may be to you but I had an N/A car (AWD though) that was running mid-high 18s stock and I hated it...at first. After adding 5lbs of boost (intercooled) and a 60hp shot of nitrous, I was running low 13's all day long with no internal engine work. Engine ran great for 59k miles until I had the turbokit taken off (family reasons). Just using a 50-60hp shot of nitrous (no turbo) got me between 15.3-15.5 in the 1/4 mile (with 60ft times in the 1.9-2.0 range). So don't give up and good luck. Just work on your launch for now.

 

I tend to be sceptical of the stock figures printed in magazines. I believe that often the cars supplied are mildly modded. I also suspect that the test drivers care significantly less about the cars they are accessing than us mere mortals do.

 

Just a note: Re-read the whole post and realized there are some people saying reaction times doesn't apply to your 1/4 mile time (unless racing someone or bracket racing). My previous post wasn't directed at anyone in particular but just wanted to clarify the 60ft time's importance. My apologies!