Minnesota Audi Club Drag Strip Day -- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
05-12-2001, 02:10 PM
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Minnesota Audi Club Drag Strip Day -- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The good:
I rolled out of bed this morning at the ripe hour of 6:00 am to head for the drag strip... the conditions were perfect.. 60 F and partly cloudy. Perfect conditions to lay down some great times! We headed out to Wisconsin to hit the strip, and the temperature stayed cool. I had just a bit more than 1/4 tank of gas when I got to the strip, so I was ready to **** up some Civic Sis. Alan DeJesus was out (SIR VBall) with his Über S4, and jprice was out there with his bone stock, early '90s rustbucket Geo Prizm... S4Izzy came along for the ride
We got to the strip and it wasn't crowded a bit... we were able to make about 8 runs each, without a huge wait between each pass.
The Bad:
The S4s fared terribly in comparison to what we've seen posted here. Regardless of the temperature, we were both consistently in the 14s, with our 60' times unable to break 2.0. I was fighting the EDL when I launched... Alan said he didn't have the same problem. Izzy said that from the spectator's POV, my launches looked strong for the first 20 feet or so, at which point I bogged... I could tell that I was dealing with EDL problems. It was minor consolation that none of the AWD DSMs (even the ones in the 12s) were pulling better 60' times. I raced against a 12.1 GSX and he only bettered my 60' by about .05 seconds, and he was on drag radials. It led me to believe that something was up with the track, since no AWD cars were hooking up the way they should have been, save a low-13 second 3kGT VR-4 that seem to just bolt right out of the pen every time. I'm not a drag racing enthusiast, so I'm not sure what the deal was here. The minor consolation was that Alan was able to nail a 13.9xx when he put some race gas in his car, his last run of the day. I was pretty disappointed, as I expected to at least bag a 13.5... my G-Tech mislead me with the consistent 13.3s I was getting, at various locations. I was trying to justify my poor times by blaming the track, until I realized....
The Ugly:
On one of my runs, I pulled out the pen and felt a bit breathless. The run was a mundane mid-low 14, as I could tell when I went through the traps without hitting the rev limiter in 3rd gear... I rounded the bend to head to get my timeslip and I decided to see what was up. I revved it up, and noticed I had no power until about 3500 RPM, at which point, the kick was violent.... goddamn sticky Forge Valves. I was wishing for some aluminum pistons there, but I figured I could pop the stickage loose. My times didn't improve any, so I think I'm SOL until I get some new pistons. Dammit. Oh well. I think a throttle adaptation wouldn't hurt either, seeing as my boost has an amazingly apparent "2 stage" behavior... when the valves don't stick, 3k RPM yields a good kick, then at 4k, it flies like the wind.
The VERY GOOD:
Jordan (jprice) ran some jaw-dropping times with his beater Prizm. I told us that it was quick, but we never believed him. This guy is a John Force in the making... he was nailing near-perfect R/Ts every time around, and he managed to run a 17.2 with that beater. I was sure he would be in the 19s, but he ended up taking out some LOUUUUD rice with his rusted up, blue beast. Props to Jordan for hitting the strip with that thing.
I think what I want to do is hit up another strip to see if my results will differ any, or check out S4Izzy's stock S4 on the strip next time around... then again, maybe I oughta head out there next week with my stock valves in and see if I can do any damage. All in all, I was pleased with my R/Ts... if I didn't redlight, I was hitting .5xxs (.500 is "perfect") most of the time. I thought I would do the worst at that. I just need to figure out what's going on with the S4... has anybody run with sticky valves and achieved good times? Any suggestions on shaving a few tenths off? I was doing my trademark slip-dump launch from 4k, and it pulled me past the tree fast, but once I started hitting the meat of boost in 1st gear, EDL would always light up and get in my way. Very annoying. My shifts were a lot faster than I expected them to be... the UUC helps a lot! m4dD r0WiNz sK1Llz!
I rolled out of bed this morning at the ripe hour of 6:00 am to head for the drag strip... the conditions were perfect.. 60 F and partly cloudy. Perfect conditions to lay down some great times! We headed out to Wisconsin to hit the strip, and the temperature stayed cool. I had just a bit more than 1/4 tank of gas when I got to the strip, so I was ready to **** up some Civic Sis. Alan DeJesus was out (SIR VBall) with his Über S4, and jprice was out there with his bone stock, early '90s rustbucket Geo Prizm... S4Izzy came along for the ride
We got to the strip and it wasn't crowded a bit... we were able to make about 8 runs each, without a huge wait between each pass. The Bad:
The S4s fared terribly in comparison to what we've seen posted here. Regardless of the temperature, we were both consistently in the 14s, with our 60' times unable to break 2.0. I was fighting the EDL when I launched... Alan said he didn't have the same problem. Izzy said that from the spectator's POV, my launches looked strong for the first 20 feet or so, at which point I bogged... I could tell that I was dealing with EDL problems. It was minor consolation that none of the AWD DSMs (even the ones in the 12s) were pulling better 60' times. I raced against a 12.1 GSX and he only bettered my 60' by about .05 seconds, and he was on drag radials. It led me to believe that something was up with the track, since no AWD cars were hooking up the way they should have been, save a low-13 second 3kGT VR-4 that seem to just bolt right out of the pen every time. I'm not a drag racing enthusiast, so I'm not sure what the deal was here. The minor consolation was that Alan was able to nail a 13.9xx when he put some race gas in his car, his last run of the day. I was pretty disappointed, as I expected to at least bag a 13.5... my G-Tech mislead me with the consistent 13.3s I was getting, at various locations. I was trying to justify my poor times by blaming the track, until I realized....
The Ugly:
On one of my runs, I pulled out the pen and felt a bit breathless. The run was a mundane mid-low 14, as I could tell when I went through the traps without hitting the rev limiter in 3rd gear... I rounded the bend to head to get my timeslip and I decided to see what was up. I revved it up, and noticed I had no power until about 3500 RPM, at which point, the kick was violent.... goddamn sticky Forge Valves. I was wishing for some aluminum pistons there, but I figured I could pop the stickage loose. My times didn't improve any, so I think I'm SOL until I get some new pistons. Dammit. Oh well. I think a throttle adaptation wouldn't hurt either, seeing as my boost has an amazingly apparent "2 stage" behavior... when the valves don't stick, 3k RPM yields a good kick, then at 4k, it flies like the wind.
The VERY GOOD:
Jordan (jprice) ran some jaw-dropping times with his beater Prizm. I told us that it was quick, but we never believed him. This guy is a John Force in the making... he was nailing near-perfect R/Ts every time around, and he managed to run a 17.2 with that beater. I was sure he would be in the 19s, but he ended up taking out some LOUUUUD rice with his rusted up, blue beast. Props to Jordan for hitting the strip with that thing.
I think what I want to do is hit up another strip to see if my results will differ any, or check out S4Izzy's stock S4 on the strip next time around... then again, maybe I oughta head out there next week with my stock valves in and see if I can do any damage. All in all, I was pleased with my R/Ts... if I didn't redlight, I was hitting .5xxs (.500 is "perfect") most of the time. I thought I would do the worst at that. I just need to figure out what's going on with the S4... has anybody run with sticky valves and achieved good times? Any suggestions on shaving a few tenths off? I was doing my trademark slip-dump launch from 4k, and it pulled me past the tree fast, but once I started hitting the meat of boost in 1st gear, EDL would always light up and get in my way. Very annoying. My shifts were a lot faster than I expected them to be... the UUC helps a lot! m4dD r0WiNz sK1Llz!
05-12-2001, 03:27 PM
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okay a couple of things...
we had trouble at Pomona with 60' times because the track was TOO grippy...there was 0 give so the cars would either bog or light up the clutch (those with clutches)...but even my tip could never break a 2.2 there. I ran 2.0 at Carlsbad on a "worse" (slipperier) track.
Now I can't emphasize this enough...racing with a chip at a drag strip will VERY likely lead to preignition...the car will heatsoak and you never get a chance to drive it long enough to cool it back down...you are maxing the power and you have a formula for pre-ignition. The ONE time I didn't use 100 octane I got 14.7s at the same track where I later ran 13.8-14.0...this was ALL due to the timing backing off to eliminate pre-ignition. The stock boost has a relatively conservative threshold but you go from .7 bar to 1.2 bar and a heatsoaked car and bada bing! PING! (note you will NEVER hear pre-ignition so unless the ECU radically cuts the timing your first clue will be crappy timeslips, if it does you will feel a hesitation in the mid range).
You have higher cylinder pressures and temperatures than a N/A car so it is MORE important that you use 100 octane (or rocket fuel).
So next time, judge the 60' in context and YOU fill up with 100 octane and drive the car a while to give the ECU a chance to adapt to it first (I usually fill up and drive to the track 1+hr with the 100 octane).
Also, you can offset heatsoak by taking a spray bottle full of cold water and liberally soaking your ICs before AND after the runs...certainly doesnt hurt and is bound to help.
Now I can't emphasize this enough...racing with a chip at a drag strip will VERY likely lead to preignition...the car will heatsoak and you never get a chance to drive it long enough to cool it back down...you are maxing the power and you have a formula for pre-ignition. The ONE time I didn't use 100 octane I got 14.7s at the same track where I later ran 13.8-14.0...this was ALL due to the timing backing off to eliminate pre-ignition. The stock boost has a relatively conservative threshold but you go from .7 bar to 1.2 bar and a heatsoaked car and bada bing! PING! (note you will NEVER hear pre-ignition so unless the ECU radically cuts the timing your first clue will be crappy timeslips, if it does you will feel a hesitation in the mid range).
You have higher cylinder pressures and temperatures than a N/A car so it is MORE important that you use 100 octane (or rocket fuel).
So next time, judge the 60' in context and YOU fill up with 100 octane and drive the car a while to give the ECU a chance to adapt to it first (I usually fill up and drive to the track 1+hr with the 100 octane).
Also, you can offset heatsoak by taking a spray bottle full of cold water and liberally soaking your ICs before AND after the runs...certainly doesnt hurt and is bound to help.
05-12-2001, 04:07 PM
#5
Rocky, great synposis! I had a blast! (more)
I hope you don't mind, I used your synopsis here on the website as a description of today's drag event. I also posted some pictures from my still cam, and am currently working on getting some video clips.
<a href="http://www.mnaudi.com/drag1/">http://www.mnaudi.com/drag1</a>
<a href="http://www.mnaudi.com/drag1/">http://www.mnaudi.com/drag1</a>
