I went to a drag strip and raced last night for the first time. It was such a rush! Even though I was running a bone stock 350-2 on a heavy car it was fun haha! I only ran 17.05@80mph in the 1/4, but I know if I practice and have less than 3/4 ( ou: )of a tank of gas I will whittle that down a little. I am going to get a baseline before I do any engine work. :Smarty: What should I have run in the 1/4? How much lower can I go with a completely stock setup? Edit: Attached the time slip. I'm the one on the right, my firend's 71 Cutlass is on the left. It was his first time there too, so don't judge his car by that number
hard to say what you 'should' run I'm not a drag racer, but the elevation of the track, the humidity and temperature and how well your car reacts to those thigns are a factor Also your rear tires...grippy, or slippy? I have no idea what your driveline specs are, for example, your rear end ratio I have no idea of the condition of your engine, converter, transmission or rear end I have an idea that your car was way overweight though? My guess is mid 15s with tuning, practice, and minor upgrades, 14s with a four barrel
The tires didn't spin much off the line. I didn't really mash the gas off the line, since I had been too nervous to do a burnout in the staging area :3gears: They are just street tires, although they usually spin around corners without me wanting them to. The rear end is stock, probably 2.56:1. The engine is running fine as far as I can tell, haven't rebuilt it yet. The transmission shifts really strong (someone probably put a shift kit in it at some point). I took everything out of my car, except me and a fire extinguisher To be honest, I'd be quite happy if my car did mid 15s with some tuning and practice.
I saw a 350-2 skylark run 17.3 I think it was, the track is at an high altitude and it's a bit "up hill" at the end. He had some fatter tires in the back, and it would still smoke em good (or one), don't remember. So if you compare your car to his, then you're right in line with that car. He had come across it for 1000$, it still looked pretty good, and ran good too.
You probably didn't want to do a burnout anyway. I think that the real drag racers on the bords would agree that with your car, you were better off without it
I went for it every time, it's the only chance you get to do it without the chance of being ticketed for it, so if you feel like it, go for it.... As far as I've understood it, it won't make any difference to your tires being warmed up from it, since they're street tires anyway, right?
Don Eggers told me he used to run a 350-2bbl in a 69 (or something close) 4 door. His best time with it was 14.0. His gears weren't as high as yours. His cars are well tuned and they all run at the top of their game. It doesn't hurt that he is an experienced racer. I wouldn't expect a 14.0 with your car but certainly 14's aren't out of the question. Next time drive around the water box!!
My first time at the drag strip with my stock 42,000 mile Skylark,I bought it from the original owner in 1991, 350 2 barrel,2.56 open rear,new B.F,Goodrich 235/14's,on stock factory Buick mags,single exhaust,fresh tune-up,points,plugs,condenser and cap, a whopping 16.65 in the 1/4 @ 82 MPH. 14 years later and a lot of work-13.52@100MPH :Smarty: Very street legal still 14 inch tires and I would drive it cross-country if I had to! :TU: PS 4,000 lbs race weight :Smarty:
I think your time is quite good for a stock 350 2V. But hey, bracket racing is designed for every car! Have fun. You reaction time will be the thing you best can improve on. Yours is on par with a first timer. I assume you was on a .500 tree. You get that reaction down from 1.200 to .500-.700 and you will see the sixteens right off the bat. Leave on that last yellow! Anyhoooo....Congratulations on joining the last real sport that absolutley everyone can participate! Fun wasn't it? :3gears:
Reaction times have nothing to do with how quick your car goes, if it takes you 2.00 seconds to react or .500 [perfect] your car will still run the same et's :Smarty: The timer for ET's doesn't start untill your front tires break the start beam :TU:
So if you're running 20 sek from A-B Then you have a reaction time of .5 sec, that means your time is 20.5 sec. If your reaction time is 1.5 sec then you get 21.5 sec. Or what's said in the last point that it's irrelevant, and you'll end up with 20 sec, regardless of when you leave the line?? I'm just a little bit confused here?
the timing system works from beam to beam, the clock starts when you leave and cross the starting line , and stops when u hit the beam at the finish line, reaction time is not figured into your time at all. but you still need to work on reaction time for bracket nights, if your car is consistant and you get good lights, you can have a 24 second car and beat everyone(but its alot more fun in a 12 second one. dan :TU:
I think he means that your ET numbers will be the same whether it takes you 40 seconds or .6 to react, however in a real race whoever crosses the finish line first wins...so good reaction times are helpful Edit: oops ... didn't see your post Dan
Kimson, I know at first it seems very confusing, reaction time only comes into play when actually dialing in and posting your times in the elimination rounds. No matter how long it takes you to react [leave the starting line and set the timer] your car doesn't go any faster or slower because of your reaction time], That is why some times a car that runs 14.5 will win a race against a 14.0.car the slower car [14.5] reacted off the tree better with a .500 light compared to a 1.10 light on the 14.0 sec car. :Smarty : everything being perfect the slower car won by a margin of .10!! I hope I'm explaining right, I know it's kind of fuzzy when you first start going to the track and trying to figure it all out, if anyone can explain it better please chime in :TU:
I've been sitting home here for a few days now with 103 fever, and I've had no energy to do anything, but I had enough to come up with this. I've only had the car down the track four times, and I'll get more graphs in there as time goes on. I'd like to get the (X) axis more correctly set up, these intermediate times you get, what's the distance's for them? I had a reaction time of, 0.274 , 0.570 , 0.335 , 0.180 on these runs. Lots of video games and driving manual cars helps here I guess.. p The more runs you do, the more consistent you get I presume. I've got the HEI in there now, and the recurve kit is sitting right next to me. I'm just waiting for the tach to arrive and hopefully by next weekend we can tune it properly.. Next time there'll be the wider smaller tires, no junk and girlfriend in the car, a new airfilter, with the lid up side down.. I'm aiming for a second better than the 18.43 it's got now, anything better than that will be all bonus. :TU:
the bone stock 46k Mile Sky I had (350-2 / 3.23 gear) ran 16.4 like clockwork - so much so it was a great bracket car. One year at E-town I made it to the Semi Finals going 7 or 8 rounds ... I put alot of fast cars on the trailer that day
Kimson, From the 4 reaction times you posted only one was'nt a Red Light [left early] disqualified, lost!!! Unless your running a pro lite .400, anything under a .500 is a REDLIGHT I.E. instant lost. I don't know about any video games your playing, BUT, there's nothing like the Real thing. You can practice all day with a hand held game,but come real time in a car at the race track,you'll soon be made aware of the difference :Smarty:
This is news to me. As far as I can tell, when you start leaving after 1.000, the fourth digit in your ET is effected. So I say a 17.05 can be reduced to a 16.99. Haven't youns ever seen someone sleep at the light or get distracted for a second and their car turn a worse ET? I'm pretty sure I'm right on this.
I don't get this, .500 is 0 unless you have a pro lite which is .400. So when the lights start ticking, when you're racing, you want a .500 gap in there between green and go? Or is it the time between third yellow, and green. Third yellow being 0 and green .500 = 0 and go? Is a time of .200 a .200 + third yellow meaning you're lacking .300 till green?
