Okay, I finally hit the track. New England Dragway has racing Wednesday nights (and Fri/Sat) so I made it up there last night for the first time. Realizing that I would have bad times due to my total amatuer status, I wanted as much of an advantage as I could...So I stripped down the inside of my car! Here is an Imagestation album of what my ride looked like, and pic of my slips at the end of it:
dvcooke's first track night (click here)
A list of things I removed:
Back seat
Trunk carpetting
Spare tire cover
Front Passenger Seat
Trunk rear interior wall
Glove box
Ashtray
Cig lighter
Glove Box
Sun Visors
All floor mats (except driver)
I left in my stereo because it was a long traffic filled drive. Next time, I might take out more than I did this time. I also did a couple other things, like turn my interior fan onto 1 and then slide it over to hot to let some of the heat out of the engine bay. And turn off all other electrical devices (head lights, radar detector, stereo, etc...). And dropped my tire pressure down to 25-ish (but I don't believe that did any good)
I think that my biggest problem (besides my reaction time) was my horrible horrible tires. I'm rolling on XGT-V4's which I had burning out on each run that I took by launching at about 3500...I had two runs where I did a rolling burnout going into second. And one where I bounced off my second gear rev limiter...I was amazed at how riding on the track got my blood going and kept my attention away from the tach. The first two runs, I think I shifted by sound alone...
Okay, okay...enough rambling...My best time was a 15.179 and my best R/T was a .946. I only lost my last race which was against a TSI, and I beat a Prelude, El Camino (w/ 350 block), a Sierra truck, and a Mazda 626. I'll definitely be going back!
dvcooke's first track night (click here)
A list of things I removed:
Back seat
Trunk carpetting
Spare tire cover
Front Passenger Seat
Trunk rear interior wall
Glove box
Ashtray
Cig lighter
Glove Box
Sun Visors
All floor mats (except driver)
I left in my stereo because it was a long traffic filled drive. Next time, I might take out more than I did this time. I also did a couple other things, like turn my interior fan onto 1 and then slide it over to hot to let some of the heat out of the engine bay. And turn off all other electrical devices (head lights, radar detector, stereo, etc...). And dropped my tire pressure down to 25-ish (but I don't believe that did any good)
I think that my biggest problem (besides my reaction time) was my horrible horrible tires. I'm rolling on XGT-V4's which I had burning out on each run that I took by launching at about 3500...I had two runs where I did a rolling burnout going into second. And one where I bounced off my second gear rev limiter...I was amazed at how riding on the track got my blood going and kept my attention away from the tach. The first two runs, I think I shifted by sound alone...
Okay, okay...enough rambling...My best time was a 15.179 and my best R/T was a .946. I only lost my last race which was against a TSI, and I beat a Prelude, El Camino (w/ 350 block), a Sierra truck, and a Mazda 626. I'll definitely be going back!