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Had a friend from the forum e-mail me yesterday and I typed all this crap up. This is what I learned this year, maybe it might help a few others. It was two sperate replies so I kinda repeat myself in the second half. I've been draggin for about 3 years and have 98 timeslips that I've saved. 90 of those slips are 13+ second runs. With drag radials and traction control I still battled to get better then a 12.9 until I learned to speed shift, now 12.6 and below aren't that hard to hit. Just put your right foot down and do not let off unless the car gets sideways. With drag radials and a good launch your tires will not spin and you'll be able to stay on the gas the whole time, in-between shifts especially! I run BFG 255/50/16 on my stock rear rims. I also put on my stock front wheels as well and run 48-50 psi in them, less rolling resistance and less weight. I'm not sure how much the fronts help but I have not tried running with the tracers on front since I started speed shifting. I don't notice the traction control kicking in since I put the BFG's on the rear, they hook up good enough to keep the car moving with just a little wheel spin in first gear. I do use the launch control and it is a wonderful thing. I still ran crappy times with it before I started speed shifting but it makes you a little less nervous and less things to worry about when staging. I usually set mine to bounce between 4200rpm low cut to 4450 high cut. When I hit the launch button I floor the gas and the rpm bounces between the low and high cut creating about 3-4psi sitting still. You don't have to monitor your rpm's off the line, just watch the tree and keep your foot all the way in the throttle. I believe JWT can program a launch control into your ECU, its just a revlimiter and you need a way to switch it on and off. So to sum things up, with traction control/launch control and drag radials I pumped out 13.4 second runs all the time and was thrilled to hit a 13.1. I just thought Z's sucked for drag racing. One month ago a friend told me "drive it like you stole it, keep your foot on the gas at all times and just throw gears as fast as you can." The first time I tried it I ran a 12.6@111 beating my previous best of 12.97@107. Since then I've hit 12.47@112.7 twice with the same mods as before, just getting a little quicker at shifting and keeping my foot on the gas at all times. Reading you say you let off the gas between shifts and running 18's explains your times. You have to get some drag radials or you will go nowhere! You need to try speed shifting, I was totally afraid of doing it until I finally tried. I had the same worry that I would either burn the clutch or spin out dropping the clutch at 7k rmp's at full speed. Just try it. Plant your foot and keep it there, its not as bad as you think! Maybe turn the boost down at first and get some 12 sec runs in, then start bringing it up to see how much you can add. I drop the clutch, no feather. Keeps it constant I guess.. I launch under 4500rpm and just let go of the clutch as soon as I see the last orange light. I would suggest some sort of launch control/rev limiter as well. I don't swear by it and I still run average 60' times but its nice to be able to just hold the throttle wide open off the line and keep it there the whole run. I guess its one less thing you have to worry about while running, just leave that foot planted to the floor!! So lets refresh, put your foot down, leave it there, do not let up, and slam gears! :) One other thing that helped back this up was watching Shazad and Brian run 13.0 and 13.1 at stage II on street tires. Brian had an intake and ECU and pulled the 13.1@105, Shazad was running stock boost (no ecu) but full exhaust/intake/pulley and pulled a 13.0@111, both were speed shifting. Later,
John
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