I was wondering what the 1/4 mile drag and santa pod stuff is all about?

I know it is very popular but I've never watched (apart from a few youtube clips) it and never taken part in it. I enjoy a good dash from the lights but don't really understand the appeal yet

I'm certainly not against it or knocking it - I just wanted to know what the challenge is and where the rush comes from?

I have the following questions:

1) Do you race against yourself, setting the fastest times in each sector or race the bloke next to you in a knockout style event?

2) Once you set a time, is it then all about going away, turboing your ride to buggery and improving on the times before the next event?

3) Am I missing something and what is the best way to get into it???

4) If you turn up in a factory original spec car, do people laugh at you for being a tw*t?

I only ask because I've always been into circuit racing and trackdays so have never really been exposed to drag strips.

thanks for the advice!

 

ok 1/4 mile drag racing is about you and the clock. from a standing start you race up the track breaking various beams to give you the various times on your timing slip. for drag racing most people are interested in

60 ft time, 1/8 mile time, 1/8 mile speed, 1/4 mile time and 1/4 mile speed. santa pod will give you various other but these are the main ones.

Yes its about improving your times, but this can be more difficult to achive than you think and involves more or less money depending on how fast you want to go. Movies like "The Fast and the Furious" trivialise "the 10 second car" i.e running up the track between 10 and 11 seconds to something that is common place when in reality the 10 second cars are really something special and very very fast.

You don't need to have a fast car to have fun. you can enter in a lot of "Run What You Brung" competitions. they also have what is called bracket racing. you have a rough idea of what time your car will do in a 1/4 mile and you race in a particular "bracket" i.e 12.5 - 13.5 seconds. that way if you get close to your best time (12.5) then you win your class. this sort of levels the playing field a wee bit and ensures all power level of cars can win a prize.

People will not laugh at a standard car going up the track. if they do then remember it's you that is racing, they are only spectating and would love to be doing what you are doing. If you get a whole squad of you down to the likes of Sheakspeare Country Raceway or Santa Pod, they have on site camp facilities, you can make a weekend of it with your mates. they have similar interests, crack a few bears and get the barbie on after racing finishes for the day. some of my best weekends away have been racing my car with a load of mates doing the same.

Having said that it is very very addictive. A lot of guys try drag racing, thinking their car is a rocket ship and then wonder why a 1.3 starlett turbo blows the doors clean off them up the strip. it's only then you realise how slow your car is and the amount of money some of these guys pour into their cars. Rich guys come down with their exotica only to find their cars are in actuality very slow and can sometime be very annoyed when they see a £8000 subaru make their £120K Merc AMG look like it was going backwards.

So fill your boots mate. get a helmet, wear a long sleve shirt, pay your entry fee and drag away to your hearts content.

 

Great write up, dont mention the long wait to get up the damn thing though!

 

I think the best thing about it is that it's cheap (if all goes well that is)

Track days are what? £100? Have noise limits etc, more wear on tyres brakes? Although the pod could snap your gearbox

 

I find drag racing very boring tbh

Once you've done 2/3 runs the day your there, nothing different is going to happen if you do it the 3rd, 4th, 5th time and so on

Now the handling/drifting circuit, thats what you call fun

 

I find drag racing very boring tbh

Once you've done 2/3 runs the day your there, nothing different is going to happen if you do it the 3rd, 4th, 5th time and so on

Now the handling/drifting circuit, thats what you call fun

 

I disagree, you can get faster, launch at different revs, change gear at different rev points. Once you've done 2 or 3 runs, you're not going the fastest you can go, you still have plenty to give!

 

Ye maybe 0.2/0.3 of a sec faster, 0.05/0.1 on 0-60 feet and a couple of mph over the line, hardly anything to get excited about now is it ?

If you can drive your car you wont see any significant change no matter how long/hard you try

Obviously must entertain some people but if I'm going to be putting my car under that much stress I would much prefer to be doing it while testing my skills to the limit aswell

Any monkey can drive in a straight line

 

i used to think that before i went to a couple of events this year and its certainly not as easy as you think. you have to launch it exactly right and hit every gear change spot on to even get a half decent time, it still takes a lot more skill than you think.

 

i beg to differ. trying to get consistant 60ft times, no fluffed gear changes, changing at optimum revs, changing spring and damper rates for better traction off the line, short shifting, full throttle gear changes, using race fuel, methanol, water injection, nitrous, shifting the bias on the diff lock, using drag radials, using semi slicks, using road tyres, using launch control, anticipating the green light, better reaction times. and i won't even go into changing the map in the ecu as a result of datalogging your previous runs

it may be easy to drive in a straight line, but its not as easy to drive in a straight line consistantly fast. there are so many variables in drag racing some people have made it into an art. driving a big HP car is actually quite difficult to do consistantly well.

but as you say whatever floats your boat.

 

yes Doc you are right, waiting an hour or more between each run is very frustrating and on a warm day is a killer for the car.

 

Its not like a was making this up as I go along, I'm speaking from experience aswell

You just took that too far

I agree with you there if your into/can do all the stuff above

I was speaking from the point of view that you drive your car up and run it the way you brought it, I'd love to have the know how to do all of the above but unfortunatley I dont

You seem like your right into it

 

Agreed

1/4 mile just doesn't do it for me, enless you have a stupidly quick car

 

..... or around a corner (but maybe not without crashing).

It's about improving your time - similar to a circuit; you'd be a bit pi**ed off if your lap time was slower than the last time you ran.

 

Ya think

 

Ye any monkey can drive round the corner, but can they drift and then catch it and have the car lined up for the next drift ? I think not

Even the worst driver at the drag on any day can be maybe 1-2 seconds at the most slower than the best (if they used the same car) but if you put the worst driver on the handling/drift circuit its going to end in tears

 

Out of interest, what do you run your DCCD on when dragging ?

 

with standard cars then yes I agree it can get a bit mudane after a while as no matter what you do your not going to significantly better your time and pretty much perfect runs get you the same time and terminals.

point in fact at Jurby airfield in IOM we ran a bog standard uk spec 265hp bugeye sti. about 30 runs, all manner of launches(no mechanical sympathy in some of them), gearchanges, seats in, seats out, messed with tyre inflation etc and the best we could do is approx 13.9 - 14.0 second 1/4 with terminal that would just not go over 100mph. I can tell you we tried but we could never get the magical 100mph.

Consistant- hell yes. exciting - erm....NO

 

Stef,

Oddly enough i dont actually run DCCD in my 6 speed box. My great launches are down to my skills as a driving god

 

1/4 mile is not my cup of tea but this is amazing tread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...=Redvictor%203

 

you would think so and youd be well wrong


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX9QcqDLNsk

thats my mate robert I also race pro mod and this year iv been into the wall twice,

.2 or .3 of a second
Ill give you a clue my car is 0.27 of a second slower than the fastest pro mod race car in the world, id kill for . 3 of a second et gain,

6.07 v 5.80

.05 to .1 in the 60 ft
well the .05 off my best 60ft time of 0.97 would give me a best of .0.92 ...no one in the europe has ever gone that quick at 60 ft in a pro mod car, 0.1 of a sec would give me an 0.87 60 ft time no one in the world with a doorslammer (purpous built drag race car with working doors ie pro mod or pro stock) a car with doors ever ran a 0.8x 60 ft time and i include americans who exell at this sport

trust me this **** isnt easy and its as addictive as hell

 

If you had 0.2 sec over an M3 his nose would be well out of joint

 

Thanks for the insight into the 1/4 mile - some great advice and opinions. First reply from Bigsinky was just the sort of thing I was after - thanks.

As said, FATF films have obviously given the impression that any old supra or golf jetta can become a 10 second car - this is obviously the holy grail?

I think I'd like to give it a go, when you pay your dosh is it an 'open pit lane' type day where you just queue up and go as much as you like. How long are the waits normally?

I guess it eventually comes down to preference. Some guys like rally, some track, some 1/4 mile etc.

Roughly what sort of times would you expect from a standard GB270 on the strip driven reasonably well?

 

No problem hope it sheds a bit more light on the subject for you.

It sort of is for a "road" car. Competitions like Ten of the Best started out like this, wanting to find the fastest road car in the country. These cars had to be taxed, insured and MOT'd and pump gas was preferred. Every year this slowly deteriorated into a competition of who could spend the most money with some of the cars no more than a bodyshell with no dash, slick drag tyres, using exotic fuels. there was no way on God's green earth were anyof them road legal and as for passing MOT, don't make me laugh.

BUT...... this is what people want to see. they dont want to see a bog standard subaru do 14 second 1/4 miles, so the organisers turn a blind eye to these things. gone are the day when people tune their road car to a reasonable standard, drive it to the competition, race all day on pump fuel and drive it home again. This may sound like sour grapes on my part but i think competitions like TOTB and Scooby Shootout have lost their way a bit.

Having been involved in drag racing/hill climbs for the last 9 years, i have recognised there will ALWAYS be someone with more money than you.

normally yes its queue up and take your turn. race up the track and come round again. Santa Pod RWYB days and special weekends like Japfest or Ultimate Street Car tend to have very long waits between runs. Straightliners events tend to be not as busy. There are numerous drag tracks around the country but Santa Pos is the only NHRA sanctioned track AFAIK. try Shakespeare County Raceway, York Raceway, Crail, Elvington.

Yep it does.

See my previous post about a bog standard car. Roughly 14 second 1/4 mile with a terminal of about 100mph. this is based on a 265hp car. If you want to see what sort of power your car will need to do certain times go to

Lets Torque BHP Calculator

Weight for your car is about 1450KG without driver and 4 wheel drive obviously. its pretty accurate for most cars but can vary for big BHP cars.

 

I dont think you read what I replied to though

I was saying the above time improvements could be achieved with practise, when you compare it to the first few times you ever do it, if you were making no changes to the car.

0.97 to 60 feet is a hell of a time !

 

we see 2.9 g on the g meter,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5IPwUkkvZw

at 7:53 green car it looks like the other car beat me as he got a redlight if you look carefully (went too early)

ie badbird
that car is a 1970 plymouth superbird

Also scooby owner!!!

 

Stef,

What Badbird does in his pro mod car or door slammer is worlds away from a 10 second subaru. these guys are spend big amounts of money to chase thousandths of a second not just tenths of a second.