1st time at the track with slicks...

[SebringLX]

I ran with a slicks for the first time today... Burnouts were a lot of fun, but the slicks are just too much tire for me right now... I actually ran SLOWER with the slicks than I do on street tires. Consistent 14.46's with a 14.39 thrown in there @ 98mph during the time trials. Won round 1 of the double brackets, got eliminated in round 2. Put my street tires back on to drive home... a lot of people wanted to see me run again, and someone actually asked the tower if I could do another time trial while they were waiting on the rest of the double bracket racers to line up. I ran a 14.0 @ 101mph on the street tires.

I couldn't get better than a 2.4 60' with the slicks, run the street tires once, and I get a 2.249 60'.

Still had a lot of fun though. One guy showed up with his '08 Avenger R/T (V6 AWD) 'cause he was working and didn't have time to get his '73 Challenger ready. I ran him heads up on a time trial, beat him by a dozen lengths, lol. 14.4 @ 98 to his 17.1 @ 65. Then I talked a '99 Cobra into running me heads up since we had really close times. I just barely beat him... 14.460 to 14.465 , that was probably the most fun race of the day. Should have switched to my street tires earlier, would have had him by at least .4 .

On the bracket run that I got eliminated on, the announcer said "Here we have our only FWD car again... pulling into the water box backwards for a burnout... but boy what a burnout this car does, that is one fast Sebring Sedan!". I ran a 14.467 on my 14.39 dial in, the 80's Camaro in the other lane ran a 13.71 on his 13.66 dial in.

So I won't be running the slicks again until I can put down more power. I wish I had the money for a smaller set of slicks, or some drag radials, those would probably be perfect. The street tires are not enough traction, and the 26" slicks are just too much traction.

[Anonymous_User]

Wow. 26" slicks do seem like a lot of tire for your car. I would imagine with shorter slicks, 2.0 60 foots would be possible, or better!!!

[2.216VTurbo]

Hmm, so what happens with the slicks? Does it 'catch' and bog? Combat that with more launch RPM 251 ought to be enough to improve with sticky slicks...

[Ondonti]

I would guess your torque converter isnt loose enough to take advantage of the slicks. You bog.

On street tires you get a little spin which makes up for your tight converter.

[SebringLX]

It's a 3500rpm stall... but in 1st gear it's hard to keep it from moving forward with just holding my foot on the brake when I have the slicks on... I tried to bring my RPMs up as high as I could to launch, but it kept lurching forward and I was afraid of red lighting so I'd back down a little.

I was afraid to launch in 2nd with slicks... my transmission guy already told me I shouldn't be launching in 2nd when I told him I did that on my street tires, lol.

[moparzrule]

23'' slicks are for you. Besides, the smaller tire helps keep you in higher RPM's which is better for 16v.

[Ondonti]

I would do a bit more practice holding the car in place. You need to be able to get the brakes clamped down before you lose vacuum assist.

If you haven't gotten a decent launch then its going to hurt your entire track performance.

If you ditch those slicks then i miiiiiight be interested in them.

[turbovanman²]

Very cool,

Slicks take practice but without them, I can't even launch my van anymore. I did one run the other night with street tires and cut a 2.4 easing out of the hole, put my slicks on, 1.9,

What rpm and boost are you brake torquing at the line?

[t3rse]

23'' slicks are for you. Besides, the smaller tire helps keep you in higher RPM's which is better for 16v.

and once again...so says the guy who has never had a 16v...

have you ever run your car at the strip? i recall you saying you on played on the street....

[moparzrule]

and once again...so says the guy who has never had a 16v...

have you ever run your car at the strip? i recall you saying you on played on the street....

Umm it's kinda common knowledge that 16v's like higher RPM's.

Yes I have. Not sure where you get your info from.


Do you have a problem with me or something that you keep following my posts trying to bash me? I am unaware if I did anything to you to piss you off so I dunno what this is all about.

[t3rse]

so this mean that you have owned a 16v, or that you have run your car on the strip?

here we go with the "common knowledge" crap again....

I don't follow you around. I just get tired of reading "you should do this because I say so and I am credible because I work with TU" crap. I have let a lot of retarded crap you've said slide....

[turbovanman²]

16 valves also have a ton of midrange, its unreal. My last run shows how much and how hard its coming out of the hole, enough to do low 13's at 96 mph. It likes to rev but also makes alot of power down low.

[moparzrule]

I've run both my TD's at the strip. 12.89@111 Daytona, and my shadow I just took down for fun on street tires, only managed a 2.7 60ft time (2.5L in a shadow is hard to get traction on pretty much bald dry rotted street tires LOL) so I ran a 15.08 at 107.44 MPH.

Nothing has changed since I started working for TU, my posts are all the same before and now.

[Turbulence]

[QUOTE=SebringLX;330983]It's a 3500rpm stall... but in 1st gear it's hard to keep it from moving forward with just holding my foot on the brake when I have the slicks on... I tried to bring my RPMs up as high as I could to launch, but it kept lurching forward and I was afraid of red lighting so I'd back down a little.
QUOTE]

I had the same problem with my old van. Build boost on the brakes and it would lurch forward. What helped was to build some vacuum before staging (after the burnout) by putting it in neutral and revving it a few times.

Martin
89 Horizon
94 sundance

[SebringLX]

I was thinking of going down to a 24.5x8x15 instead of the 26x8.5x15 I have now... that way I can still use the same tubes I already have. One thing at a time though... the slicks I have now may be just fine when I get a new fuel pump on here and can up the boost to 26psi. The cost of buying another set of slicks is pretty close to the cost of upgrading my fuel system... so fuel system comes first.

[moparzrule]

the slicks I have now may be just fine when I get a new fuel pump on here and can up the boost to 26psi.

I don't see how thats going to help you. You said your issues were off the line, so as long as you have the same tight converter you aren't going to be making any more boost than you were before for the first 60 feet.

[Anonymous_User]

Have you considered dual line lok solenoids? One on the front and one on the back. Once you stage, bring up the brake pressure by mashing the pedal, hit the line-lok switch, then build boost. Dump the switch to launch.

[Ondonti]

or just have a large vacuum canister with a 1 way check valve. That should get you going in the right direction on your launches. Almost a free fix.

[Ondonti]

16 valves also have a ton of midrange, its unreal. My last run shows how much and how hard its coming out of the hole, enough to do low 13's at 96 mph. It likes to rev but also makes alot of power down low.

Yeah, unless someone is looking at a dyno chart of the actual car and making observations from that....the assumption that all you can use is your top end doesn't fly.

At the same time its also good to maximize the usefulness of your gears. When you dont quite know your future power levels its hard to choose the perfect gearing though, and nobody wants to buy multiple sets of slicks for one car.

[Captain Chaos]

I was thinking of going down to a 24.5x8x15 instead of the 26x8.5x15 I have now... that way I can still use the same tubes I already have. One thing at a time though... the slicks I have now may be just fine when I get a new fuel pump on here and can up the boost to 26psi. The cost of buying another set of slicks is pretty close to the cost of upgrading my fuel system... so fuel system comes first.

I too think a shorter tire will help you out. Tubes aren't necessary and many people run without them. I've never used a tube on my slicks, preference I guess. Also you maight want to try not bringing the car all the way up on the converter. I used to get better 60' when I would stall it around 1000 RPM and let it flash the rest. I usually got a couple hundred more RPM's out of my converter that way. That car is cool in so many ways though.