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1st time at the track, SUCKED!!!

19K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  UnknownAlly 
#1 ·
We went to the track his first time w/ an AWD and his quarter mile time was around high 15's. He said the AWD and nittos gripped so freaking WELL that it bogged down the whole car and even though he had a good reaction time, he ended up getting some lower than expected times. What can he do? He felt bad that I even beat him!!! FYI, I drive an 03 Z and he thought he'd at least come close to neck to neck. Turns out, my quarter mile was a whole second lower.. He ended up launching the car around 4K and it was STILL bogged down!!! Sounds right? Wrong?
 
#3 · (Edited)
He needs to read this:

"There are two things you need to accomplish to get a good launch in the wrx.
You need to launch under some boost,
and you need to control the load on the engine so it stays near max torque rpm for the first few feet without banging the clutch and shock loading the drive train.

There are several variations on the theme and each person will discribe it slightly differently but you want to engage the clutch quickly and smoothly so it slips just a bit with out just side stepping the clutch, or frying the clutch by holding it at partial engagement. The newer 2003 cars have a flow limit valve in the clutch line so you cannot just let up on the clutch and break things. It slows down the engagement just a bit. On the 2002's you'll have to do that yourself.

One of the top WRX drag racers in the country describes the technique where you stage, and then let the clutch out a bit until you can tell it is just ready to engage (the friction point) is just a fraction of an inch away.

Hold at a moderate fast rpm (everyone picks a slightly different number) I use about 3000 3500 rpm.

Now comes the key to launching under boost.

You can only build boost under no load conditions when the engine is accelerating at WOT .

Just as the second yellow comes on, stomp the throttle to the floor from your stage rpm, the engine will take about a second to rev to red line. There is only .500 seconds between each of the yellow lights.

Watch the tach and as the rpm swings by 5000-5500 rpm let up on the clutch quickly.
(you can't wait for the green light you have to start leaving on the last yellow)

Since you prepositioned the clutch right at the friction point there will be very little clutch motion, or shock, your engine will be very close to 5500 rpm when the clutch engages and under some boost because you floored the throttle a fraction of a second earlier. If you get all that coordinated you should have enough torque and energy stored in the flywheel so the engine does not bog.

Hang on !!! you will be accelerating at over 1 G and hit red line in low in about 1.5 seconds.
Be ready to shift !!!!!
The biggest time loss that keeps folks at 2.x seconds is a slow shift, you have to shift quickly to get back under power in second gear before you complete the first 60'.

Shift quickly and firmly but NOT VIOLENTLY !!! your not trying to break anything just be quick.


I tell folks to hold the shifter in their fingers not to grab it like a club, this gives you more feel and makes you less inclined to try to rip the shift knob off the console.


If you get it right its quite a ride."



I did not create this, it is pulled from another website, but it's a very good how to on launching a WRX. Enjoy.
 
#4 ·
this technique works on cars other than the wrx also. my friend with an 02 wrx used it against a Stage 2 Roush Mustang and took it until 4th gear, but he lugged it a little, he executed it flawlessly against an 02-04 rsx type S and left it in the dust the whole time. So i saw how he balanced the clutch with the throttle so it was almost engaged and roled forward a little and then dropped it, so i told my brother to try it out in his Nissan Altima, but he added another aspect, he balanced the e-brake with the gas/clutch so it was revved high and wanting to go, and then drop the e-brake and it chirped and then took off! with the usual style of just 3-4k clutch drop it get's wheelspin until 30ish mph... so it does work on other cars also !Thumbs Up
 
#7 ·
Actually with that type of launching your burning your clutch more than anything. Not sayig it isnt bad for the tranny, but your not sending all the power dircetly to the gears like you would when you drop the cluctch from 6k RPMs.
 
#8 ·
thats what i meant, most people think with an awd you can just rev it up to redline and then dump the clutch. Thats what i mean by saying b4 they smash their tranny. Needa learn how to do it without hurting ## tranny so much b4 you do 6k dumps and break ## gears or something!
That's 1 reason why I wanted to get into wrx's was because i thought you could just drop the clutch and launch really fast, but i learned you cant, but that's not guna stop me from the wrx anyway !Thumbs Up
 
#9 ·
great post longshot. All you newbies out there, make sure you hit the REP button when somebody posts good stuff like that and give them some credit.

I would caution though that launching takes practice and you won't get it right very often at the start and messing up a launch breaks clutches amazingly quickly and trannys often follow. I strongly caution anyone reading that to "not try this at home" unless you are mature about what you're doing and, well,

"Take it like a man when you grenade your tranny in front of all your friends and pony up to fix it. You gotta pay to play."
 
#22 ·
gah fine, I'll pull out the math stick

You need the gear ratios and the final drive ratio and you can take any rpm in one gear and find out what speed that would be and then use that speed to find the rpm in the next gear.

However, I find this kind of silly because if you drive the car for a few minutes you'll quickly learn the points relative to your driving style which is much more valuable. Analyzing the gear ratios doesn't really account for the slow down of the car between shifts or the clutch buffer. Basically, my answer is memorization because you learn by feel as much as anything else what is smoothest and then you do that.
 
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