First Time GN to Track. Plan. Suggestions?

[SpeedRacerX]

Ok, tomorrow I'm taking the GN to Atco to finally see what she can do. I'm excited yet I know I'll have my hands full learning to launch her properly. The car is running great. I've been to Atco before several times with my G8 but this is my first time with the Grand National.

I will be floored and ecstatic if I run 11.999 or better. That is my goal. Supposedly, my combo, in my sig, should be able to accomplish this.

Here is my plan:

Front tires: 40#
Rear 255 MT ET Street SS: 15#
Run As-Is 22-23# of boost and then creep up to 25-28# of boost. 1/4 turn on the Hallman each run. Add Alky accordingly to keep knock in check.
1-2 gear Burnout to warm the tires although car likes to walk sideways. Hoping my HRparts bar helps with this.

Launching:

Get to the line in Drive, not OD and leave it alone
Stop and light up the 2nd yellow on the tree. Don't worry about reaction time and the tree or the other driver
Foot on brake and push the e-Brake
Left foot on brake, Right on Gas
Build boost to 10# or 15#
Once 10-15# achieved, at the same time, pull e-Brake release, foot off brake and mash the accelerator
Hold on and steer


Many of you are MUCH more experienced at this than I am so I really appreciate your input.

Any corrections you would suggest to the above?!?!

Thanks!

 

[Heskahoka]

Looks like a solid plan and very close to how I do it.
A couple of things:

• Put a sticky note on the dash with your procedure...that helped me keep it straight in my mind.
• Double pump your brakes to build up some pressure. Read that tip from Spoolfool and it helped me hold more boost.

Good luck.

 

[Gene Van Horn]

Make sure to test the alky, so it all ready to go when called upon. Good luck, report back results.

 

[ITSAV6]

You might want to start out with lower boost launch and creep higher.

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Wow. What a lesson I got yesterday. First, the weather was beautiful - sunny, little breeze, temps started out about 50 and rose to 70. Track was in good shape. DA ranged from 801 in the late morning to 460 in the late afternoon.

Run 1: 22-23#, e-brake launch at 10#, followed my plan to the "t" except I did not heat up my 1 year old MT ET Street SS's enough and so I spun about the first 1,000 feet with me trying to correct. 2.123 60-foot, 14.157@106.45. Needless to say, I almost quit there and drove home and considered selling the car or questioning my role as a man. LOL.

Run 2: this time I decided to forget about the e-brake launch and just nail the gas with 0 boost and get a baseline. 2.200 60-foot, 13.104@108.40. Ok, crappy but better. Time to master the e-brake launch and build some boost.

Run 3: Quarter turn of the Hallman since my O2s have been great and 0 knock. e-brake launch at about 10#. Better launch but please tell me I'm not the first person who left the e-brake on the entire time!?!? 1.809 60-foot, 13.050@104.12.

Run 4: Time to get serious and nail this launch. Another quarter turn of the Hallman too. Boost still reading about 23# though. This time I launched great and I could feel it. 1.655 60-foot, 12.297@108.51. Ok, now I feel like keeping the car. LOL.

Run 5: Another quarter turn of the Hallman. Still launching about 10#. 1.648 60-foot, 12.202@109.54.

Final Run 6: Open the dump and see what happens. 1.647 60-foot, 12.208@109.64.

Basically, looks like the dump added nothing. Also, a couple quarter turns of the Hallman seems to have done nothing. Car seems to never have made any more than 23# of boost all day with the TA-49. I was trying to run 25# but I was nervous about cranking it up.

I'm sure with more practice, I can see my goal of an 11.999. I might go back out on Black Friday all-day Test-n-Tune but I hear it is usually mobbed.

What do you guys think of my progress so far? Anything I could have done differently?

Thx!

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Looks like a solid plan and very close to how I do it.
A couple of things:

• Put a sticky note on the dash with your procedure...that helped me keep it straight in my mind.
• Double pump your brakes to build up some pressure. Read that tip from Spoolfool and it helped me hold more boost.

Good luck.

I had a piece of paper with me with my instructions that I kept reading. LOL. Once I made the first pass, then sh!* got serious.

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Make sure to test the alky, so it all ready to go when called upon. Good luck, report back results.

Absolutely, every time. In fact, before my last pass, it was NOT giving me the green light I needed so I almost left the line. So I waited for the burnout and got the green so I knew the Alky was ready.

 

[SpeedRacerX]

You might want to start out with lower boost launch and creep higher.

Thanks. Once I realized I needed to do a good 1 and 2 gear burnout, the tires were hooking fine at 10# launch.

 

[ITSAV6]

What stall do you have? I got my first 11 saturday! 93 pump and no alky. I was so stoked.

 

[TurboTGuy]

I would skip using the e brake and just double pump and mash the brakes at the line. I can't see how the e brake could ever apply any more pressure to the pads than the hydraulic system already will be.

And it's just one more thing not to have to think about or forget to release.............

Since I don't use it, I've never forgotten to release it but I did do a spectacular burnout in reverse once...........

 

[SpeedRacerX]

What stall do you have? I got my first 11 saturday! 93 pump and no alky. I was so stoked.

Still on stock stall. When/if the stock trans needs to be rebuilt, I'll bump up the stall.

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[SpeedRacerX]

I would skip using the e brake and just double pump and mash the brakes at the line. I can't see how the e brake could ever apply any more pressure to the pads than the hydraulic system already will be.

And it's just one more thing not to have to think about or forget to release.............

Since I don't use it, I've never forgotten to release it but I did do a spectacular burnout in reverse once...........

Thanks. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Funny story, no bs, I end up meeting another guy there with a white T-type who I've seen at Kirban's before. His car runs 10's. We decide to have some fun and line up on my 4th run. I end up beating him badly and I'm wondering wth happened. I talk to him on the return road and he tells me he also forgot to release his e-brake. Lol.
The next run, he destroyed me. I ran 12.2, he ran high 10s. Lol. Still fun lining up against another turbo regal.

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[Nigel]

What's the elevation there at Atco? Your stock converter will take you into the 11s. 60ft is pretty good, getting the A/F dialed between the alky and the gas takes some work. Are you running a power logger?

 

[rag231]

I got so hung up on the 1-2 burnout that I forgot to put it in DRIVE!!!!! Doh! , loud pop about halfway down the track. Torque converter was toast, sounded like a Maraca. Live and learn, I realized that my car responded well to the extra rpms and adjusted my shift points north a little.

 

[SpeedRacerX]

What's the elevation there at Atco? Your stock converter will take you into the 11s. 60ft is pretty good, getting the A/F dialed between the alky and the gas takes some work. Are you running a power logger?

I believe dragtimes lists Atco at 33 feet elevation!

Right now, I just have a scanmaster plus a bunch of gauges - oil pressure, water temp, small tach, boost and fuel pressure. I'm watching as much as I can but I do wish I had more "proactive" modern tech so I can be smarter about this.

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[Nigel]

Stay safe on the timing, work to find the best place with the fuel and alky, then work the boost, then tweak timing. Without a logger, will take slow experimentation with a lot of track time. Even with the logger, takes patience. 11s are totally doable with your combo assuming everything else is up to snuff.

 

[grey racer]

Some little tips I found...turn your side mirror down so you can see the water box and your rear tire burn out.....
Forget the e brake...more problems than you need....
I move the seat all the way forward and remove the floor mat so I'm sure to get 100% WOT
After the burn out, I pump my brakes a few times, and the brake pedal comes up and will hold more boost at the line.
15 lbs of air in the M/T's sounds a little low..I run 17#....The lower you go, the more drag. You may get the same launch with 18 to 20 #...
Your 60 ft is very good....so you're in the game for a run somewhere in the 11's....
There's also a lot of aftermarket stuff that will definitely improve your times....slic, pt converter, etc....
My car was running low 12's and I put a precision tc 2800 stall and and a slic and ran 11.6
Then, I got the speed bug and put the stroker motor in....have made 125 passes in the last 7 years and it still is more fun than I deserve...

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Some little tips I found...turn your side mirror down so you can see the water box and your rear tire burn out.....
Forget the e brake...more problems than you need....
I move the seat all the way forward and remove the floor mat so I'm sure to get 100% WOT
After the burn out, I pump my brakes a few times, and the brake pedal comes up and will hold more boost at the line.
15 lbs of air in the M/T's sounds a little low..I run 17#....The lower you go, the more drag. You may get the same launch with 18 to 20 #...
Your 60 ft is very good....so you're in the game for a run somewhere in the 11's....
There's also a lot of aftermarket stuff that will definitely improve your times....slic, pt converter, etc....
My car was running low 12's and I put a precision tc 2800 stall and and a slic and ran 11.6
Then, I got the speed bug and put the stroker motor in....have made 125 passes in the last 7 years and it still is more fun than I deserve...

Thanks. This is good stuff. It will be interesting to see how much boost the brakes can hold. I was not aware of the pumping trick. I'll go a little higher on the air too. It's like we need 100 runs to get these cars figured out. I already have a CAS v4 Stretched SLIC so hopefully that's helping. I do want to hit 11s before resorting to a converter.

My issue right now is the car wasn't making anymore than 22-23# of boost even if I made 1 or 1/4 turns of the Hallman Pro manual boost controller. I was told I should raise the boost to 25# or 28# and compensate with more alky. Maybe I'm not turning the boost controller up enough. Very weird that the boost isn't coming up.

 

[buddy]

Sorry if I missed it and i don't see a sig but can you tell me what mods are done to your car?

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Sorry if I missed it and i don't see a sig but can you tell me what mods are done to your car?

TA-49 Turbo, Billet Inlet Bell, FabWorx 3" TH style SS Downpipe, 3" SS Test Pipe w/Dump, Pypes Catback, CAS V4S SLIC, Hallman Boost Controller, AlkyControl Meth Kit, Updated TurboTweak Alky Chip, Eaton Posi, 255/60-15 MT ET Street SS, HR Parts Rear Sway & Rear Upper and Lower Control Arms, 42# Injectors, Fuel Pump, Hot Wire, Racetronix AFPR, Injector Harness, RJC Plate, 14" K&N, Metco Breathers, Valve Springs, 160 Thermo, Scanmaster, Bilsteins, Springs, Savitske Front Brace.