seeking advice on how to road race

[deezdad]

Looking to do a little screwing around with my 87-T on the road this spring...pick and accept races from the mustangs and rice and other performance cars on the road, but have some questions... When lined up at a light what do you do to pre-pare to launch? do you let it idle and just hammer it at green or do you hold the brakes and build boost, if so how much? i do have a boost guage and a scanmaster. when do you start building? my car has the aftermarket gnx suspension that kirban and his buddy did, with firehawk tires on 16" rims. do you go full throttle or do you base it on scanmaster knock retard? at what knock retard should you back off if any? i use 93 octane. I live in northern rhode island and lately have been cruising around burning gas looking for action but none! any particular way to let people know your looking for action or does it just happen? at highway speeds it seems when i give it throttle it shows knock instantly, is this normal? very irritating to have to back off because i don't want to blow the engine. car has the rjc power plate, duttweiller i.c. neck and stock air box with k&n stock replacement filter in it with a ram air snorkell built into the air dam leading to the air box. has the 13" baer brake set-up on the fronts so i can stop safely too. any tips on how to road race and not kill the car would be greatly appreciated...thanks

 

[XLR8]

First I want to state that I do not condone racing on the public streets - it is dangerous for you and to others.

With that said, you need to get a few issues with your car sorted out. In general, you do not want to see any knock retard. If I ever see more than 2* or the 2* stays for more than 1 frame on the SM I lift. What chip and how much boost are you running? I suggest you tune the car for maximum boost with no KR.

When launching, you need to leave with some boost - until the turbo spools, these are just big cars with small engines. How much boost you can leave with varies. You need to experiment to see how much boost you can leave with and not spin. If my street tires (Nitto drag radials) are warm I can leave with 5# of boost on the street. At the track ( on Hoosier QTPs) I launch with between 10# and 14# of boost depending on conditions.

 

[SITHV6]

Before anything...

I too do not advocate the street racing thing...BUT when you gotta...you gotta. lol. before anything, have you ever seen if you have a lazy rear end? didnt see if you already had a good rear drivetrain set up in your sig. a lot of TRs limited slip units when old become nothing more than a 1 tire frier when abused. my 86/87 TR limited slip cost me a few races out of the hole because no power was getting to the ground! then i got serious and got an auburn posi unit! do a check to see if youre getting BOTH tires to be spinning and not just ONE. if youre only getting 1 tire to grip...building boost wont do u any good. with good street drag radials, you can both build boost AND punch it from idle without worrying too much. some people have good success with only boosting a 3 pound launch. the key here is to know what YOUR TR likes. find out if you have both tires driving you or if your rear end is tired. not going to tell you to go out and find a deserted road or parking lot to do a burn out to see if you have a good limited slip...but hey, a good AT THE TRACK SMOKING BURN OUT WILL WORK TOO! just thought I'd share

 

[deezdad]

Originally posted by XLR8
First I want to state that I do not condone racing on the public streets - it is dangerous for you and to others.

With that said, you need to get a few issues with your car sorted out. In general, you do not want to see any knock retard. If I ever see more than 2* or the 2* stays for more than 1 frame on the SM I lift. What chip and how much boost are you running? I suggest you tune the car for maximum boost with no KR.

When launching, you need to leave with some boost - until the turbo spools, these are just big cars with small engines. How much boost you can leave with varies. You need to experiment to see how much boost you can leave with and not spin. If my street tires (Nitto drag radials) are warm I can leave with 5# of boost on the street. At the track ( on Hoosier QTPs) I launch with between 10# and 14# of boost depending on conditions.

Thanks...i didn't mean to come off as a delinquent out to mow people down, its not like that, just want to be ready for when the situation and conditions are right. the knock retard is generally 0.0 when accelarating hard from a stop but it gets up there when im at cruising speeds and then nail it. not sure the name of the chip but i know it's for 93 octane and 36# injectors. how do i find out how much boost i'm running? experimented a bit last night on a back road from a stop held the brakes and built boost tirs seemed to start to break loose coming out of vacuum on the guage and just into boost. maybe i should break harder?

 

[XLR8]

If you don't have an aftermarket boost gauge - you need to install one - you can probably do it for around $50. You need to find out how much boost you are running and get rid of the KR before you pop a head gasket - or worse.

If your tires are spinning when you are not even into boost, it's possible that your rear brakes need to be replaced or at least bled and adjusted. I have stock rear brakes replaced about 25,000 miles ago and can hold up to 14# on a prepped track.

When I bring the car up on boost at the track, I push on the brake pedal until I look like this



And I'm just yanking your chain a little about street racing.

 

[deezdad]

Re: Before anything...

Originally posted by SITHV6
I too do not advocate the street racing thing...BUT when you gotta...you gotta. lol. before anything, have you ever seen if you have a lazy rear end? didnt see if you already had a good rear drivetrain set up in your sig. a lot of TRs limited slip units when old become nothing more than a 1 tire frier when abused. my 86/87 TR limited slip cost me a few races out of the hole because no power was getting to the ground! then i got serious and got an auburn posi unit! do a check to see if youre getting BOTH tires to be spinning and not just ONE. if youre only getting 1 tire to grip...building boost wont do u any good. with good street drag radials, you can both build boost AND punch it from idle without worrying too much. some people have good success with only boosting a 3 pound launch. the key here is to know what YOUR TR likes. find out if you have both tires driving you or if your rear end is tired. not going to tell you to go out and find a deserted road or parking lot to do a burn out to see if you have a good limited slip...but hey, a good AT THE TRACK SMOKING BURN OUT WILL WORK TOO! just thought I'd share

thanks to you also and relax with the disclaimer/public service announcement...not out to kill no-one just turbo regal dumb. my car came from gm without a posi, an auburn is in now...with the gnx suspension, auburn posi, everysingle bushing and brace, new springs and bilsteins on 16" wheels traction isn;t an issue (for what im looking to do)...as stated in previous post i just need some tips on how to race it,the basics, last night i tried to build boost to launch boost gauge got just out of vacuum and into boost when the back tires broke loose, should i hold the brakes harder? would rather ask these dumb questions than brake the car...when you do launch do you maintain pedal position or get going then nail it? thanks for the feed-back

 

[deezdad]

ok now were getting somewhere with the break pedal pressure description, i wouldve done that but i was askeered id snap something...as stated i do have a boost gauge but i have no idea how to answere how much boost im running...how do i find that out?? do i take it on the highway and floor it and see were the gauge goes to?? thanks

 

[XLR8]

Yep. Look at the boost gauge when floored in 2nd gear. Also keep an eye on you scanmaster - if you get KR, lift and lower the boost and retest. Ideally you want to run as much boost as possible w/o KR. Also keep in mind KR can be caused by the car running lean so also look at the O2 readings on the scanmaster and keep them around 800 - 820 for pump gas on the street while at wide open throttle.

 

[deezdad]

awesome,...thanks!