Street n Strip - First time to the Track..need some pointers.

Well guys, this Friday I will be taking my nearly stock civic 99 EX out to Martin 131 Motorsports Park to hit the strip. Me and 3 other guys are all bringing our cars out, and its a first time for all of us. Are there any things I need to keep an eye on while i'm out there (aside from the obvoius). Anything I can do to make sure i'll be able to drive my car home afterwards, haha.

I dont plan on taking a lot of runs down the track, as I only have basic mods right now, and the only real reason i'm taking it out, is to see what it can do NOW. Then as i add more stuff, i can take it out and have a basis for comparison. Any and all suggestions are MUCHO APPRECIADO!

a few things...if youre going to heat the tires up, dont do a john force burnout past the starting line. do a quick easy burnout to get the dirt and debris off the tires.

when you stage, dont pull all the way up to the tree...the lasers are WAY before it...if youve not raced before...when you get to the track, have a look at things on the track, just so you have an idea of what is what.

if martin wasnt so far away, i would make the trip too..im hoping to get out to milan with the boss' truck sometime soon.

here is a link to a sort of drag racing for dummies:
http://www.musclecarclub.com/library/race/drag-racing-tips.shtml#pre-race

it has some stuff that is just stupid, but some of the things are good points.

Awesome man thanks! I've done AutoX, and regular track day type stuff, just never been on a drag strip. I pretty much know the basics as far as where to line up and things like that from going out there to watch drags, so i should be ok in that department. Thanks for the tip on the burnout, i wasnt really sure about that.

Are there anythings as far as the car itself is concerned that i should/shouldnt do? I plan on taking out my spare tire, extra odds and ends etc.. I had considered getting the tranny flushed, yay or nay? Thanks up front for the input!

is it an auto or a stick? a tranny flush is a good preventative maint. item, but it wont make you faster unless you have trans problems. as for the burnout, i am guessing that if you are stock, youre going to be on regular street tires. when you pull into the water box, pull to the edge closest to the start line, or if youre in the middle of the water, make sure that the tires at least spin until youre out of the water. some people spin them in the water, then stop, and drive to the line, which means that when you stop spinning, and drive through the water, your tires are now Wet. anythign that you can take out liek the spare, the jack, so on, will help. that site i posted touches on just about EVERYTHING for a trip to the strip, and while some things seem really simple, youd be surprised. it does have some tips, and if you have time, its worth a once over. if you have any specific questions, let me know, ive made about 100-125 runs a year over the last 8 years...

Its a 5 speed 99 EX Coupe. I'm going to read that site you posted right now. Thanks again!

Hey Forty let us know how your track day goes!!!

Good Luck!

how was it?

Well.... it was fun. I had a good time even tho i ran like ****. Long story short, I NEED LOW END POWER...BAD!

Basically, no matter how good or crappy my start was, i couldnt break 80mph. I ran the following...

19.7 @ 80.2 (Horrible launch, thought i lost 1st gear)
18.6 @ 80.6 (Decent Launch, still slow as ****..)
17.1 @ 80.43 (Excellent R/T ".563" I beat a Ford Explorer in this race...wooppeee...)
17.7 @ 80.4 (****ty launch...)

So basically running on a drag strip is way different than i expected it to be. Although i had a really good time out there, I wish i would have gotten in a few more runs and had a little power to work with. But, i guess we all have to start somewhere...

hey, you took more then 2 1/2 seconds off you time.

Id pay like 10 grand to do that to my car

Good Job:D

ORIGINAL: LEVIII

hey, you took more then 2 1/2 seconds off you time.

Id pay like 10 grand to do that to my car

Good Job:D


Yeah, thats how i'm looking at it. I was REALLY hoping to dip into the 16's, but i need to get a header/high flow cat if i want that to happen. I was just happy to go out with a bunch of friends, roll in with a pack of cars, and just have a good time watching everyone tear down the track. The best kill of the night was my buddy's GTI slaying an older stingray corvette, that was awesome, people were goin nuts.

something to keep in mind "my reaction was good which is why my time was better " is a ricer myth. RT ends when ET begins...ive seen a turbo car being broken in sit for 15 or 20 seconds, and launch and still run great
for a stock car those times arent bad at all. how was your traction forty? did it spin or hop?

ORIGINAL: Patrick

something to keep in mind "my reaction was good which is why my time was better " is a ricer myth. RT ends when ET begins...ive seen a turbo car being broken in sit for 15 or 20 seconds, and launch and still run great
for a stock car those times arent bad at all. how was your traction forty? did it spin or hop?



Thanks man. Well, the first time down the strip, as i'm sure you can imagine i was a little nervous, and had the adrenaline flowing like crazy. So i got on it pretty hard and ended up wheel hopping so bad i had to lay off first gear, then get back into it and go. From there on out i seemed to do fairly well from the line. I probably could have started with a little higher RPM, but i was just trying to get the feel of the track. Stock street tires are definitely not the best thing for a drag strip, heh heh. I did good at the burnout thing tho. Just a little bit of spin to shoot the water off the tires. And once i was at the top of first, things were nice and smooth from there on out.

I will be investing in some new wheels/tires, a header, and a high-flow cat before i head out again. But i definitely had a blast and can't wait to start comparing numbers as i add parts.

I didnt know that about the R/T. I knew it was good to have a quick reaction, but i assumed that that was all factored into the overall time. Are you saying that the ET doesnt start untill you actually move?

right. there is 2 "lasers" that read where your tire is, and as you roll into the first one, it turns on the first staging light, then as you roll more, it turns on the second. if you stop as soon as you trip that second one, i mean within an inch, then you can usually launch one yellow earlier w/o redlighting, and you get a few extra inches of roll to gain a bit of speed before you roll out of the beams, so you kinda get a head start. and as soon as you get out of the beams, youre time starts. but in bracket racing, youre R/T is VERY important. you are basically racing to see how consistent you are, so you want to run as close to your dial-in without going below it (Breaking Out) and then they take the difference between your dial in and your ET, and add it to your R/T and whoever has the lowest difference wins.

no..not even that. When you pull up and stage, there are three beams. The first is pre stage, the second is stage, and the third is the ET beam. i cant find the exact measurements, but i believe it goes as follows..

from the prestage to the stage beam is 4.25 inches, and from the stage beam to the ET beam it 7.75 inches. it is something like that..i cannot find it in my IHRA rule book. when you unbreak the stage beam RT ends, and when you break the third beam, ET begins. so you could sit forever and still have a good time...RT only really matters when youre bracket racing...that is for you to worry about another day.
haha..i was too slow..basically what sacicons said...:)

theres three? i always only noticed two at Sac raceway. oh well, you are the drag racing athority here, so ill go along with you. but the principles still apply.

im a bit rusty on my "drag racing dynamics" but i believe that your RT ends when you unbreak the 2nd beam, and your ET begins when you break the third beam...this is why you can redlight if you roll backwards out of the beams too.

i thought RT ends when you roll out of the first, and ET starts when you roll out of the second.

I thought the ET started at the second light. That article that Patrick had me read, said that if i were to light the pre-stage light, and ONLY the pre-stage light, it would give me that head start sacs referred to. It would do this because of that extra 4-5 inches of roll between the first and second lights. Meaning that when the second beam broke,t he ET started. Thats what i got out of the article anyway. I didnt try it tho, was more worried about just getting through first without wheel hop.

you cant only pre-stage...you can deep stage, which means you only light the bottom bulbs, and in doing so, youre only in the second set of beams. I am currently frustrated at my inability to find a picture of the beam system

ORIGINAL: Patrick

you cant only pre-stage...you can deep stage, which means you only light the bottom bulbs, and in doing so, youre only in the second set of beams. I am currently frustrated at my inability to find a picture of the beam system


Are you positive on that? Because i read in that article that you could, and i've seen people do it. I always wondered why sometimes people only lit one of the lights, and i thought that article explained why, unless i just read it wrong.

i cant find that on that page, and i am pretty familiar with the drag strip, as this will be the first year since ive been old enough to drive that i wont make at least 100 passes down the track. they did say that if you barely get into the second beam, it will give you more acceleration time prior to your ET beginning since they dont start until youre through the beams. some people call it "tickling the staging bulbs"...youre so shallow into the second beam that the motion of your engine shakes the car enough to make the bottom bulbs blink...ive never done it in a FWD car, but in my RWD car that shakes pretty good, it happens alot...i do not deep stage, and i attempt to tickle the bottom bulb every time, for the more consistent that you are with staging, the more consistent you will be in your reaction time and launch techniques. hoenstly, im about 99.9% positive that you have to be staged, but you can roll through far enough where the prestage bulbs go out, which is a deep stage.

ORIGINAL: Patrick

i cant find that on that page, and i am pretty familiar with the drag strip, as this will be the first year since ive been old enough to drive that i wont make at least 100 passes down the track. they did say that if you barely get into the second beam, it will give you more acceleration time prior to your ET beginning since they dont start until youre through the beams. some people call it "tickling the staging bulbs"...youre so shallow into the second beam that the motion of your engine shakes the car enough to make the bottom bulbs blink...ive never done it in a FWD car, but in my RWD car that shakes pretty good, it happens alot...i do not deep stage, and i attempt to tickle the bottom bulb every time, for the more consistent that you are with staging, the more consistent you will be in your reaction time and launch techniques. hoenstly, im about 99.9% positive that you have to be staged, but you can roll through far enough where the prestage bulbs go out, which is a deep stage.


huh... thats weird, maybe it was just the fact that it was only a test n tune and they just didnt care. Cause i remeber seeing 4 or 5 guys rolling up and only lightin the first bulb.

Heh heh, one time to the track - 15 dollars
being a member of a forum where people are smart enough to teach you every single trick in the book... freakin priceless

one of the reasons that i havent been to the track much this year...back home, i could take my daily driver, and my trailer queen to test and tune, with my dad who drives the motor home that tows the race trailer, and i could run both cars for between 25-30 bucks....and that track was about an hour away or so....here, i have found two tracks..one is about a half hour away and requires that EVERY driver wears a helmet, no matter how slow the car is, and i dont have my helmet here, and the other track is almost two hours away. i also left my fast car back home, but that is aside from the point. the bigger problem other than the helmet? they want 35 bucks for me and my girlfriend to go, with ONE vehicle, and only one of us racing...which i think is a real load of crap...but il be seeing my parents in mid august at the mopar nationals, so theyre bringing my helmet then...but its stupid, none the less...michigan sucks.

yes, michigan does suck in every aspect of the word.. I've lived here my whole life... Martin is only 15 for me to race, and 10 for my girlfriend riding in the same car. So 25 bucks gets us in, and puts me on the track. No helmets required unless you run 13.99 or less, and they do test n tune Wednesday, Friday, and i think some Sundays. But i'm guessing thats the track that is two hours away from you, isnt it?

yeah..martin and milan are about equally as far for me...i might actually come to martin sometime...i know someone other than you in GR...my national series ran there last year, but i have engine troubles a few days before and coudlnt make it...

the stupid helmet thing really gets me...[:@]

ORIGINAL: Patrick

yeah..martin and milan are about equally as far for me...i might actually come to martin sometime...i know someone other than you in GR...my national series ran there last year, but i have engine troubles a few days before and coudlnt make it...

the stupid helmet thing really gets me...[:@]


no ****... well, just let me know if you head over and i'll try to get out there so we can "run 'em"!!! haha

i showed the guy who i know in GR the picture of your car, and he said that your pics are taken in his school parking lot? he has a black neon, lowered, with dark rims, tails, and an SRT wing.

and at least at my track, if youre going to stage deep, you ned to write "deep" on a window.

"deep" is required for elimination rounds, and ni my national series, they dont allow much pissing around so theyll burn you down if youre going deep without putting it on your windshield...

however, if you are just running TnT, and you accidentally go deep, they usually wont give you the time to back out.

ORIGINAL: Patrick

i showed the guy who i know in GR the picture of your car, and he said that your pics are taken in his school parking lot? he has a black neon, lowered, with dark rims, tails, and an SRT wing.


ugh, hes fibbin' Most of my pics are taken at old Industrial sites around GR and the ones with trees in the background are in a "ritzy" neighborhood by my house. What does he drive?

i ended that last post with what he drives...[8D]

i thought that he said that he recognized something in the picture...something in this picture had to do with his school...i thought that was what he said.

http://www.hondacivicforum.com/upfiles/2331/asppg_Ty649226016.jpg

Same pic as above, With highlights (http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=7/20711000059.jpg&s=x1)
Oh ok, well then theres a couple possibilities. The white circled one is part of the downtown campus to Grand Valley State University. The black circle (i think) is Community College, and it's parking garage. Either of those two places ring a bell?

Oh yeah, and i have NO idea how i missed you talking about his car... i'm an idiot

he goes to GVSU...

here is a picture of his car from the back.

local://upfiles/858/079B5D6B289C444B85D3C158CF088B65.jpg

yeah, i've seen that car around once or twice i think. Now you have to do me a favor and ask him where that pic was taken, cause i defintiely recognize the building in the bg

he said that it is some park near his crib, but he doesnt know what its called.

huh, it looks like a place called Royal Vista Apartments. Couple of my buddy's live at that place and theres a lot of GVSU students there.

ORIGINAL: Patrick

the stupid helmet thing really gets me...[:@]


at least its not a full suit, right? :P

in my car that i have here, in the 1/4 mile im barely speeding when i cross the finish line!