A friend of mine with a turbo Honda has issued a challenge so as a result I will be drag racing the talon for the first time at Cayuga this upcoming Saturday.

Can any of you expert racers provide a few tips for a newbie? I'm prepared for the worst but if I can avoid costly mistakes the better.

Thanks

As soon as you see the first yellow tree light come on, count to three. On three TAKE OFF!!

Do you have a stutterbox?

If so, stutterbox, and when you take off, slip the clutch a bit. Get the car moving and then let go.

Hold on.

Pull to the line... Trigger the first set of stage lights... Then roll to the 2nd set of stage lights, careful not to Red Light. Put the car in neutral... wait for the Honda to stage. Clutch down to the floor, shift from N-1 1-2 2-3 3-2 2-1 leaving it in 1st gear bring the revs up to a steady 5000RPM... Slip that sucker out and hold on. 2nd gear comes on quick so be ready to slam 2nd. A good 1-2 shift should activate the automatic windshield wipers
From there dont mess up 3rd gear shift or your MPH will be buggered. You may need to grab 4th as you cross the traps.
Practice makes perfect, good luck and dont expect much yor first few runs.

Thanks for the tips Ryan and Nigel I do have stutter box so that will help me a bit I think. I'm not expecting much out of the first few runs but I also heard if you hit 13's you need a helmet so it might be a short day. I'm sure I'll hit 13's the very firt time or at leat I better

P.S. I don't think the 2G's have the automatic windshield wiper activation upon slamming the gears but I do remember that scenario with my 1G many times, lol.

So, since you have a 2 step, pull up to the lights and once you stage and the honda is staged, slam your foot to the floor. Your car will build boost and as soon as the last yellow light comes on, start to slip your clutch. By the time you clear the staging lights, the green will have come on and you'll already be gone.

Don't be upset if you don't hit a 13 on your first run...
So much depends on a good launch, and you really need to practice to get it down just right.
Also, try not to focus too much on the tree. The timer for your lane doesn't start until you move, so there's no need to get psyched out and bog the launch.

Don't drive through the water - drive around the burn-out box

I do not know what you got for Turbo and Clutch but most have good results with Launch RPM between 4750 and 5250, some slip some drop.

I like to drop at 5250 (AWD). Ain't no bog and not too much wheel spin. Drop the Tire pressure down to 22psi, stiffen up the Rear Chock as much as you can and go half of full stiffeness up front (if you can).

Hope this helps, now go for the kill!!!

Ghislain.

Turn off A/C, you're not to run it at tracks.
Take out your spare tire before you go to stage.
I usually put a 30-60 point octane booster in (60 point if I have a separate tune for it, 30 if I'm just running hard)
Unless you're running a huge intercooler, give yourself 10 minutes between runs, once you have your launches down.

Pull up, avoid the waterbox (where water is sprayed).

Drive up until the first set of double bulbs come on, then barely roll until the second comes on. Now your staged. Make sure car is fully stopped, take foot off brake - the track is level. *You want to be first to the staging*.

When the other person is driving up to stage, start the engine revving high. You can decide, I usually did about 4500. Watch for their pre-stage light (first set of double bulbs on their side), then concentrate on your half of the tree.

The three yellow lights go 0.5 seconds apart. Every light can be broken into 3 parts: Light brightening, Light on, Light dimming. You'll want to start slipping your clutch somewhere between 2nd Light ON, and 2nd light Dimming.

Slip it, and 1st will be done with very soon. Go to 2nd, Go to 3rd, and if your car is fast enough, go to 4th.

And done.

Brake, drive around, get your slip from the little shanty shack with the guy in it, and go park it and let it cool down Both the Intercooler and the Clutch will want to cool.

P.S - For extra learning, try starting your drag launches at 2500-3000. You won't be on boost, but you'll learn how to do it without quite the power to the clutch. It will affect your 60' time, which in turn affects end time, but at least you won't smoke the clutch too bad as you learn.

Those all all great tips guys. Thank you very much.

For those that asked I am running a Turbonetis 60-1 Turbo, Huge Greddy Intercooler, methanol and an ACT2600 6 puck sprung. Stutterbox is set to 4500 and rev limiter is set to 8K. I wonder if I should let it go that high though.

I think you'll find that 4500rpms is too low and you'll either bog or have to ride the clutch hard to get out without bogging. I won't give you a definite answer of which rpm to launch from or redline at because each car is different and reacts differently.

That being said, the majority of racers I know with Talons launch above 4500rpms. Food for thought.

Is your motor built? If so, good chance it will handle 8k.

The only problem with the sprung 6 puck is that it doesn't slip very easily. You'll probably get a lot of chatter.

I'd set the stutter at about 5K and see what happens. If you bog the launch you can either go higher with the stutterbox or try and slip the clutch more.

No it's not Ryan, it's still stock. Maybe I should keep the revs lower to play it safe. As for the clutch, you are right. Although the sprung disc can take a lot of heat, it does chatter a lot.

Miguel, try the stutter at 4500k for the first time, so that you can get the feel of the Talon and the track. You will probably come to realize 4500k is not good enough.

Move on to 5k, and gradually up to 5500k if you feel comfortable; 1st to 2nd has to be quick, it comes before you even know it.

Im sure the guys that are almost in the 10's or the 11 second guys will tell you the same

Personally, I'd be doing some practice before you get to the track.

That might work for you as you live up north and have plenty of open road. I'm not going to risk injuring myself or others or even lose my car because of some practice. I know the car is fast regardless so if I don't achieve what I'm after, h well. It's not the end of the world

??? Don't have to practice 1/4 mile RUNS, Miguel, just the launches. A parking lot is good for that, if you can find a deserted one.

What would a built motor have to do with launching? I never staged, but my hardest launches were on my stock engine from 6500. Just feathered the clutch a little while dropping it to keep from full bogging.

Yea, just keep that in mind. Be happy if you even run 12's first time out

Just find some desolate open road and launch the car. Go to the top of first and that's it!

The rest is cake.

Defenately nice set-up but it might be alittle harder to launch.

You should not be able to slip that Clutch much so you'll probably have to up the Launch RPM and fiddle with the Antilag.

Hope this helps.

Ghislain.

Turn the stutter box off. Rev the car to 5500rpm and slip it out relatively quickly. If you try a dump with the stutter box, be prepared to pick some pieces up off the track.

Thanks for the tip Michael. I definitely don't want to do that. My plan is still to drive it home. Only problem is I can't turn off the stutterbox as it's burnt into my chip, but I'm sure I can hold he gas steady at 5500rpm as you suggested.

Newb question but what does a stutterbox do?

Lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXj6aqqDjbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxmPwkXKUck&feature=related

It's for people that can't (or don't want to) actively modulate the throttle, Grant. Sort of like an ABS system. Just mash it and you don't have to worry about redlining.

Made it more nicer

And to add to that, the ECU puts the rev limit back to normal once it detects that you're moving (either via speed sensor or clutch interlock).

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I would like to thank everyone for their tips and support. Let's hope she doesn't break.

I will post my results Sunday morning. Hopefully I will have some decent numbers to show for it. A high 11 would be incredible but I will take a 12 or whatever I can get. Beggars can't be choosers

I could be wrong, but if you can't turn off the stutterbox, and it is burned into your chip at a lower rpm, I don't see how you are going to get the engine to rev to 5500 while you are not moving and clutch is disengaged? Is this not the whole idea of the stutterbox, that it will limit the rpm at whatever is burned into the chip?

Um, not only that, but the stutterbox also helps in spooling the turbo at launch.

So it's a premature rev-limiter that allows the engine to build boost without having a load on it?

Pretty Much
Hope this helps Link

Alright boys here's the update.

I did beat my friend with the Honda but my best time of the day was 13.8 @ 108 mph. Not anything to be excited about but she didn't break and was able to drive home.

I have to work on my launch as my 60' stinks. 2.160

My stutter box is set to low at 4500 rpm and I am only building 1lb of boost at the line which is obsiously contributing to the problem. Either way not a bad day for a newbie the first time around. I'm sure I'll get it to go faster next time around.

Congrats:
1. on beating the honda!
2. a 13.8 @ 108 is not bad for first time at the track, I don't care how built the car is! Obviously, this is something that takes some practice.
3. on being able to drive it home with nothing broken.

I am guessing you are "hooked" now...and will be racing a lot more often?
Get the stutterbox issue corrected, and now you have set a "bar"...something for you to strive to beat!!

Thanks Ziggy

I didn't think it was all that bad either. Reza took at look at my time slips and he says with a 108mph, the car should be good for 12's. With practice I'm sure I will get there eventually.

I did have a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again I'm kicking myself in the balls this morning as I found out that the stutter box is adjustable through the gas pedal and to know 12,s could've been achieved yesterday. Oh well, next time....

Just out of curiosity...how is the stutterbox adjustable through the gas pedal? I thought this was all done electronically??

I am hoping to make it to Cayuga one of these weekends also....I don't have a talon anymore, but would like to see if I maybe don't have the fastest SCOOTER on the board, LOL...what do you think? 25 seconds?? 20??

It is electronic.

When the car is in the "on" position, but not running you can get the ECU to look for TPS input. Everytime the pedal is "tapped" it will add one bit to an accumulator. Each "step" of the accumulator will correspond to a preset value (usually 5 values, rangine from 4500 - 6500 rpm).

When you start the car whichever value was selected becomes the stutterbox limit.

Give it to Reza, he'll make it run 15 flat.

How much boost can one expect to build with a 60-1 turbo with the stutterbox set to 5500? I tried it this morning and all I got was 5 lbs. Seems to low to me as it should be spooling at leat 10. Or am I over thinking this whole thing?

With antilag "Dsmlink" you should expect more. If that is a journal bearing 60-1, then 5psi could be just about right with the stutterbox.
I only got like 8-9 psi on my evo 3 16g with stutterbox.

I had 2 different fmic setups and the most I could ever build on the line was about 6psi from the evo3 16g.

I would think 5psi is pretty good Serge.

Just keep working on your launch, take the car to an industrial parking lot like the drifters. Worst case, you will get a trespassing ticket.

Good luck Serge,

Or racenight in woodbridge