Ok so I brought my 3rd gen to the sacramento raceway today, hoping to run 14.something in the 1/4 mile, nope, I ran 15.2 @ 87 mph. My reaction time was .246. It was my first time ever at the track to let you guys know. I actually nailed all the gears.

My car is almost stock with only reliability mods: Falken 452 tires, clean fuel filter,clean air filter, silicone vacuum hoses, metallic high flow catalytic converter, tokico illumina adjustable shocks/eibach lowering springs, Aluminum AST. I have stock intake and stock exhaust and factory precat.

I launched at between 3-4K rpm, but I noticed I had slight wheel hop, which im sure slowed me down. I cant believe I have wheel hop, since I have SuperPro urethane toe links and trailing arm bushings in the rear and brand new pillow ***** and zero play in the rear wheels. How do I fix the wheel hop?? Also what could I do to make my time faster?

My second run I did worse. My reaction time was .383, and I ended up missing 3rd gear and shifting into 5th so my time was 16.190. I still won both races but the cars I was racing were slow as hell, I didnt feel like much of a winner...

 

.383 is an awesome batting average.

 

being that i know nothing of this sport. i'd think you did pretty well

 

To fix your wheel hop get an Evo.

 

what was your tire pressure in the rear? maybe its too high, drop it down to 35 psi for more grip, and you should be able to minimize the wheel spin thus launching your car harder.. it could be the struts too... or it could just be the tires are gripping enough.. make sure your rear camber is at 0 degrees, you want that full contact patch, to make full use of your tire, negative camber will only lmake you use less contact patch=less grip.. More grip=more faster launches=less wheel spin= more speed...set the rear toe at 0 as well, so u wont scrub speed.. get a performance alinment. Try some feddies 595s...or some Bridgestone re01s..those stick pretty well..feddies have more even wear, all other tires chunk up

 

damn i should of went yesterday..i never seen 3rd gens at the track usually

 

btw,

what tire sizes??

i would use something in the neighbor hood of at least 255s... and why dont u get a flanged setup on your exhaust, for a straight pipe just for the track.. adding a straight pipe ups your boost response by alot.. and when ur done with the track swap back on ur muffler!
and another way to lower the time, is u can clutch kick on the long gears.. usually third gear is long , try clutch kicking that and you should be able to get to 4th right away

 

wheel hop? evo? wait...wah?

 

I forgot to mention that my first race, I had a reaction time of .246, and thats when I nailed all the gears and topped out at 87 mph when I crossed the finish line. I was racing this Honda civic and his time was 18.174 and I thought MY time was bad. I wish I had some real competition. My second time, I raced a Prelude. This is when I missed 3rd gear and shifted into 5th. When I had it in 5th gear, I saw him catching up, so I shifted back into 3rd, and I saw him pulling away again. The car performed well overall, no overheating or anything. Only problem was the wheel hop. I'll have to research more on that

 

no people just like to be an *** to others its the west after all

 

nice share!....you did pretty well...

 

Reaction time has no factor in quarter mile time, You can sit at the light for an hour and still run a 15.2 with a 60minute reaction time or a .2xx reaction time.

 

Drag racing isn't as easy as it looks. You probably had alot of wheelspin and didn't feel it. That can happen. I've been very disappointed at the strip before, but you need to realize that if you got it right the first time, you'd never go back and do it again. Street tires will kill your times too. Just go back and practice. You'll see your times start to drop and that will only come from getting a real feel for your car.

 

??? please explain....

 

if you plan on running quarters more frequently you should upgrade your diff support (the one that runs from the back of the trans to the diff). I used to work at a shop and saw a few fd come in with broken ones from hard launches. Try to get a Mazdaspeed or something better. Nice job on the numbers.

 

usually the timer doesn't start tell you cross the line. Your reaction time is from when the light goes green to when you cross the line. so you can sit there for 10 seconds then go and still run a 12second pass.

 

Do you have a boost gauge? Have you done a compression check on you motor lately? First time i ever went to the track i ran a 13.5 with DP, stock cat and exhaust.

 

diff support you meen PPF (Power plant frame). The stock PPF is fine as long as his motor mounts and diff mounts are in good shape. You can always take the PPF out and weld a few stiffeners to it, if you search the 3rd gen section there is a write up about it.

 

Stock sports cars don't generally make the best drag cars; they trade power for agility.

You can make a sports car into a drag car, but doing it without losing agility is very tricky, and probably very expensive.

Difference between a missile and a dogfighter.

 

I figured I'll step in...

Street tires provide me NO traction (though I have more power than you)

Rx7 are notorious for wheel hop no matter what suspension you have...You either launch too hard and spin the tires, launch too low and bog down or you do it just about right have have the back of you car hop like mad.

The only solution I've found to the wheel hop problem was a pinion snubber. They're like $7 at Napa in the Help! section...looks like a rubber cone with bolt threading attached.

Now, this has 100% fixed my wheel hop, but tire spinning is still an issue. For that I usually launch around 4-5K, but ride the clutch a bit and play with the throttle in first to control traction while keeping the turbo spooled.

4 years ago when I first went to the track I ran a 15.1 in my Fc (light mods), then a 16.1 due to massive tire spinning (Hey I was young :P) Give it another try and see what happens. Launching a rotary is way different than a piston motor..we don't have very low torque curves.

 

Bad analogy. Missles can turn at about 35 g... fighter pilots are only good for about 7-8 g. Don't forget that we humans limit lateral acceleration as well as straight line.

To the OP: have you done poly bushings on your diff mounts? What kind of dampers are on the car? Pinion snubbers are mandatory on FCs, I don't know if folks have packaged them in FDs but it's worth looking into as that also makes a big difference.

 

I've seen pilots go past 15gs but then again they have to force their body not to black out

 

I have noltec urethane motor mounts, Banzai racing oil pan brace
(no oil leaks), and polyurethane toe link and trailing arm bushings for the rear. My differential mounts are stock but are in good shape and rear end is very solid with no clunk what so ever, but I think what I need to do, is get either a differential brace to stop the wheel hop, or upgrade to urethane dif bushings.

I launched at about 3500 rpm, and I did burn out for at least 3 seconds. On my next set of tires, what I would like to get, are the BF Goodrich G Force KDW, and Ill see if that'll help

 

Are you sure you are running 10psi for boost?


Burn out with street tires does you no good what so ever.

 

Oh, I think the anology's still good: 35 g turns, but for how long?

Missile:
Designed to operate from a "standing" start (the hardpoint)
Awesome acceleration to top speed, but little/no repeat acceleration
Short duration
All about brute force
Minimal TOTAL lateral delta-V (G=/=resultant vector)
Abysmal braking (except for "the one big stop" at the end)
Frequently ends up in a massive explosion at the end of a short, mostly-straight run

Fighter:
Moderate accel from a standing start (minus catapult, anyway)
Designed to engage mission from multiple speeds, altitudes, attitudes
Full control of all velocity vectors repeated times
Longer run times
All about control
Frequently exhibits braking/cornering G's far in excess of forward acceleration limits
Less-frequently explodes all by itself, normally only when it UNintentionally runs into something... or is hit by a 'missile.'