Any tips for first time at Willowbank?

[shebangs]

Planning on running Test'n'tune soon at Willowbank. Taking my baby down, and a mate will come for a perve. I've never been so I have no idea what to do expect.

I'm not expecting record times, moreso for bit of fun, learn a bit more about my car and satisfy my curiosity.

I'll be running lower psi at the fronts, low fuel and will have performanced some basic weight reduction. Tires will be Toyo T1R's, so not semi's either. When it comes to *my* car, I know roughly what's going on. But, here's a couple stupid clueless noob questions I have, and I'm sure others can fill in me.

1. Do I need to bring a pump/fuel can for fuel or is there BP Ultimate at the gate?
2. Is there a tyre pump thing there as well, or do I need buy one?
How many runs do you get and what time do you have between each? it says rock up after 5.30 so do you typically rock up at 6.15, do 3 tunes and pissoff down to maccas by 6.30?
3. Here's a slightly more technical question I thought I'd ask to. Is it worth hooking a laptop into the s200 and datalogging the runs, then giving the results to my tuner? I know shes running rich as I blow black smoke in VTEC (yo).

Thanks

[EG5[KRT]]

1. just run a half tank.. if ur going for fun it prob wont matter that much how much fuel u have in ur tank anyways.
2.i think u have to wait in line between runs wont b that fast between runs i think.
3.yes

tell me how u go coz i wanna go out too :D

[DLO01]

1. Do I need to bring a pump/fuel can for fuel or is there BP Ultimate at the gate?

As said, just get there with half a tank.

2. Is there a tyre pump thing there as well, or do I need buy one?
How many runs do you get and what time do you have between each? it says rock up after 5.30 so do you typically rock up at 6.15, do 3 tunes and pissoff down to maccas by 6.30?

Bring your own pump and gauge.

Get there as early as you can. Theres not much people there at the beginning and you can get heaps of runs in. Thats my huge tip right there!!!

3. Here's a slightly more technical question I thought I'd ask to. Is it worth hooking a laptop into the s200 and datalogging the runs, then giving the results to my tuner? I know shes running rich as I blow black smoke in VTEC (yo).

Yep, if you want to. :thumbsup:

[GnJracing]

It really depends on how much trouble you want to go. I personally would reduce the weight as much as possible which would include taking out the passenger seat, spare wheel, jack and running the fuel to near empty and filling up after runs (bring a jerry can filled with ultimate). But then again if you just want to go out and have fun without any hassle just run the half tank of fuel.

For an air pump, my brother and I use the one at the Mobil up the the road from Willowbank. Just drop your tyre pressures to 20-25psi at the track and pump them back up on your way home. For the rear run 45-50psi, or if you are scared just run the max recommended pressure. Just a warning we have had a leaky valve from over inflation. You might not think that this will make any difference but believe me it does (around a tenth down the quarter with a low 14 second car). Everything really does add up.
Like DL001 said, get there as early as you can. The more runs you have the more chance you have to getting a better pb.

You can hook up your laptop if you want, but make sure it is properly secured. I haven't personally data logged at the track (always been meaning to) and I'm pretty serious about drag racing. The key is to have a good dyno-tune to start with.
End of rant.

Good luck for whenever you take the car down the quarter. Take as much/little information as you want from this but the key is to have fun!
Hope you get the time you are after!

[SeverAMV]

make sure you do a burnout in the burnout area, so your tires are at least warm enough to be grippy. and if allowed, start off as far back as possible in the staging area, this way, you can avoid breakouts, launch out earlier at a higher speed, and sometimes pull off better times (seen a stock swift gti do high 14s like this).
practice drag launching so you dont end up accidentally doing a burnout out there.
aside from that have fun.

[shebangs]

[B]As said, just get there with half a tank.

Bring your own pump and gauge.

Get there as early as you can. Theres not much people there at the beginning and you can get heaps of runs in. Thats my huge tip right there!!!

Thanks Deano. I'll just drop the tyres a tad, and run 1/4 Tank. Nothing too crazy.


Good luck for whenever you take the car down the quarter. Take as much/little information as you want from this but the key is to have fun!
Hope you get the time you are after!
Thanks. Not sure what times I'm after, low 14's would be nice but that's not including the extra 2 seconds I'll add by being a noob. Sub 1 second reaction would be good too :)


make sure you do a burnout in the burnout area, so your tires are at least warm enough to be grippy. and if allowed, start off as far back as possible in the staging area, this way, you can avoid breakouts, launch out earlier at a higher speed, and sometimes pull off better times (seen a stock swift gti do high 14s like this).
practice drag launching so you dont end up accidentally doing a burnout out there.
aside from that have fun.
Thanks, launching I'm fine I think, but maybe it'll be a different picture out in the middle of everyone.

I just had a read of "GO DRAG RACING" booklet thing Willowbank had, wow, couple extra things I didn't even think of. I literally thought it was as simple as line up and wait for the green. Now I find out theres burnout pads, pre-stage, stage, dial your own times etc. :zip: Should be a bit of fun.

Once again, excuse the cluelessness. Burnout pads are right on the start of the track yeah? Then you hit the stage, using the prestage and stage lights to guide you? When the Stage light is on, just stop and thats your line?

Typically, how long after that does it take for the Amber/Green after both Stage lights are on?

Thanks,
Matt

[SeverAMV]

Thanks Deano. I'll just drop the tyres a tad, and run 1/4 Tank. Nothing too crazy.


Thanks. Not sure what times I'm after, low 14's would be nice but that's not including the extra 2 seconds I'll add by being a noob. Sub 1 second reaction would be good too :)


Thanks, launching I'm fine I think, but maybe it'll be a different picture out in the middle of everyone.

I just had a read of "GO DRAG RACING" booklet thing Willowbank had, wow, couple extra things I didn't even think of. I literally thought it was as simple as line up and wait for the green. Now I find out theres burnout pads, pre-stage, stage, dial your own times etc. :zip: Should be a bit of fun.

Once again, excuse the cluelessness. Burnout pads are right on the start of the track yeah? Then you hit the stage, using the prestage and stage lights to guide you? When the Stage light is on, just stop and thats your line?

Typically, how long after that does it take for the Amber/Green after both Stage lights are on?

Thanks,
Matt
when the stage light is on, it means you are in the staging area. what i was talking about with regards to starting out back pretty much means parking it right when you see the light. you dont have to tho, i think you have about 20m to play around with for where you want to stage your car? time for the lights to go green varies from place to place, with some places the lights kick in 5-20 seconds after both cars are staged. prestage is pretty much a warning that tells you to slow down as you're approaching the staging area i think.

dial in your own time is also known as bracket ET (estimated time). you put in the time you think you will run, and your final time will be the sum of your reaction time (time to leave the staging area) and pass time (time to complete the quarter mile). if the sum of these two times for you is closer to your bracket ET than your opponent's is to his/her's, then you win. hence in bracket racing, its not just balls out power that matters, its the launch too. pretty important here to keep your eyes on your own staging lights and not your opponents, as their lights will kick in relative to their bracket ET. the bracket races are designed as handicap types, so in the end, its still first person to finish the quarter mile that roughly wins.

if you have one of those gadgets that record performance figures from inside your car and you trust its accuracy, probably key in the time created by the gadget as your bracket ET.

once you've figured out the technicalities of it, go back to what you were initially doing it for, fun!

[SuperDave]

asfaik the test and tune nights don't do brackets. I have never seen it done. As for redlighting or poor reaction times, don't worry about it. They don't add your reaction time on for the TnT. If you grow tired of doing the burnout at the start make sure you drive around the water as you don't want that on your tires for a launch. And remember to show off your time slips

[JHMDA9]

On Test'n'Tune nights it's heads-up racing, you don't dial in a time. The "winner" is whoever gets to the finish line first, but you're not really there to compete anyway, the whole idea is to practice!!

[shebangs]

when the stage light is on, it means you are in the staging area. what i was talking about with regards to starting out back pretty much means parking it right when you see the light. you dont have to tho, i think you have about 20m to play around with for where you want to stage your car?

I don't understand how and why you would want to stage your car 20m behind??


On Test'n'Tune nights it's heads-up racing, you don't dial in a time. The "winner" is whoever gets to the finish line first, but you're not really there to compete anyway, the whole idea is to practice!!

So all Test'n'Tune starts are the same, winner hitting the line first. Cool.

[sugz]

after reading this thread it made me realise how clueless i was in drag racing lol

*stay tune and read some more reply on this thread*

[SeverAMV]

I don't understand how and why you would want to stage your car 20m behind??


think of it this way, if you start at the front, you can only launch once it goes green, otherwise you'll breakout and lose. sure you can rev it up a bit and release late, but this usually leads to a longer pass time.

if you start right at the back, you can start revving at the first light and release the clutch at the yellows, and if you time it right enough, youll leave the staging area on green and have engaged the gear fully, meaning you'll be accelerating more noticeably. cant really describe it that well, its something you can figure out once you start doing drags. starting at the back also reduces chances of breaking out.

from a mathematical point of view, leaving the staging area at 5-20m/s is much better than leaving at 0-1m/s

[dudeling7]

this thread is great! learning heaps about drags that i didnt know :)

[SeverAMV]

If you ever get a red light SO WHAT you still get a time, if you never get a red light you aren't trying hard enough.

haha, true that. always good to test it out so you know when to launch for your best runs!

[shebangs]

Thanks claymore, made perfect sense.

Thanks again all, pics/timeslips/youtube vidz tomorrow after my runs tonight :)

[dudeling7]

how did you go last night man?

[shebangs]

Bit average, first ever run was 15.2 (can anyone say clueless driver + adrenaline) with 1.1 reaction and 2.3 reaction.

Second run was funnnnny as, I got red light and freaked out. -0.1 reaction so it wasn't that bad, looking back. Good ol` experience huh. Now I know, even if I launch early, just go hard :) Redlighting on Test'n'Tune doesn't mean anything.

There was a big accident, so most people only got 2 runs which sucked.

Definitely keen to head back in a week or so, should be interesting to see how much driver skill/experience changes times. I know the car is good for mid/low 14's with a decent driver.

Matt