Trap speed ques

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alltracman78

Active member
Let me just start by saying I'm not a huge fan of drag racing. It's fun and all, but I much prefer the twisties.
With that said, I don't know a whole lot about times, trap speeds, ect.

Now, on to my question :p
Last fall I took the 92 to the track to see how it ran. I ended up running a best of 15.4 [ouch] but the trap speed was like 84 mph! I don't have 60' times, the thingy was broke....

So, looking at the 1/4m registry, that looks to be waaay to fast of a speed for that time. Anyone got any sugestions?

And, if I can dig up the slips, I'll post em.
 
G

Gary

Moderator
Trap speed can be high because "shallow" staging.

There are two beams at the starting line when you are staging
The first one is called pre-stage.
It tells you that you are closed to the staging.
The second is staging beam.
Once your tire cross the staging beam, you are staging.
and both two yellow light is on.

Now you are holding the car and wait for the guy to activate the tree.
There is 0.5 sec between each yellow for non-pro, 0.4 for pro.
The race starts when the green light turn on.
Now you let the car go.

You clock will not start untill you leave the second beam.
The time between green light turn on and your front tires leave the secon beam is your Reaction time.
So ET and Reaction Time are independent

Staging shallow is when you barely cross the staging beam.
It's kind of rolling start. It will increase the trap speed and is safer.

Staging deep is when you are at the point of being foul.
You roll forward and keep going until you almost leave the second beam and the first yellow light goes out,
(but the second yellow light remains on.)

If you leave the second beam before the light turn green, you are red light.
 
Z

Zeus

New member
that mph doesnt seem all that off to me

but to simplify things you can look at et as a measure of how good the driver is and mph more as a measuer of the horsepower to weight ratio of the car...

if for example you see that a car is running a 14 second quarter mile at some rediculous mph 125mph for example then that will tell you the car has a lot of hp and is either having big traction problems or the dude cant drive

if you see the opposite say 12 seconds at 90mph that could indicate either the guy is an amazing driver, he has tonnes of traction, or that he is top speed limited (but 90mph wouldnt likely except in maybe a drit bike or something where they have tonnes of wind resistance)

4wd cars tend to have lower et's compared to the mph due to the amount of traction available but also due to the fact that they usually weigh a fair bit...

i dunno if any ot this is what youre looking for but its my two bits
 
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alltracman78

Active member
Gary, thanks, but I already knew all that [I had to learn it at the track :p I'd never been to a track before...].
I did stage real shallow, and I had crappy reaction times 'cause of it [like 1.5 sec :oops: ]

^^^^
*Gary, not trying to be a dick saying that... :D *

Blake, thanks. That's kinda what I was getting at. I was looking at the 1/4m registry, and everybody that ran in the 15s had a trap speed of like 60some mph. The 80mph ones were in the high 13s. Made me scratch my head.
Like you said, a awd car should have a faser time compared to the trap speed 'cause of the traction, that confused me too [looking at my time/speed]. I think some of it was just me tho, I'm not the best 1/4m racer :p I like speeding through turns alot better, and have alot more practice at that..
'Course I did have the bad ecu in it too..... :|
 
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Zeus

New member
lol yeah i was gonna say! 15 sec and 60mph!

i i could see that if someone hit the brakes halfway down the track but haha no otherwise
 
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mtbgael

New member
My eclipse is 14.9 @ 93...I'd say 84 is pretty slow for a 15.4 :wink: When I ran a 15.4 stock it was @91...heh I love torque :D
 
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alltracman78

Active member
The car should've ran better than a 15.4. It had full aussie, 12 psi, no pwr steering, CM flywheel, CM stage 3 clutch, and 11lb 16"wheels:shrug:
The ecu was retarding timing a whole bunch tho [i think].
Plus, as stated above, I'm not the best drag racer around... :p

I think torque would improve your takeoff [assuming grip] more than trap speed.
 
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alltracman78

Active member
Yeah, but the ex/boost, ect should've made a bigger difference than that. I'm set on the ecu being to blame. It wouldn't pull smooth while I had it on there. Now that I have the 93 ecu on it, it pulls alot smoother. And harder.
 
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mtbgael

New member
alltracman78":2wffwd8r said:
oh, I was thinking of a GSX, not one of the new ones.
Click to expand...

Most people do...3G handles better stock for stock and has the smoother, more toquey V6. STS demon :D
 
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