How To Drag Race

Written by ryans
Posted April 23, 2009 at 8:04 am

Track Car

When you look at this car, you don’t think about drag racing. You think of a car that handles very well on the track. These are probably the same guys that make fun of drag racing. My buddy who races in Honda Challeng came up to me and asked me for some drag racing tips. I was pretty surpised. He’s mentioned in the past that drag racing wasn’t a real sport. Now he’s seeing the benefit of it.

You see, in the beginning of the race when all the cars are lined up on grid and that light turns green you got twenty or thirty guys all in a street race to get to that #1 position before that first turn. The guy who can launch the best is going to pass at least a few cars and get the advantage. After that race starts though they won’t have to use that skill again until the next race.

So how do you get a good launch? Practice of course. It’s hard to say where to practice because doing burnouts is considered wreckless driving and some cops might even arrest you on the spot for doing it. If you have a track nearby hit up the their weekly events.

Each car is different, but the technique is usually the same.
#1 Reaction Time
Reaction time is very important. Getting the jump on your opponent can make a slow car a winning car. If your at a street light watch the other light as it turns from yellow to red and then you know your ready to launch.

At the track as the lights count down from Red to yellow to green, just as the light before the green light lights up start your launch. This will give you a 0 second reaction time and by the time your vehicle starts moving it’s the exact same time as the light turns green so you just did the perfect launch.

#2 Know your car
Since each car is totally different you’ll have to had some practice to see how your car reacts. When you launch for drag racing you keep the clutch in and then rev the engine up to a certain amount of RPM’s. For starters lets try 3K RPM.

Line up at the light, hold down the clutch, rev the engine to 3K rpm and when the light turns green step off the clutch and give it some gas. The car might do 2 things. Jerk and then stall, or your wheels might start spinning. If your wheels start spinning and your just burning out then your RPM’s are too high. If your car just stalls then your RPM’s are too low.

This is where you practice to find out what feels the best for you. You want a little wheel spin but you want that car to be launching at the same time.

#3 2nd Gear
Now 2nd Gear is going to come up quick and this is important. After those wheel spins your rpm’s are going to spool up real fast and it’s goign to be time to hit 2nd gear. You’ll need to know your redline. Since I’m in a Honda I know my car will redline at 8,400 RPM. Don’t go past your redline or your car might blow up, or the rev limiter might shut down your car.

If you had your car dyno tested or can find one of your same vehicle setup that will be very helpful. See your car doesn’t make 100% power all the way to the redline. There is a point in which the power starts to drop off and when your racing if your in the drop off zone you’ll start to lose speed.

According to this dyno chart by following the red line you can see it makes power all the way up to 5600 RPM, after that the power drops from 5600 to 6500. So you’ll know that you’ll want to shift your vehicle at the peak of it’s performance at about 5,500 RPM.

What is the blue line? That’s torque. Torque is what gives you that throw you back in your seat feeling.

Back to shifting into 2nd gear. If your car is stock don’t shift super fast. Chances are you mis-shift and your car is going to hear the clang clang clang noise. Clutch all the way in and bring that hammer down in a nice smooth motion and then clutch out again quickly, get on the gas and repeat.

Once you can get a good launch down then it’s usually always the same. That is until you start modding your car.

Parts for better drag racing
There are quite a few parts you can buy to help you become a better drag racer. Some is just bling but it kind of shows other people your into the sport which is cool.

Shift Light
This type of shift light uses what they call pills. You just pop in a pill that has the RPM’s you want to shift at and when you hit that magic number it lights up to let you know when to shift. That was my first mod. The price is about $80 or so.

Monster Tach
The ever so sweet Monster Tach. These are expensive but if you want that true racer look then get it.

Launch Controller
When your staged up at the light, hit this button and it will hold your RPM’s at a certain pre programmed RPM like 4000K so you can take your foot off the gas

UPGRADED CLUTCH
Now your hitting big time. Upgrading to a stronger clutch will help a lot in the world of drag racing. Here is the descritption:
The Racing 4-Puck version clutch has an upgraded HD Street Disk with Xtreme Duty Pressure Plate over the factory clutch. The HD improved disk and pressure plate provides a new torque capacity of up to to 577 ftlbs, and the pressure increase being 59%.

You can go 6 puck but then your clutch is either on or off. There is no in between and for the street it’s too hard to drive on.

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous Oxide
My favorite of them all. Nitrous Oxide. Nitrous Adds instant horsepower at the touch of a button and it will help you beat any opponent. I had a 75 Shot of NOS on my car which gave me an extra 75 Horsepower and 100ft torque and my buddy who used to beat me got smoked! I’ll be doing an in depth article on how Nitrous Oxide works later this week.

Drag Radial Tires
Tires make a huge difference when it comes to racing. Drag Radials have more surface area on the ground so you can stick better and get a better launch. They’re not too good for wet weather though.