Ok I finaly replaced my o2 sensor that was causing my CEL to turn on, and on friday i drove down to epping to run the 1/4. I was disapointed to say the least. As you may remember I had my car dynoed and was dispaointed then too... 150 or hp. About 30 less than i though. I figured chaning the 02 sensor would fix this as it was also tripping the knock sensor. I havnet had a chance to go back to the dyno but here is my best of 5 runs at the 1/4:


R/T: .894 ( This was my first run actually. As the night when on i was getting .6 and 7's r/ts)

60': 2.522
330: 6.678
1/8: 10.081
MPH: 72.69
1000: 13.016
1/4: 15.513
MPH 90.04


Now I didnt burn out before and the track was really cold so lots of people were having traction problems BUT a frikken stock 98 max ran a 15.3 . So am I to assume I need the new knock sensor? I launched at 1k 2k and 3k and different variations so i know I dont REALLY suck at driving.

 

Only a couple of things I can think of: did you reset your ecu and did it have time to relearn its operating parameters? Is the CEL on again? What was your best time before and what mods do you have? Sorry, I have sigs disabled due to my slow connection. I recently went to the track and had similar times. I was getting bad launching with wheel hop and mad spin. My best before was a 15 flat with stock rims and dunlop rubber, with aftermarket and falken rubber my best was a 15.2

 

are u a stick or auto??? - the subs in your trunk arent exactly helping either

 

That 60' time is slow... If you got that down closer to 2.2, you'd probably be pushing below 15.0 in the 1/4. Good luck.

 

maybe you need more practice.

 

Lower your 60'.

 

That was my first time ever doing the 1/4.
The subs arent in my car. my mods are
Stillen cat-back
WSP ypipe
PR CAI

As I said no one was getting traction cuz the track was so cold. I also didnt do a burnout before, but I seem to remember people getting mid 14s with a similar setup so i was about a second off what i was thinking.
The CEL has not come back on. I guess I should just go back to the dyno and see what my numbers there are.
What do you guys launch at? 2.5k?

 

Umm...........look at your 60'. If your driving a 5 speed, your 60' should be 2.00 or 2.10.

 

what are you shifting at? i know Dave B feathers his clutch at 3k when he launches and shifts at redline from the 1-2 at 6200 or 6300 the 2-3 and at 6000 at the 3-4. as for your 60ft. times...... maybe a better set of tires and a more consistent launch will help you out. oh and btw, take out your subs, spare, and jack, and whatever else you have in the car. and are you on factory rims? if you have heavy rims then that could hurt you too.

Trevor

 

I shifted right before redline everyime.
I am running on 17in katana c5s. Think i should be taking those off and using my factory 15s to drag? thats kind of a pain,and i dont have any good tires for my factor rims.

 

next time use the shift points i told you about. Dave B figured them out through his dyno graph and hes been getting his best time using them. our cars don't make any power after 6k in 3rd which is why you should shift to 4th at 6000. i'm not sure how much those rims weigh but if they're heavier than the factory rims then they'll hurt you a bit. btw, i have bald a$$ crappy tires and i ran a 15.3 with a 2.4 60ft time with just an intake. maybe try a burnout too. what kind of tires do u have on?

 

No offense, but that is the worst 60' time I can remember seeing in a while. If you get that down to a 2.2, which is typical for a good driver in a FWD 5spd car, you will be close to 14s, might even break into the 14s, but your trap speed is incredibly low too. Are you at a high altitude track?

 

well dont forget that was my firs time ever at a track. I did bet my 60' down to 2.4 but still not good. Im guessing this was because of my launch and no burn out?

 

Seeing that this is your first time racing, I think it's way too early to say that your car is a slug. The first 8 passes I ever made in my car were in the 15.5-15.6 range at 90-91mph with 2.4-2.5 60 foots. My mods at the time were an intake, Y-pipe, muffler, and a 17" wheel combo that weighed nearly 46lbs. These run were made in 60 degree weather so "hot" weather wasn't a factor in why I was rather slow.

*LONG STORY, but it might help cheer you up*

I too thought my car wasn't that quick at first. It took me well over a solid year+ to chip away at my ET. Simply running my stock 15s with nearly bald RSAs netted me 15.1-15.3@92mph with the same 60 foots so clearly the 17" wheels were holding me back somewhat even though they only added 6lbs in unsprung weight (this show the significance of weight on rims). I got a B-pipe and my ETs dropped into the solid 15.1 range with a couple 15.0s. Typical traps were just over 92mph (still on the 15" rims). Winter came and the track closed. I dynoed my car at 176fwhp and 193fwtq. I did some equations (figuring gear ratio, torque at rpm, etc) and determined the best shift points for the typical NA 4th gen VQ were 6500 for the 1-2, 6200-6300 for the 2-3, and 6000 for the 3-4. I had always shifted at redline and held 3rd thru the 1/4 mile. I always felt my car fall a bit flat after 6000rpms, but I didn't think it hurt ET much and most people in this org held 3rd in the 1/4 mile.

Spring came around and the track opened. With a Poorman's CAI, y-pipe, B-pipe, stock muffler, and a 40lb 16" combo (215/55 all-season performance tires), I tried my new shift rpms. Instantly I was in the 14.9 range at 93mph. The next week I was running 14.8s@93, and the following week I broke into the 14.7s@94mph. My 60 foots were typically in the high 2.2s and low 2.3s. Once things warmed up, my car got a little slower so my best run of 2001 was a 14.73@93.93mph with lots of 14.8s and 14.9s at 93-94mph. Winter came around again and I bought a UDP and replaced my Stillen Y-pipe (blown flex) with a Warpspeed non-mandrel Y-pipe. I dynoed 183fwhp and 193 fwtq. The track opened in February and I was very happy to see that my car was running consistent 14.7s at well over 95mph. The 2nd time out I was running 14.7s@96 with a new best of 14.69@96.5mph. My 3rd time out netted me my best ever of 14.68@97.79mph. What amazed me even more was that my 60 foots were still in the high 2.2 / low 2.3 range.

As you can see, I experimented with a lot of different combos over a long period of time, changed my shifting, wheels, and I only added a few mods. All runs were on the at the track and under similiar conditions. Mostly my driving improved and as you can see I dropped 1-second in ET and gained over 6mph thru the 1/4 mile.

Simply put, don't sweat it. Everyone thinks they're a great racer until their first time at the track until they get their first timeslip Practice, practice, practice.


Dave

 

just like dave b said it takes practice. the more and more you got to the track the faster your times get. more parctice = better times.

 

as stated in above posts... your 60' time is horrible

 

You just need to be a little lighter on the gas thats all. A burnout is totally unnecessary on street tires. Even in cold weather (drag racing in indiana in january, I pulled 2.1s and 2.2s at a track that I'd never been to before (and which frankly, pretty much sucked). Its all about your technique. Some people have a good technique right off the bat (me for instance, my first 60' ever was a 2.20, never had worse than a 2.34, ever), some people have to develop it, and some people just suck and should give up drag racing. Lets hope you are not in the last category

 

Shoot for as low a 60' as you can get, but remember that all tracks are different traction wise. Your 60' is very dependant on the track conditions once you learn to control your wheelspin a bit. I've experimented with every kind of launch rpm (1200-4400rpms) and I still get high 2.2s and low 2.3s, regardless. I know my driving doesn't suck because I'm within .1 seconds and .5mph on every pass. Every other Maxima at my track is getting 2.3-2.4s 60 foots, GTPs in the 2.2 range, Contour SVTs in the 2.3 range, Hondas in the 2.4 range. Shoot for 2.2X 60 foots (more realistic than 2.0-2.1) and hopefully you can do even better. For every .1 you shed off your 60', you'll drop about .15-.20 in ET and you'll probably gain some mph (I do). Getting a 2.2X 60' will most likely get you 14s.

Try 2500rpm launch. Slip the clutch until you're rolling and then quickly release the clutch and feed it gas. Try shallow staging. Shallow staging is when you set off the pre-stage light and then creep up a fraction of inch at a time and stop the exact moment the stage light comes. This is shallow staging. This will give you ~4" of roll out (~1mph) before the timing device is triggered. Your reaction time will suffer, but reaction time plays absolutely in part in your ET.


Dave

 

That's right. I've pulled 2.2 in an auto. Temperature was about 45 degrees.

 

good info on this thread. thanx 1/4 mile junkies (deezo, dave & nealoc) ill be applying all that info this friday. i need to bust into the 14s. ran a 15.1 my first go at the 1/4.

 

Yeah thanks a lot Dave. That did make me feel better. I was thinking all night it was my car but maybe it isnt. I am going to redyno next week though just to see where I am at. I am guessing I am at the 170-80 that I shuola be (Remember i was 10 under stock last time i dynoed, thats why i thought it was my car)

 

I see that your 1/4 improved as you got more practice, but shouldnt you have been getting same trap speed all along? I thought trap speeds were independent of driver skills or 1/4 times.

My brother has 2k 5spd with intake and cattman ypipe, but he is only getting 15.7 and 93 mph. We are suspecting that his cattman has that flex section problem too.. Any ideas?

 

Definantly check that Ypipe. I mean even if it isnt the problem at least you know. Others on here have spent lots of $$$ to find out that was the problem all along.

SuDZ

 

Same here Deezo. I ran two consistent run with a 2.2 60ft in my automagic. For whatever reason though, I couldn't get that again the rest of the night.

 

*compliated*

If your shift points stay the same, then yes, your trap speed should stay roughly the same. I changed my shift rpms to reflect the power characteristics of the 4th gen VQ. By holding on to 2nd and 3rd gear till redline, you're techically cutting yourself short. If you shift at redline in 2 and 3 and don't shift to 4th, you end up "overshooting" the powerband and cutting yourself short acceleration wise. The goal is to accelerate thru the whoel powerband, not just part of it. By shifting earlier in some rpms, I managed to gain about 200-300rpms of useable accelerating rpm therefore adding ~3mph and dropping .3 of a second on average.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with your brothers Y-pipe (it's always a good idea to check though). A 15.7 isn't particularly good, but the 93mph trap speed is pretty normal (93-95mph average) for a 2k 5 speed with those mods. I would bet your brothers 60 foots are in the 2.4-2.5 range and his shifting is pretty slow. Since he's got a 2k Max, he should be shifting at 6500rpm in every gear. The problem with the 2k+ Maxima is that it weighs over 200lbs more than the 4th gen and it doesn't make any more power than the 4th gen till 5600rpms. What this means is that the 5th gen accelerates slower thru 1st than a 4th gen because of a worse initial power to weight ratio. Launching a 5th gen is very hard. If he were to get off the line better, his ET would improve dramatically, so would his MPH to a point. Practice.

What are his 60 foots?


Dave

 

I am pretty slow.

So if I improve the 60', will I get faster trap speed?

Russ got 14.9 at 94mph, and his was completely stock. I think I should be significanlty faster since I have the cattman pipe.

 

Ok heres an update. The Dyno is a lot closer than the 1/4 for me so i went back over. I am dynoing at 150.5 hp to the wheels ! Thats 10 under stock and maybe 20-30 under where I should be. I knew that i was having this problem but I thought i had fixed it. I guess not! So I need a new knock sensor I think. Ill fix that then run again.