My max is my first stick shift car, and I haven't had it for long but I'm pretty decent with it now. All I know now, though, is the standard by the book crap and I really want to learn to take advantage of this powerful car. If anyone could give some tips on how to have good takeoffs, where to shift when racing, etc it would be much appreciated.

 

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I've read through that .. don't really see anything addressing my questions there.

 

Search will do wonders

It just takes a little bit of patience...

Welcome to the .org

 

thanks. tried searching, guess i just was retarded with regard to choosing the right terms.

 

you have a 97 SE 5spd AND leather ??? lucky man ....well im not 5 spd driver, but some things you can try is....well launch at a high rpm....rev it up to about 3.5-4k rpm then pop it into first....your tires meet burn if you dont get good traction....another thing you can do is power shift....i wouldnt recommend this until you know the perfect shift points of your car and such....your tranny will end up on the floor if you **** this up.....basically you just shift with your foot o nthe gas....so your rpms wont drop while shifting, and you wont get the "shift lag"....thats all i can think off, but like i said im no expert, not even intermediate at driving stick, so be forewarned

 

Don't rev your engine up to 4k rpm's and pop the clutch if you want to launch. You'll just sit there and spin your tires. Unless you are just trying to peel out which I don't know why you would want to do that. I found 1500 rpms is a good launch point.

 

im sure it can launch atleast 3k rpm wihtout roasting the tires...i launched at 4k on my friends and it didnt spin that much

 

It's kind of weird because eveyone does it a little diff. If I pop the clutch at 3k and Hit the gas all the way I will spin my tires too much. If I were to hesistate just a second on the gas and not slam it dowm I can launch at 3k and be O.K. I don't know but less than 2k seems to give me the best launch. I have yet to pop the clutch at 4k and hit the gas and not laid a lot of rubber. This is just me though.

 

If you want to drop the clutch, do not launch any higher than about 1200 - 1500RPM or you'll sit there burning rubber... trust me... and then after that your car will reek of burnt rubber and not to mention its a waste of your rubber!

Now that I've mentioned rubber enough times in 1 sentence, I will go on to explain another way of launching that I have heard is more effective and even I am trying to perfect it. In 1st gear rev your engine to about 3000RPM with the clutch still in and when the light turns green slide the clutch out slowly so you don't roast your tires and at the same time you take off with all the traction under control. This requires a LOT of practice and a lot of concentration at first. But when you master it, you'll fly off the line like an AWD!

Like I said, I'm still trying to learn that for my next trip to the track. I should be in the high 14s stock easily if I can master that.

 

I kind of suck on the terminology, so sorry for sounding like a newbie what do you mean by drop the clutch or feather the clutch, etc?

 

Drop the clutch means you just release the clutch really fast.

Feather the clutch means you slowly modulate the clutch, releasing it slowly.

 

well when i dropped it at 4k, i was in a WRX ....that explains the non burning

 

Just because they're both manuals doesn't mean the launch will be the same. I mean, crap, that's an awd car. Not to mention a 4-banger.

I've found if you drop the clutch hard in the max, it's a welcome invitation for wheel spin and wheel hop, especially if you're on an even slight incline. Although I don't really hard launch much at all, when I have, I've found moderate feathering is the best, getting the tires to chirp slightly upon release, but not spin. This just takes practice with the feet. My best advice is, don't floor the gas until you're off the clutch, and don't pop the clutch 100% - feather it aggressively (very quickly though).