TaliaZ

My car is an 04 automatic. I only have about 80 miles on the car (I LOVE IT!)

Now... once I've broken it in without flooring it for about 1000 miles, how do I race it? I am talking either at the trackor just plain racing a guy who pulls up to me at a light. (I am a very safe driver, I am just talking a race up to 60 when the road is barren with no traffic or trees nearby. I live in a part of south jersey where there are open roads going through huge grass fields.

So do i wait for green and just floor it? Do I hold my left foot on the brake and rev and then let go? Do I take the traction control off? If I do, won't I just sit there and smoke the tires?

I have a friend with a Grand Cherokee 5.9 AWD and he swears his truck will beat me. He ran a 15.0 quarter at Atco raceway... I was there. He gets a great jump off the line (which is why I wanna know how to launch)

Once I get a good start i know the crazy power and torque of the engine will pull me by him in no time.

Help is needed.. and stay tuned for pics of me and my new baby in Pikes Peak White with frost interior.

travs_z

You should beat your friend no problem. From what i have read the auto is just as quick as the manual in the 1/4.

I am unsure of how to race it as I have a 6spd, but I am positive some of the auto-owning folks here will lend you a hand.

Get those pics up (I LOVE THE FROST INTERIOR), and let me be the first to welcome you to my350z.com and Z ownership. Congrats!

hornet59

First of all when you're at the track and want to launch your Z off of the starting line you must remove the rear brake light fuse. You cannot hold the brake and press the gas pedal at the same time if you didn't remove the fuse, you'll lose about 30% power. So at the track, remove the fuse, press the brake and ask a friend to stand behind your Z to make sure your brake lights are out. Here is a posting that someone did on this exact problem.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....0&pagenumber=1

Happy hunting hehehe

JonsilvZ

The time I got below was from idle at a slow track. If I remove the fuse high 13s would be no problem. Come on a 5.9 Jeep is no match for a Z. I have a good fight with the F150 SVT Lightning. And 99% of the time I beat 6sp Zs

orhanz33

definately no traction control...(vdc turns off at the same time too)
-no air conditioning/heat/heated seats/etc. all that stuff'll cut power
-race when low on gas (about 1/4 tank, little less) the car will be lighter
-try not to keep heavy stuff in the car (don't race w/ people it'll weigh you down)
-remove spare/jack from the rear, you'll save weight
-drop tire pressure in the rear tires (25 psi) to prevent from spinning too much on the launch (dunno if the auto's spin that much though, somebody bound to say something)
-since you got all that open road, might as well go practice since your friend sounds like a pro already...
-watch out for cops

bobS

U'll beat a jeep no problem, my sister has the same jeep and i've driven it and while it is fast for a suv, its def. no match for the z.

Aggro_Al

Ditto durobred

Only thing I would edit is the TCS. Turn it off if you're sure you will get good hook-up. Otherwise, leave it on. Unless you remove the fuse or get a high-stall TC I wouldn't recommend stepping on the brake and the gas at the same time. Don't do any neutral drops on the AT. Just be safe and have fun.

ajk4

i disagree with the tcs being on at the drag strip. there is no reason why you would want it on at all. would you rather have wheel spin, or no power when the tcs cuts the throttle? cause when tcs comes on if you are at wot then it waits until you let off the gas to give you back any power. i would either install a simple switch like was mentioned in one of the above posts, or just remove the abs fuse while at the track so you can brake torque beyond 3k rpms (and not have any power loss). the only reason i installed a abs switch was due to my laziness, but if your only going to the track every once in a while then i would just remove the abs fuse. if you dont remove the abs fuse, dont try to brake torque, just left off the brake and punch it when the light turns (with tcs off). but if you do remove the fuse or disable abs some other way, then brake torque up to about 3000-3500 rpm (any more will cause excessive wheel spin). also, you can do a burn out to stage your tires with the abs disabled.

ajk4

oh yeah, if you want to know which fuse it is that you need to remove, look on the back of the fuse panel cover and there is a diagram. look for "stop lamp" and this should be the one (youll know its the right one if your brake lights dont work). alot of people couldnt find the right fuse because they were looking for "abs" or "brake".

orhanz33

i think you should always leave TCS off when racing, especially on the launch...at least w/ TCS off you can control how much your gonna spin (if any at all), but you can't control how much power the computer's gonna cut to the wheels and for how long...and it's not like you can turn off TCS while it's actually working....

Aggro_Al

With the stock tires and TCS off, you will get some really mad spin on the AT if the tires break loose. I would rather have the computer control the traction than me trying tool around with the throttle until the tires hook-up again. Some people might be good at throttle controlling the spin but I'm not and I think most people fall into my catagory. If you launch perfectly you should get the same time with TCS on or off since it won't activate. If you do break loose wouldn't it be faster to have the computer recover the spin instead of having to lift off the throttle until you think you have traction again? If you're going to pull the brake fuse and brake torque, I would turn the TCS off because I heard it won't work right anyway. On the AT the TCS will cut the power until the wheels have traction. The computer senses this and adjusts faster than my right foot does. If you aren't trying to second guess the computer by adding your own adjustments at the throttle you'll regain traction and power quickly. I'm not sure about the TCS cutting off power at WOT until you take you're foot off the gas, I haven't had that happen to me yet. My experience is that just after the tires start to slip TCS comes on and it will decrease power just until the tires regain traction with no additional input from me. The AT doesn't come with VDC which I heard can be intrusive at times.