Nice work, monster reply.

 

I don't know if this is correct, but GTR R34 had done a VERY good time at the Nurburgring and held that record which no other production car could achieve for a long time?

That's a common missconception which deserves most of it's credit to Nissan marketing (and what a good job they did). Nissan 'claimed' to be the 1st to break the 8min 'production car' barrier there with R32 GTR. Though, it turned out that it weas not really a 'production' GTR that they were using. It's still not clear what the GTR had modified to this day, but it's a common agreement that it was a fair bit. Besides roll cage, the car has custom suspension (and set up), more power (a fair bit more) and even R-spec tyres are rumored.

Here's a very good article that disproved that time (ie. 7:59) that Nissan claimed for a production R32 GTR:

http://www.caterham.force9.co.uk/ring.htm

It's a really good read about a few Nring 'masters' going to N'ring with a few hot cars including an R32 GTR to see if they can mach the nissan claim. It nicely puts the GTR perfromance into perspective.

ps. So far the quickers 'officialy' clocked production GTR was an R34 and that managed around 8:15 there.

 

I don't understand how on standard rubber a burnout helps traction. The tyres get hot and melt - and the more they melt the more liquid rubber lubricant there is to make spinning the tyres easier with consequent less forward traction.

OK, so the time between the burnout and the actual launch might be 20 seconds, but since the rubber's near boiling point, a BIT of spin results in almost immediate loss of traction 'caus the tyres are already near melting point. Might be different on race rubber?

You know how hard to get going it is once you start a wheelspin!

I like to just verge on loss of traction - don't actually spin at all.

The clutch gets a bit of a pizzlin' in my best launches - virtually becomes a defacto torque converter.

DAVID - yes, it is measured to within I reckon about 1/2 meter.

My passenger uses the stopwatch - the most discrepancy is likely to be at the terminal - the line comes up real fast @ about 150k or so. That's why I've done so many runs with different passengers/timers to get a reasonable aggregate. Allow for passenger weight in calcs. BTW, I have ditched the spare and use the huge well hole left as a security stow area. Just carry a tin of Finnilek for emergency. NRMA is back-up.

Bring on the new model with 236kw!

Stuff these pissy mods that cost a mint and do bugger all - all they do is put money into aftermarket pockets - weve paid once for the parts - bugger paying again for the same parts - put 'em on the car in the first place! Like I said - no adjustments on suspension - FEH!

FROZZTY

 

I don't understand how on standard rubber a burnout helps traction. The tyres get hot and melt - and the more they melt the more liquid rubber lubricant there is to make spinning the tyres easier with consequent less forward traction.

Melting the tyres is not the idea ;-) Though, cold tyres (even road tyres) have less grip than warmed up ones ... you can usually touch them with your hand and they feel sticky when 'warmed up'. If you overdo it then they start loosing grip. Good example is going to the track on road-rubber. You'll find that it takes one lap to get 'grip' into the tyres, then they'll be grippy for about 3 laps and then they start loosing grip (ie. they overheat).

So, at the drag strip, the idea is to do a quick 1 - 2sec burnout just to get some heat and 'stickyness' into your tyres right before the run.

I like to just verge on loss of traction - don't actually spin at all.

I'm not 400m sprint expert, but I found best success (when dragging oher cars) when I get just the 'right amount' of wheelspin off the line.

My passenger uses the stopwatch

OK, we just fund out how to improve your 400m run by ~0.2sec .... dump the passanger ;-) Passanger is worth good ~0.2sec to 100kph as well as over 400m.

the line comes up real fast @ about 150k or so

Can you check it again next time you run your make-shift 400m? Reason I ask is that 150kph sounds awfully slow over 400m. If you think about it - it's taking you 14.3sec to reach around 150kph. 350Z should be doing 160kph+ at that stage. I have tymed myself to 160kph in less then 14secs a couple times (not that it was 100% accurate).

btw, don't go by the speedo as that lags so it tells you roughly what speed you were doing about 1sec ago or so. Go by the revs. If you can tell me what revs you're pulling when you cross the line then you can work out your speed. The better 'read' you get on the revs, the more accurate the speed will be. Rev counter is pretty accurate and lag free when pulling in gear.