What the crap am I doing wrong?
 

So I went to the drag racing track last week and I got horrible ¼ mile times. I don’t even want to say after seeing what everyone else is getting. I have a stock 350Z touring 6 speed manual, I thought I was getting good launches, air condition was off, and VDC was off. The issues that I think may have been the problem were that this was the first time I had this car at the track, I’m still not the greatest at manual shifting, and I am assuming that the tracking control gets turned off when I turn the VDC off. I know I have traction control, but I do not have a button that is marked Traction Control. Is this a problem either way?

Please help, I still don’t want to post my time, but I was expecting to be at least a full second faster than my previous car. My previous car was an Acura CL-S with a CAI. My times with the 350Z was only a couple tens of a second faster.

Note: there was a supercharged Stillen 350Z with a lot of other modifications that was getting 13.8 second times. The track is in Colorado, approximately 5300 feet elevation.

I know that I’m not suppose to base my car’s performance in quarter mile times, but I feel that it should be doing a lot better. Is there a problem with my car or with the thing that’s between the steering wheel and the seat?

Thanks,

What do other stock z's run? I can tell you that because of your elevation your times will be slower than most and what you've read in mags. You can calculate your times to sea level and see how they measure up. Some tracks that are below sea level and in the winter months can produce a DA of -1500 ' and provide superior results.

What were you 60' times?

with 5300ft elevation I wouldn't be suprise if you are pulling 15's in the 1/4

My 60' times were about 2.5 seconds. A guy in a mustang there said that this should be considerably less, around 2 seconds. The track that I go to prints out the information of both cars on the same run. So a car that ran 13.0 seconds had a 60’ time of 2 seconds and a new convertible Eclipse that ran a 19 second quarter time had a 2.9 second 60’ time. This is just some comparision information.

Thanks again.

Well, if you really want help figuring out where to improve, I think you'll just need to post the info from the slips so people can figure out where time was being lost in comparison with other Z's.

Right away it is evident that the 60' could be better. It seems that 2.0 is about the best the stock Z's can do, and a 2.2 should be achievable with practice. So, since a better launch will get you higher speeds for the entire rest of the run, loosing a certain amount of time on the launch will lower your ET's by even more (all other things being equal). A better launch should be able to get you an easy 0.4 second improvement right off the bat.

Other things to look at are shifting (how fast can you shift and get back on the power), RPM (make sure you take the Z all the way to redline, but don't hit the fuel cut-off), and finishing (be sure to drive all the way through the finish, and don't let up early).

Also, your elevation would certainly make your times look worse than those closer to sea level.

Finally, the VDC button also turns off TCS. No worries there.

-D'oh!

I did a Pro Solo SCCA event at 4300 feet elevation and I was getting launchs of .503 - .60 consistantly, the light we use is perfect at .5, and my 60 ft times where 1.8

Running a 1/4 mile is all about practice. 90% of it is the launch and then the rest is shifting. Just keep trying different rpm points and see what works for you. The best way to launch for one person may not be the best for another. But the best advice is to have controlled wheel spin, meaning breaking the tires loose but not smoking them or getting wheel hop.

Also it seems that drag radials really help the 350z out, so look into getting a pair of those.

Hey Bottom
the best way to launch the z with stock tires is between 2000 and 2500 rpms maybe a little more but its better to be moving than sit there and spin the tires and be wasting time, that will help out with your 60ft. At the track i go to in new hampshire there is a guy there running a 16.2 at close to sea level there that would be like 23 sec just guessing me and my friend are running right around a 13.9- 14.0@#101 or 102 keep up the practice let us all know if your times are getting better all the guys on here will give you some good info to get better times