1/4 Mile Times

[bagpiper]

Taking the Marauder to New Hampshire next week for opening night at the track.My car is stock and this will be the first time I have ran times with it.Looking for some suggestions, whats the best approach off the line?temp should be around 30 degrees

[Smokie]

Some general suggestions that should help:

Remove any excess weight from trunk.
Run at about a half a tank of fuel.
Avoid going thru water box.
Turn off O/D. leave it in Drive.
Hold rpm's at about 1000.
Don't let off gas until after crossing end markers.
Front tires about 34-36 psi, rears about 24-26 psi.
Keep it straight !!!!:D

If your car has less than 5k don't be dissappointed if you run over 15 sec. it will get faster. If you run under 15 sec. you done great !!! Best of luck.

[Paul T. Casey]

When the light turns green, floor it! I ran mine in stock trim, it will spin a little. I didn't drop tire pressure until my last run, which was 15.01 my best of the day. I was launchung at around 1000rpm's, don't know if that was optimal. Hopefully Steve (Triple Trans Am) will see this, he is the KING of the stockers here. I have some more advice though, if you see my son up there (Epping) say hi. He's sort of a regular up there. His pals have some pretty quick street cars too. You may know some of them, and they could offer some advice. Happy racin' and maybe I'll run into you up there sometime this summer. I should be back home Juneish. :rock:

[Ross]

Good luck, and be sure to post your times to let us know how you did. :up:

[the fat bastid]

When the light turns green, floor it!

just a minor correction here ,my man.
if you see the green light then you're too slow.
mash that gas on the last yellow!
other then that, do what smokie said.
i usally launch at 1500 rpms and
dont touch my tire pressure or anything in my trunk..i figure if i could run it on the track that fast then i can repeat on the street (where i cant fool with my pressure, etc)

[jstevens]

I notice you said avoid the water box, I thought you should spin your tires so that they heat up and hence give you more traction and grip.
Can you tell me why to avoid the water box?
Just curious. Thanks for the feedback. I started thinking about the track thing myself tonight.

[Smokie]

and dont touch my tire pressure or anything in my trunk..i figure if i could run it on the track that fast then i can repeat on the street (where i cant fool with my pressure, etc)
The first time I ever ran, I had in the trunk 3 very large beach chairs, beach umbrella, good size set of Craftman's tools, trunk organizer was filled to capacity with assorted junk. The track was not local (about 650 miles from home) so I had a trunk full of stuff I brought along on the trip..... That's what I meant by remove excess weight. I was running a little heavier than stock. !!!:lol:

[Smokie]

I notice you said avoid the water box, I thought you should spin your tires so that they heat up and hence give you more traction and grip.
Can you tell me why to avoid the water box?
Just curious. Thanks for the feedback. I started thinking about the track thing myself tonight.
Well, unless your car spins the rear tires far more than most stock MM.'s I see no point in getting your tires wet and doing a burn out. If you feel you will enjoy doing it, go ahead but I would recommend if you believe traction will be an issue, a Dry burnout to warm them up, you don't need to do it very long or you will have rubber bits all over rear fenders...a pain to remove. :D

[sailsmen]

Excellent tips and why the water box is a nono for street tires;
http://www.musclecarclub.com/library/race/drag-racing-tips.shtml

Basically street tires have treads that will pick up the water and drip it down the track causing a dangerous condition for the guys running slicks who go down the track after you. The reason slicks use the water box is because they stick so well it would be hard to spin them to get them up to operating temp with out heating up the whole drive train.

[TripleTransAm]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Paul. From what I can remember, I launched just off idle... perhaps just under 1500 RPM. For some reason, I got the feeling last summer that high stall-speed launches didn't work for me.

OD-off, T/C (if equipped) also off. I try to run with fresh gas too... rumour has it that the higher octane stuff degrades quicker than the midrange stuff. So, the morning before I run, I make sure I get some fresh 94 or 92 octane. My favorite (ie. high energy) gas station has ceased to provide 92 octane and is providing only 91 now... my MM will ping slightly with this new formulation beyond 1/2 throttle. My best 1/4 mile result actually came about when I had a mix of the 91 octane from the 'good station', and some 94 octane from my less-preferred provider. Hmmm.... maybe there's something to this after all?

I ran my best time by manually upshifting sometime around 5500-5700 I think. Seems the automatic upshifts were mollasses-like and I'm sure they sucked up some ET. The manual 1-2 shift was crisp, and I think the stock exhaust or intake (or both) must have killed some breathing above that RPM. Or maybe a combination of the shift and breathing... who knows, but I definitely noticed worse times when upshifting at redline.

A long cooldown is always nice to reduce spark retard.

For best ETs it doesn't really matter when you leave (ie. green or last yellow): the timer only fires up once you cross the starting line beam. Of course, if you're running against someone, especially in the brackets, then that reaction time does count for the overall win/lose, even if it still doesn't affect the actual recorded ET.

I've never experimented with tire pressures... on my rather successful outing last fall my MM was really blasting off the line according to another MM.net member who I was running against. The cool air really did wonders for the low end response (probably that spark retard thing again...)

[Mikeenh]

Taking the Marauder to New Hampshire next week for opening night at the track.

Bagpiper......thanks for the info on the opening day.......see you there !!

[SergntMac]

You have heard some good advice here, from some of the smartest owners I've met here. Not a wiseazz among them, 'cept maybe Fat, and you will have to meet him to know why I say so...LOL

If it seems confusing to you, it's because we're all trying to launch the same car. Having been there myself, this is what I would do. You do what you think is best.

1) Full tank of gas, best octane you can get. Gas weighs 8 pounds a gallon, your spare weighs more than the 1/2 tank your adding, so, dump the spare, and all the other junk we tend to carry around with us for no real reason at all, other than emotional security.

2) Bypass the water box, you ain't John Force.

3) Bypass the smokie burnout and "heating the tires," you ain't John Force. Just spin them up enough for to clean them off, and stage the car. Ground temps at this time of year preclude the value of a burn out, and it ain't worth the 1000 miles of tread you'll burn off heating up tires.

3a) BTW, watch the traffic at the tree for a while before you line up, look to see what everyone is blowing out of their tailpipes. If the humidity is high, they'll all be washing the track with hot water from the tail pipes. You can't help this, just keep it in mind.

4) Staging is critical for you to learn. Once you set the two yellow lights at the top of the tree, the lights are automatic from there. A 2 second delay leads to a .5 second delay between the countdown...So, it's like "staged-1-2-oneyellow-twoyellow-green" go time.

5) YOU"RE NOT RACING THE DUDE NEXT TO YOU...Your racing the clock. It's been said ^ there that if you see green, you're late, and this is true when you're racing someone in a fairly matched race. In a "test and tune" event, you're racing the clock. USAF Blue Angles could be hovering Harriers in the next lane, fu*k 'em. You're racing the clock in your lane, K?

5a) A bone stock MM cannot possibly red light on the last yellow, the car cannot move that fast, and even if you do redlight, you still get a time slip. So, to get your best ET (with your worst RT, yes) wait for the green, and launch when you're ready. The clock doesn't start until you move the car. As you do more drag racing, you will learn more about launching against a competitor, and the importance of reactions times. Until then, it's you against the clock, and you say go.

5b) Once you go, "spanking," or "mashing" the throttle on a Marauder doesn't work, no matter what level of mods you have. I don't care if you have a jet engine strapped to the roof, it's a 4400 pound car, and reverse inertia is what you need to overcome. You're trying to move 2.5 tons instantly, and hard spanking a bone stock MM causes it to lag, choke, bog, what ever. Hard spanking a S/C MM with the best of mods, cause it to melt tires in place.

5c) In both cases, the car goes nowhere at the launch. This is the "60 foot" time on your time slip, which explains how "quick" you MM responds to your command. You can launch anyway you wish, but how your MM responds is in your 60' times. 1.7 60' times are the best we have seen so far. 1.8 times are good. 1.9 times are acceptable. 2.0 and above, can be improved with mods. 3.0 and above...Dude, put the MM&FF mag down and pay attention, K? Starter just called for a tow truck from the pits...

5d) Best way to launch 2.5 tons is to brake torque to about 1000 RPM, and on the green, push the throttle to WOT with a deliberate 1-2-3 count. This will give everything time to spin up and lock in, and repeats of this will teach you how fast to count your own 1-2-3.

6) Of course, all that other stuff ^ there about OD off, heat/A/C controls off, and stuff is true. Don't start pushing your MM through the staging lanes, all those young guns staring at you are not admiring your clearcoat. You're pushing 2.5 tons by yourself, and it's March fer Christ sake. Run her hot, and drive the 1/4 mile.

7) I'll add the advice that I pump my front tires to 40 PSI for least rolling resistance, and I drop my rear tires to 25 PSI or better for more grip. At this time of year, there's not much more to do. I've seen my best times with these settings, maybe they'll work for you too.

8) Just go have fun, take some notes on what you finally decide to do, and come back here with your feedback. Drag racing is fun, enjoy yourself, beat the pizz out of your car, it can take anything you can feed it.

The 1/4 mile is just another "on ramp" with no traffic ahead, or coming up on your side. Every run you make will teach you something about on ramps and your car. Not long from now, you'll be answering this kind of thread instead of posting it.

What ever you do, be safe about it. Enjoy a beer after you're done for the night.

[stumpy]

Best advice I could give would be to walk it out. If it's 30f out and you're running street tires then it'll be like the slip and slide and you won't be able to launch WOT. Break torque to about 1000 rpm and ease into it until you're about 10' out and then nail it. If you have the discipline to do this once (and it's very hard to do) then you'll get a 2.0x 60' and that should put you in 14.9x territory.

HTH

[John F. Russo]

Taking the Marauder to New Hampshire next week for opening night at the track.My car is stock and this will be the first time I have ran times with it.Looking for some suggestions, whats the best approach off the line?temp should be around 30 degrees

On 4/10/04 (Saturday) I, BillyGman and two other Triology owners (Both from Massachusetts) are going to the New England Dragway in Epping NH for test and tune drag runs. BillyGman is gojng to test drive my car. Anyone else is welcome to join us.

______________________________ ______________
2003 Dark Blue Pearl 300B (Canadian) w/Light Flint (reversed
traction control, mini-spare, trunked 6 disc CD changer,
clock-in-the-radio, heated front seats, hood light)
-Born 12/10/02; converted new then used 2/28/03
-16,000 miles
-18.5 mpg at a steady speed of 80 mph
-Stock transmission (upgraded with Performance Automatic
clutches and band after stock tranny failed in 8,800 miles)
-Wheel locks (Ford)
-Badgeless front grille by “Zack”
-Zaino waxing; RainX
Kenny Brown: 6th “Signature Series” conversion (450 hp) Born
3/28/03 (first drove it)
-Vortech supercharger (5 to 9 psig boost)
-377 RWTQ
-4.10 gears
-Baer front brakes 14 in. two piston, vented rotors
-MMX Driveshaft
-Precision, triple disc, P/N469018-3 Precision, triple disc, P/N469018-3
-Ford Racing Stud and Girdle
-Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico (front 255/45ZR18 99Y; rear
255/50ZR18 102Y)
-Dead pedal
-FordChip
-3/4 of a coil from each front stock spring removed to produce
the “same” effect as an Eibach spring
-Ground clearance: 5 in.
______________________________ ___________________________
1961 Ford Galaxie, 2 dr. Club Victoria, 390CID, 375hp, 4 barrel (gone)

[MM03MOK]

I may be interested! Who are the Trilogy owners and are they members of the Board? :banana2: Come on MA, NH, RI, CT Marauderers!!

[MARAUDER S/C]

I may be interested! Who are the Trilogy owners and are they members of the Board? :banana2: Come on MA, NH, RI, CT Marauderers!!

I am one of the Trilogy owners that was planning to attend. Due to a change in my plans ( my bachelor party :banana: :rasta: :beer: :baaa: ) I will not be able to go. Hopefully I will meet up with some of you this summer at shows and cruises. I may go to FFW later in the summer at Epping and also the All Wheels Nationals in Falmouth. Hope to see you's!!!!!!!! :P

[TAF]

BTW...good to have you back Menace :D

[MARAUDER S/C]

BTW...good to have you back Menace :D

WHO ???????? :confused: ........................ :P

[jgc61sr2002]

I am one of the Trilogy owners that was planning to attend. Due to a change in my plans ( my bachelor party :banana: :rasta: :beer: :baaa: ) I will not be able to go. Hopefully I will meet up with some of you this summer at shows and cruises. I may go to FFW later in the summer at Epping and also the All Wheels Nationals in Falmouth. Hope to see you's!!!!!!!! :P


Best wishes and good luck. :beer:

[MARAUDER S/C]

Best wishes and good luck. :beer:

THANK YOU ! :up:

[gomer305]

What up who is going up that Sat. and What time i am interested about going up someone please E-mail with the info please.!!!!!!!!11 :help: :help:

[SergntMac]

WHO ???????? :confused: ........................ :P
Dead give away...

Ditto, welcome back.

[MM03MOK]

BTW...good to have you back Menace :D Rick??? :D Congrats on the upcoming nuptials. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/13/13_1_102.gif



All Wheels Nationals in FalmouthI'm just down the street! Don't forget Tuesday nights at the Upper Cape Tech School. Stay in touch!

[merc406]

All of thee above ^^ Menace!!!! :beer: :bounce: :beer:

[MARAUDER S/C]

All of thee above ^^ Menace!!!! :beer: :bounce: :beer:

Thanks guys and Mary. Should I start a wedding countdown? :P

[BillyGman]

Yeah, I thought it was him.............amusing but appropriate pic near your username.

[MM03MOK]

Thanks guys and Mary. Should I start a wedding countdown? :P http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_1_104.gif When's the wedding? Check out real nice decals for your rear window. Jefferson-Mo's idea.
http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/showphoto.php/photo/396

http://www.weddecal.com/

[MARAUDER S/C]

The big day is May 9th. I will be walking the plank on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Explorer of the Seas. We are getting married on the ship before it leaves port for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise. You are all invited to attend.

[SouLRioT]

The big day is May 9th. I will be walking the plank on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Explorer of the Seas. We are getting married on the ship before it leaves port for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise. You are all invited to attend.

are you going to send me a ticket? i just love cruises. :banana:
Congrats menace...oops...i mean s/c marauder #0005