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      05-31-2008, 08:30 AM   #1
larryn
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My first 1/4 mile runs ever - impressions

I was on a business trip up at Dartmouth College, and knew of a bunch of bimmers that wetre going to be heading over to New England Dragway on Friday night (last night). I got the okay from the wife that I could detour on my drive back and head over there.

First of all, I had fun. There were about 9 BMWs there, but with it being a Friday night event, there were lots of other cars too, and I gave up waiting for runs after getting four in, and the lines were about an hour long by then.

Everywhere I stopped in the staging line, I had people around the 135i asking questions, saying they liked it, one thought that it was crazy priced at $54k.. I told him he could get one for $36, and he almost didn't believe me. It drew crowds, which was fun.

Driving.. remember, this is my first ever dragstrip run.

Run 1: I get up to staging and wonder what launch method I should use with the runflats (I bled them down to 25psi, and dialed out the camber, so they sat flat on teh pavement). I hadn't thought of launching until I was at the tree.. not to bright of an idea. I decide on 2250rpm, drop clutch and go. Well, that wound up doing nothing but one helluva smoke show, all the way thru 2nd gear. (hey I'm new at this). I found that the rubber coated pavement is pretty slick. Result : 15.1sec @103mph. When I finally hooked up, it went though. Went up against a boosted Talon who did 13.5, and kicked my butt.

Run 2: Decide to not drop the clutch and see how things go with a regular street start. I was lined up against a Camaro SS with 100 shot nitrous and M/T drag tires. Light turns green, and the Camaro jump way out in front. I get a decent bite and just quickly go thru the gears 1-4. I'm pretty pumped as I see myself catch up to the Camaro, and dust it. Result 13.322 @106.24. I have terrible reaction time throughout all four runs, but I really don't care. :smile: I felt good about that run, and I thought that only if I could get a better launch could I get better time.

Run 3: Up against a Chevelle funny car looking thing that even with my windows up, I couldn't hear anything. it had 2 foot wide rear tires, and looked really fun to drive, but I knew I had no chance. (these events really place no emphasis on beating the person in teh other lane, but I kinda thought it was fun). I decided to try to get a better launch, but not too much better, and I did that, as my 60' time dropped a smidgeon. I pulled my best run of the night with a 13.239 @106.33mph. I thought that I may not be able to do any better than that without a change of rubber.

Between runs 3 & 4, they had an intermission, and I grabbed a hotdog and fries, and sat in the stands with the rest of the bimmer folk.. great group, btw. When things started back up, I was still eating, but was quite a way back in line and stayed to watch some of the cars running. One of the BMWs is up to the start, light turns green, and there's a big bang noise.. he lost the diff. It is a car similar to my 332ti, and she had the stock small cased 3.45 LSD in it, so with M/T drag tires on it, it just gave up, which was probably just a matter of time. Still a bummer to see anybody's car break that far from home.

Run 4: I was thinking about the blown diff, but got a decent launch, 1st zipped thru to 2nd, good shift, get to 6000rpm, go to shift to third.. hit 5th! BAHH! i contemplate if i should rick going over to third, and decide to not rick hitting first, keep it in 5th, and still manage a 13.9 @98.9mph.

Anyway, I had no idea what to expect at the dragstrip, had fun, and realized that there's a lot of cool people there, had fun, and it's not that difficult to try out. Really, you're only driving in a straight line as quickly as you can. :headbang:

Here's me getting smoked by that Chevelle:



And another of me about to light up my tires for a smoke show on the first run:

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      05-31-2008, 08:52 AM   #2
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Thanks for sharing. I told myself I wasn't going to track my car, but stories like this really make me want to give it a try. Though the poor guy losing the diff scares me quite a bit.

You have JB2 if I recall correctly and I remember you doing your CDV. Any other mods? I just wonder if you could pull a sub 13 run with better tires and those mods, which is probably the limit of what my modding would be.
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      05-31-2008, 08:55 AM   #3
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That does sound fun Thanks for the write-up!
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      05-31-2008, 11:48 AM   #4
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Larry - heckuva deal - on the 'Test & Tune' days at the dragstrips you can get paired up with dam near anything (though they do tend to segregate the really fast folks from the street guys).

I suspect that Chevelle was not so much hearing it as 'feeeling' it. ; -)
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      05-31-2008, 11:56 AM   #5
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Most definitely I could feel that car. That thing trapped at 133.45mph and 10.027seconds. They call it a "Street Night" here, and it's sponsored by a local parts place.
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      05-31-2008, 12:00 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PL99 View Post
You have JB2 if I recall correctly and I remember you doing your CDV. Any other mods? I just wonder if you could pull a sub 13 run with better tires and those mods, which is probably the limit of what my modding would be.
You're correct. I definitely could have done a LOT better had I been able to get a launch. I'm pretty good at autocross getting a launch with them, but with a liberal coating of warm rubber on the road, much more difficult.

They had 100 & 104 octane gas there, which I decided to pass on, since I figured that would just cause me to have even less traction.
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      05-31-2008, 12:29 PM   #7
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Not enoguh sidewall on the runflat for a good 8.5 psi inflation - think you could run a 70 series 16" in the rear? ; -)
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      05-31-2008, 12:32 PM   #8
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I just saw this pic on 318ti.org. A decent pic of my car following our predecessor:

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      05-31-2008, 01:12 PM   #9
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Great writeup.

Drag racing is good clean fun no matter what kind of car you're doing it in, and it's not as easy to lay down a good pass as a lot of people like to think.

I can't wait to get mine out to the track, but everything close to me is 1/8th mile, which I don't like nearly as well.

If you decide to do it again, run in the "Dial In" class. That's a pretty serious challenge in a car with a manual transmission, and the race will always go to the better driver instead of the faster car, so you're not getting your ass handed to you by dedicated straight line cars.
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      05-31-2008, 01:50 PM   #10
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Hmmm, I wonder if you wouldnt have gotten better traction fully inflated. I'll bet you were getting some cupping with the runflats at below 30psi
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      05-31-2008, 02:01 PM   #11
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First run (with TONS of wheel spin) was at 36psi. I bled down to 25 after the first run, and wasn't anywhere near as aggressive, and it hooked up, but who the heck knows. :iono:

If I had an extra helmet, I could've taken a passenger to give me a couple of hints. This was all me guessing what to do.
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      06-02-2008, 07:33 PM   #12
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Just found out somebody taped a run from the stands. Not my best run, but it was fun!!
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      06-02-2008, 09:14 PM   #13
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very cool larry! i had a few 1/4 runs at englishtown, NJ...pretty fun stuff
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      06-02-2008, 10:12 PM   #14
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Way to go, Larry. Next is a road course, then...? Pretty far away for you but maybe Bonneville? :biggrin::thumbup::biggrin:
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      06-02-2008, 11:07 PM   #15
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Great thread Larryn. And great times, cool. What mods have you done? Is your car lowered at all?
This pic it looks so low in front?
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      06-03-2008, 05:17 AM   #16
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Jeff, I have H&R Sports.
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      06-03-2008, 07:56 AM   #17
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Very nice Larry .. glad you had fun ... what were your 60' times like? BTW .. nice MPH and a few really good runs there !!

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      06-03-2008, 08:14 AM   #18
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DIAL ...
R/T ... .751
60' ... 2.118
330 ... 5.669
1/8 ... 8.599
MPH ... 84.49
1000 ... 11.113
1/4 ... 13.239
MPH ... 106.33

That's from my best run (the one I'm doing in my new sig pic), which isn't really that good for this car. Definitely user launch error.
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      06-03-2008, 10:38 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by larryn View Post
DIAL ...
R/T ... .751
60' ... 2.118
330 ... 5.669
1/8 ... 8.599
MPH ... 84.49
1000 ... 11.113
1/4 ... 13.239
MPH ... 106.33

That's from my best run (the one I'm doing in my new sig pic), which isn't really that good for this car. Definitely user launch error.
Very nice .. If you got that down to a 2.0 60', your knocking on 12's !!

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      06-04-2008, 07:25 PM   #20
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Hehe those run flats suck don't they.
I couldn't hook up either at the drag strip.
Finally gave up and didn't launch it and got my best time of 13.6.

BTW, do you have any mods on the car?
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      06-04-2008, 07:44 PM   #21
larryn
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Run flats mixed with that thick soft rubber on the tarmac at the lights cause a big smoke show if you try to do even a 2k rpm launch. So, I gave up trying to launch, and just did a semi normal->fast start, and let the torque to it's job. I have the JB2H. So Fred, really, if I could've launched, I should have been at least mid 12's.
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      06-04-2008, 07:53 PM   #22
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Nice runs Larry
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