BHunts

So here's the deal! Last week I finally took my G to the track to have some fun with her in a safe environment. This being my first time I really had no idea what to do or really expect. I mean I had a pretty good idea but you never really know for sure until you actually get to doing it.

First thing that I did before heading there was to get a hold of the track about helmet rules. I asked them if I needed to bring one to do the drags or what because I saw on their website that drivers of convertibles and all passengers needed to wear a helmet. The response I got was that if my car had the ability to remove the top at all then I needed to wear a helmet. So once I roll in through the gates and head to the tech area to sign in, the guy there proceeds to ask me if I brought a helmet . I tell him about being told by someone at the track that I only required a helmet if I could remove the top. He looked at me with a confused look and asked "Who the hell would tell you something like that?" As it so happened I had the email to prove to him that I wasn't making it up. He then informed me that it is their policy for the driver of vehicles which can do 14 seconds and under are required to wear a helmet. Well as I sit their and ponder about whether I should just cut my losses and go home or drive down the road and spend the money on a new helmet at Lordco, he says to me that he will just list my car as a 14 second car and if I go faster than that once I will get a warning and a second time I will get booted out. I tell him that sounds fair enough and I will take my chances. Then he proceeds to ask me if I have done anything to the vehicle to make it faster then stock. My honesty got the better of me and I told him that I had a supercharger installed in her and then him and I both had a good laugh.. well at least he was cool with letting me give it a shot.

So here is where my dilemma begins. I line up for my first run and stomp on it when the green light hits and my G hesitates for a bit and then slowly begins to accelerate and I end up timing in at 16.2 seconds . Seeing as how stock G's get under 14 on a regular basis I was a little baffled. I think to myself, "What could have been the issue?". It only took me a second to realize that I didn't turn my traction control off and maybe that had something to do with it. As I line up for my second run I make sure that I hit my button and put it in DS mode hoping that will give me a little more off the time I'm about to get. Green light flashes and I hit the gas again only to have the thing hesitate and then accelerate slowly again giving me a 16 second run this time . Stunned at the lack of performance by my G I wonder what I could do next to help her get to the end with a quicker time on my next run. I line up for my third run and decide to try it in manual mode. I drop her in first and try to hold my rpm's a little over 1k and proceed to hit the throttle when the green light drops again. This time it seemed to hesitate longer and accelerate slower ending in a 17.4 second run . Both disgusted and a little embarrassed I figured I would give one last stab at it without traction control off and in regular D mode again to see if it did anything different. This last time was the worst out of all and I rolled past the finish at a pathetic 18 seconds . That was it for me. I had enough of being beaten by Honda's for crying out loud. My Lexi was acting like it was a 3 cylinder 1992 Pontiac Firefly .

Now here's the kicker! Once I left the track and got back out on the street my G started acting normal again and took off like a bat outta hell from a stop, only to get up to the speed limit of course .. lol . So I really have no idea what caused the extremely shocking lack of get up and go but I am thinking that it has to do with traction control or track conditions causing a sensor to the motor to cut off performance to stop from overheating or something like that. I know BMW's and others have that happen when it gets above a certain temperature. The track conditions were as follows : Temp 90 F / Humidity 40-50% / Pressure 30 in at a level of 25 ft above sea level.

I hope you have enjoyed my story and didn't laugh at me and Lexi too much . Now I ask all of you to please chime in and help me out with any insight that you might have to help me solve this issue so I can prevent it from happening again. I will have you know first though that I have installed both a brake boost and yaw sensor switch. I know those should help me shave a bit off my time (once I can get a decent one.. lol) but I don't feel that would have been the cause of my performance issue.. hehe . Thoughts?

Ape Factory

iTrader: (3)

Paragraphs would be awesome.

BHunts

My bad! Didn't realize the grammar police were out and about here.. lol.

Crazyirish

Breaking your posts into paragraphs is about making your posts easier to read. The easier they are to read, the more likely you are to get useful responses. Walls of text get ignored by a significant number of forum-goers.

JSolo

iTrader: (14)

Could be lots of things. What year, miles, maintenance performed.

Quantity of text != quality of text

slartibartfast

iTrader: (7)

And I get lambasted as a pedant misanthrope.

2008G-Man

Taking the parking brake off helps! (just teasing).

slartibartfast

iTrader: (7)

Are you running up the engine against the torque converter at the line? The computers don't like that.

BHunts

2012 IPL with 45k miles. VERY well maintained!

lol.. I wish it was just me doing something stupid like that. It would be such an easy fix.. not the stupid I guess but the parking brake at least!

I did try that but only on my 3rd out of the 4 runs and only up to 1500rpms so that wasn't the issue either.

Ape Factory

iTrader: (3)

Basically you're bogging down and not launching in your powerband. They always put a ton of traction compound down at the track and unless you're launching hard, you won't get a good time. I used to drag my RX7 quite a bit and typically I was leaving the line around 5500 rpm and feathering the clutch. An auto makes that much harder without a trans brake.

What's your 60ft. time?

Superchargers make all their power up top and barely push a psi or two just off idle. 6psi is a flat tire. So you'll need to launch higher in the rpm range, drop your 60ft. time to something respectable, and you'll trap much higher with a lower ET.

RadioFlyer

iTrader: (1)

What was your MPH? I'm guessing something in the 80's? I'd guess you're having traction control issues where trac control is cutting power or braking one wheel to try to keep you straight. Were you running with a switch to disable the yaw sensor? If so, you might want to check the wiring of it, because it sounds just like what would happen if you ran with traction control still on.

I have a supercharger on my car, and it doesn't bog anywhere. Maybe under 2K, but running a 17 second ET means he's running slower than a stock car. So even if he bogged off the line, he'd be plenty fast for the rest of the run through the rest of the gears. The SC setup may not make tons of boost off the line, but anything higher than 1.5-2K, it's at least at stock power levels.

BHunts

So I have no idea what my 60ft times were. I went looking for my slips but can't find them. Might have just thrown them in the trash because I was disgusted with them.. lol.
I can see where you coming from but even with the traction compound I can't see why that would cause my car to bog down that hard and be 4 seconds slower then a stock G. At the same time though, it might be because it ran perfectly fine on the way home after the track.

Yes, I seem to recall that my times were generally in the 80's. I didn't have the switches installed before I went but I sure as heck put them in the day after.. lol. I never even had the chance to spin a tire to let the traction control think to take over so I don't know why it would cut power. I have never had this happen on the street so it almost makes me wonder if ApeFactory might be on to something. I can't get back to the track for about a month to see if the switches solve this issue or not.