Ran my 8 down the 1/4 for the 1st time yesterday. Made 4 runs. Best was my 1st run.

60'-2.1x
1/4=15.22@90MPH

i was shifting at 8800 and didnt miss any gears or spin off the line, sliping the clutch from 7000. Is this really all i should expect out of my car? I did Throw a CEL after i left from a front o2 sensor, do you think that should have any effect? Thanks.

 

Actually that's pretty good!

 

Your car can do a 14.5. It doesn't look like you can yet. You should have a little wheel slip for fastest times. Also you can probably mess with the tire pressures and take out any excess baggage in the car. Check Polak's thread. He did a 14.5 his first time out in his '04. He illustrates how he got it in the thread.

 

I'll never do it again, puts way to much stress on our fragile tranny and I had some insane beginers luck to get a 14.5.

I had an extremly cocky attitude and still do, and running that time was very sweet.

 

Turn off the DSC and you will run better times. The car will do high 14's in stock form.

 

Thought that was a myth for straightline performance?

 

I have never dragraced with the 8. I have however driven her on a racetrack, which was mighty fun. I can say i was NOT disappointed in her performance. Lapped a couple of porsche 911 (older model), outran a BMW M3, ran even with a new porsche 996 (the driver admitted defeat afterwards because he had been sliding out in one turn when i was on his tail. I had prudently stayed behind so we wouldnt cause an accident) and i must admit i was outrun by a BMW M3 CSL. But it took him 4 laps before he finally passed a couple of other cars on a straight and i didnt have time to pass as many. When i was bogged down behind an old Golf GTI the CSL pulled away from me.

And yes for those who calls this BS, it really did happen. I dont have any evidence. All i can say is that i knew and felt confident in the 8 driving her to the limit (my limit), and probably the others were not as confident in their cars.

As for the porsche 996, it was the "weak" 272 hp model which made the race much more fair. He pulled away on the straights but was afraid of going in too fast in the turns so i caught up with him in every turn and had a faster turning speed than he did.

All i want to say is that the 8 is mighty fun!

 

You need to lower the rear tires to about 20 psi, raise the fronts to 40 take out all the stuff and launch around 4500-5000 rpms depending on track prep.

 

Anyone ever tried icing down the intake track with bags of ice?

 

I disagree, this did not work for me on my first few runs, and it really just puts undue stress on the transmission. I'd rather that my wheels spin at a high rpm of the line then grab so hard that the engine will almost certainly bog on 3/5 attempts.
That said I still had a pretty decent 60ft time without lowering pressures.

 

Many tracks don't let you use bags of ice in staging lanes on your average test-n-tune nights.

 

This works for high hp/ high torque cars on a drag tire. I used to drop the rear tires (drag radials) down to 16 psi on my Fbody, launch at 5K rpm and cut 1.7's with stock suspension. On street tires with stiff side walls, it makes less of a difference, as the sidewalls won't let the tire twist even with lowered pressure. I can only imagine that on a lesser powered car, one must avoid the bog at all costs (as experienced by Polak).
Lower rear tire pressure basically lowers your 60' time and your ET at the cost of your trap speed MPH (on your traditional RWD platform).
I haven't dragged the RX8 (nor do I plan to), so I'm just basing this on theory and my own experience on other platforms. The right thing to do is to do as Polak did and make adjustments to your launching method and see if results are better (which involves thinking out of the box sometimes). Cheers.

 

that seems to be a decent time for your first time out with a car with this kind of tq. you 60' time is decent - for a n00b - but still on the slow side. You improve that to a 1.8ish and you will have some good times.

 

What did you expect?

 

That seemed to be the rule to follow on any car I drag raced with FWD being jack up the rears and let air out of the fronts. The tires that come on a RX8 don't have THAT stiff of a sidewall and letting air out still makes a huge difference.

For reference I cut 2.1 60 foots in my 00 turbo civic on the factory 195/60/14 firestone H rated tires with open diff. Also managed a 2.0 in a FWD Nissan Sentra SE-R on some crappy 205/50/15 kumhos 712's. In my M3 I ran on some potenzas similar to the stock RX8 RE040's with very little air in the rears and fronts pumped up to a 1.9 60 foot. The civic also managed to pull out a 8.52@84 mph with 176 whp 173 wtq with a 1.7 60 foot on some small M/T's (fwd, open diff still). I ran about 18-20 psi in the front tires of all the FWD cars and around 20-22 psi in the rear tires of the M3 to cut those times.

I also recently found that slightly lower tire pressures in the rear of the S2000 net better times. Of course in that car I launch well into VTEC engagement so it will never bog down from lack of power like the RX8

 

Skip the drag strip and take it to a race track, gurantee times will be better

 

That is an 1/8 mile time I am assuming. If you claim that is a 1/4 mi time let me be the first to call BS.

 

I agree w/all your experience PerSmith. Fun stuff how we can mess with those others on a race track hah? When I was a teen I used to 'drag' in my father's car. But the few sec of what you get in the 8 when you try is about 1/1000th the fun you can have on a real race track in the course of a few sessions. But to each their own as long as you can afford the $$ for broken parts !

 

You got a Hemi in there? Yeah I think 1/8 mile. 8.52 1/4 mile does not =84mph

 

unfortuantly for me i have no real race tracks arond.. and my 1/4 track is about an hour and half away
first time i took my 8.. it was bone stock, the best i pulled was 15.4but it was about 42 C. and about 80% humidity.... it was a gross.. sticky.. very bad day to run.. i know have borla exhaust, underdrive pully, and this thursday im getting the act prolite flywheel installed. and im going to go on a MUCH cooler day... im guessing ill be able to run mid to high 14s this time around

 

You CAN'T BE serious!!! Not sure what you consider far away, but you've got at least 2 of the most awesome tracks in N America within easy driving distance, namely Mosport in Bowmanville, Ontario; and a brand spanking new track at Calabogie, Ontario.

Check it out, lots of clubs have HPDEs at these location regularly for newbies to seasoned track guys. All you need is a helmet, your car, and the time....I hope to get to Calabogie this year it' looks to be one amazing track!

www.calabogiemotorsports.com
www.mosport.com

 

Taking an 8 to a dragstrip is like taking brooke burke to a cooking contest. She might do okay, but that's not exactly her niche. Keep it on the autocross and road courses, and there will be no disappointments.

 

Sorry for late responce. I did Adjust the air pressure, around 40 front and 20 in rear. i took out spare tire ect, Car weighed in at 3000LBS with out me in it. Weather was perfect for racing and track was preped. Thats ok, ill just find hit the autocross later this summer i guess. My Other car should be up and runing in about 2 weeks 10s here i come!

 

My nomination for quote of the week.