Victory at the NIRA Spring Nationals

[dswartz]

I competed this past weekend at the NIRA Spring Nationals in Englishtown, New Jersey. I won the COMP 6 (Normally aspirated 6 cylinder class) with a personal best run of 12.58 @ 111 mph.

My 98 coupe has Comptech Intake, Headers, Exhaust, test pipes, and Street/Track Clutch. The big change since my last run was the addition of 225x50x16 Nitto Drag Radials mounted on Volk 16x8 TE37's. They may sound small but I didn't want to increase the diameter and affect my final drive ratio (the 225x50x16's are about .2" larger than the 245x40x17's). They resulted in a 1.88 second 60' time and virtually eliminated wheel spin when power shifting.

My final run was against the ACR Acura CL from the HART Honda Race Team. By the way these are the nicest bunch of guys you could ever race with. They made be proud to run a Honda Product.

Just a side note, I removed the spare tire, tools, floor mats, and engine cover. With slightly more than a 1/4 tank of gas the car weighed 2860 lbs.

[This message has been edited by dswartz (edited 07 May 2001).]

[This message has been edited by dswartz (edited 07 May 2001).]

 

[Lud]

Congratulations!

What is your launch technique w/ the drag radials?

 

[dswartz]

Although some suggest just a quick spin to clean the tires off, I do a second gear burn out with the brake on until I see blue smoke. Then I was able to dump the clutch at 4,000 rpm's. The car just comes out of the hole perfectly, however, you have too pay close attention to avoid hitting the rev limiter.

An interesting side note is that I though the Eibach springs would not allow enough lift/squat to improve weight transfer. However, they appear to have had no negative effect. I think that's because the initial spring rate is less thant the stock springs, which, even though the car is 1" lower, allowed sufficient rotation (front lift/rear squat) to alow sufficient weight transfer for a good launch.

 

[David]

Originally posted by dswartz:
Although some suggest just a quick spin to clean the tires off, I do a second gear burn out with the brake on until I see blue smoke.

That is exactly how to use drag radials. They use a special compound that gets really soft when it heats up, so you need to burn out until they just start to smoke - then they are good to go. Nice grip compared to street tires, huh?

 

[dswartz]

The grip is unbelievable for such a small tire. My best run previous was 12.84 @ 110 mph. The tires made almost a .3 second difference.

Next I'm going to try 26" drag slicks with a 4.55 ring & pinion. I currently run the stock 4.06 and cross the 1/4 mile at about 7,000 rpm, so I have some room to spare in terms of gearing.

 

[David]

I would be interested to hear how the slicks work. You may actually be better off with the drag radials, as the slicks (if heated up) won't allow for any wheelspin and may hook up more than you need.

Let us know how it works out.