Hey, I am pretty new to this board. I have been surfin it for quite some time and have decided to start posting a bit.

So here's my question. I am going to be taking my car to the track on friday. It is an 89 Trans Am GTA WS6. It has 350TPI, 4.10gears, shift kit, and a flowmaster 80 series muffler. What should I do to the car to get it ready for the races? ie. Timing, tire pressure, and anything else you can think of that might help. Thanks in andvance.

 

You can raise your timing some, just not too much or you'll get detonation. Let some air out of the rear tires.

 

Maybe a tune-up. Plugs, wires, air filter, stuff like that.

BTW how do you like your 4.10 gears?

 

Reply to Tony89GTA:


Hey tony, I like the 4.10 gears alot. They are really nice for the "around town" power and I still can get up to about 180km/h maybe even more. I was just at the track yesturday and ran a 14.9 with just those basic mods on the car. I want get a little higher of a gear though, maybe a 3.9?. I am havin to shift into overdrive right near the top end of the track so I think I am losing a few tenths with that shift. Out of all the mods you did to your GTA which one do you think benefitted the car the most? How do your like your SLP cold air intake? I want to know real results from a car just like mine. Also what were the "free mods" you did and did you notice a difference after you did them. Thanks alot.

 

I got to say the headers and the rest of the exhaust made the most difference along with the cold air but cutting two windows in the air intake can will give you about the same gain. My free mods were porting the plenum, gasket matching the runners, throttlebody coolent bypass, but I can't say if these did much.

 

If your running street tires, do NOT lower the air pressure, only lower air pressure when running slicks. Street tires will use 30 - 35 psi as usual.

Do you have K&N filters? - Remove back seat[s], spare tire/jack, remember, every 100 lbs of dead weight costs you a tenth in the 1/4 mi.

 

Why would you not want to let air out of the rear tires on streets??

 

If you drop the pressure lower than 25psi on a regular radial you can force the tire contact patch to cup...and you'll get less grip.

I say 25psi, but every tire is different.

 

BEST thing to do is find some "unmarked" pavement, do a burnout, if there is more rubber [darker] on the outside of the burnout marks you just made, your tire is 'cupping' and you add more air, keep doing this til you get a nice even strip of rubber.

 

I'm not saying to let out like 10 PSI.

 

I just noticed this...Be careful. 700r4's 3-4 clutch pack is NOT designed for WOT shifts. If you keep running with that gear, plan on rebuilding your trans often.