Ed:

Since you're the 60 foot king, I'd like to hear your technique and how you launch your car and what you've found works and doesn't work.

Maybe opening this discussion will help people improve ET's without spending a dime on these hard to launch torque monsters .

 

He's got a Vigilante torque converter, that'l help alot.

 

deffinatly but for a 305 his times are impressive no doubt

 

The vig doesn't help getting it to hook up at all. It just gives me full power available right off the line so that i can get up and go as fast as my anemic 305 and available traction will allow.

I really can't help much in the way of advice. I guess i've always had a smooth foot. I suppose it helps that my first 2 camaros were one leggers, so not spinning out of the hole was always the top priority. Kinda forced me to learn how to launch.

All i do is roll into the throttle when i launch. I've tried to mentally slow down what i do, and one thing i *think* i do as the tree starts to go is to let off the brake well before i am actually launching. Well before is of course a relative term, in real terms, i'm probably off the brake pedal 0.500 or 1 light on the tree before i begin rolling into the throttle. This also might explain why when my 60's are on, so are my RTs usually, since my laucnh is basically programmed into my body, when i'm doing what i should be doing, it will come out the same.

And thats what it's all about. By letting the car start to roll just before you apply power, you hit the tires that much less. From there, the foot starts almost slow and goes faster as i feel the car hook and go. It's all in seat of the pants and practice to get the body to be able to do it naturally.

Between just stabbing the gas blindly, and not releasing the brake before stabbing the gas i'd guess are most people's problems with running decent short times. Horrible track prep can come into play as well, but it really can't be held to blame all the time. I've run nice shorts on tracks that basically noone was hooking on. I've run sub 2.0 coming out of the hole sideways and almost taking out the tree for christsakes, even if i spin i still try to modulate the power to get it to grab and go.

Of course there's always misinformation as well. For example, i've had people who've never run a 2.0 60' in their entire life actually try to explain to me why airing down stret tires is a bad idea, or why burnouts on street tires don't help. Rather than just listen to advice, i experiemented myself and found combinations of pressure and burnout duration that work for my car.

But i am far from the 60' king. Given how little power i have i guess i don't do too bad, but there are guys out there running 1.6s on real street tires. When i'm in that range then i'll consider myself pretty good.

 

this guy is modest ...no but in all seriousness hes right....u cant just nail it on a 400+ft pounder on street tires and expect it to grab...like he said you gotta ease into..u get more n more agressive with your launches untill u feel a little wheelspin the u back off a tick...one of the keys to a solid launch is to find what combo works for your ride (tire pressure burnout duration)....and then get the throttle manipulation down...then repeat it everytime....youll only get better times..


i think i have a pretty good idea how to lauch a auto car...but as of now i cant lauch my stick car for crap...2.25 is downright embarrasing...

any quick pointers?...i dont wanna hijack a post thats dedicated to eds stout 60's