F-Body Europe

Myself, being new at this drag racing, (I know I'm from the south and all, but still new at it) where is a "good" place to get some practice on reaction times and power shifting and such. I don't want to get to Bitburg, or where ever, and look like a dumb ass.

Any help will be appreciated!

Considering that you already know what "reaction time" and "power shifting" are you would have a hard time looking like a dumb ass. If you know what those little blinky lights are in the middle of the track and you don't try to stage with your rear wheels you are way ahead of some folks.

Germany has been very considerate and installed practice trees at many intersections. Think we could get the US to change to the "Yellow before Green" system also?

Just show up at Bitburg and have some fun!

@Dennis: *lol* Only problem is the practice trees are all too slow, somewhere in the 1.0 range I'd say ... anyway, I have a nice practice tree here in Hersfeld, combined bike/car tree ... the bike light will turn yellow then green slightly before the yellow for the cars ... makes a nice sportsman tree (still too slow, though)

I found that a can of spray paint (to mark a 1/4 mile), a video camaro (mounted to record your guages), a stop watch (sometimes better ran by a buddy for times), and a flat piece of "Farmer Bob's Road" makes good practice.

I guess I could do it in front of the 4 star general's house on Ramstein. I'm sure he won't mind.

Yup, sounds good - just make sure you don't do it at times when kids could be around playing, 2am or so should make a good time ... also make sure you heat up your tires well, and dump the clutch at RPMs that are high enough to create a warning "screech" so that everybody knows not to cross the street while you're coming ...

But seriously, we have three full days of quartermile runs coming up in October - if you can get off on Oct 3 and are there early enough in the morning to be there as soon as we open up the track, you will have plenty enough time to do practice runs - depending on how many people are there early, you could get runs in as quickly as one every 10 minutes or faster ...

Stupid question: Would anybody be interested in a little handheld R/T-trainer? Would make a cool little winter project to design one ...

Hey Garry, where are you talking about on the 3rd of OCT? I would not mind a couple of runs before i ship the z.

Garry, I'll be in on that R/T trainer. Just let me know

Bitburg, as always (kind of) ... check http://1on1-motorsports.de for details and pre-registration ...

I don't think *I* need an R/T trainer.

Ben

I'm suprised that no mentioned using a G-Tech. It'll tell you what you are running in the quarter. It is fairly accurate. At least this can help you with your consistancy. Doesn't do reaction times though.

Hm ... I don't remember you driving a .500 R/T yet ... !?

No, my best was a .506 twice.
I will try a .500 in October.

Ben

forget about the r/t, focus on the 60'

on a 5/10's tree, good reaction times should be fairly easy. No reason not to tree a .550 -.650.

Now those 2.40 60' on the other hand...................


BTW the tazzo does 60' times and I believe the new Gtech does it also. The device's arent the end all, be all, but you can atleast see your consistency, so I think they are worth it anyway.

This may be late but it might still be of interest...
In the Feb 04 issue of Car Craft, (last page) they tried out a computer program called "Practice Tree 2.0" It costs about $40 and is available at http://www.performancetrends.com It even includes staging varibles so you can figure out how different size front tires and how "deep" you stage will effect your reaction time and e.t. Looks pretty cool and should help out most drag racers.

I have a G-Tech competition pro and they are great tools. And they are very accurate. I have took mine to the strip and compared it to my time slips. And they were very close. You just have to make sure you weigh your car and have it as close as possible.