Newbie drag questions (going to Sunshine)

[pdisme]

You've probably never seen one of these at the track before but I'm wanting to take my Mercedes G55 to Sunshine; I've done pretty extensive mods to it to get it up to about 620 HP and with the new power to weight ratio, I'm hoping to pull off very high 12's. Here's a video of a guy I know up in GA with the same vehicle but a bit more modification doing 12.5 in his G-wagen (video is mis-titled e55, it's a g55):

Video of e55 amg 12.5 quarter - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting (http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n58/mbritt80/?action=view&current=MVI_0035.flv)

Since I've never done this, I've got no idea how to launch (it's AWD auto) and if there's any unwritten rules I need to be careful of when I go to the drag strip because I'm sure there's regulars there that expect people to do things a certain way, etc. I've already got a helmet, etc. from taking my car to Sebring so I'm covered there.

Any tips would be appreciated; from my own back road testing of the thing, I'm liking just revving to about 3500 with foot on the brake and then dumping it and letting the auto do the rest; you can manually up/down the Mercedes auto tranny but I don't think my shifting would be of any benefit, it lets it go all the way in each gear.

Thanks in advance

[Sneakin Deacon]

just dont pull through the water box. your AWD so you should hook just fine.

as for consistancy, put the car in D, stage deep or shallow, whatever you prefer (itll affect how you leave for a good R/T) and then do like you do. mash the brake and put the gas down as far as you can without moving. if you staged deep, once you see that 3rd yellow light come on let off the brake and put the gas to the floor (if you see green, you are too late). if you stage shallow, you may have to wait just a flinch longer to go, or if you find yourself cutting lights a bit thick, stage shallow and leave on the 3rd amber. sunshine runs a .000 (perfect tree) so thats what your aiming for. its an auto, so the rest of the driving is up to the car itself.

if your making 620whp, you should be in the 10's. im doubting you are, unless you've dynoed it and you actually put down 620. 12.70's are pretty realistic, but since your at sunshine, expect to go 8 teens, maybe 8.20's. your biggest thing will be leaving as absolutely hard as you can off the line. 1.8 60's wont be bad for you, anything better is just going to me that much more fun for ya :)

[pdisme]

just dont pull through the water box. your AWD so you should hook just fine.

as for consistancy, put the car in D, stage deep or shallow, whatever you prefer (itll affect how you leave for a good R/T) and then do like you do. mash the brake and put the gas down as far as you can without moving. if you staged deep, once you see that 3rd yellow light come on let off the brake and put the gas to the floor (if you see green, you are too late). if you stage shallow, you may have to wait just a flinch longer to go, or if you find yourself cutting lights a bit thick, stage shallow and leave on the 3rd amber. sunshine runs a .000 (perfect tree) so thats what your aiming for. its an auto, so the rest of the driving is up to the car itself.


Wow, great advice, thanks. I have a general idea of how drag racing works with the ambers but I'm not very knowledgeable at all on it. The tree auto starts once you're staged right? And then you've got three amber's before green? How far are we talking between deep and shallow once you're showing as staged; just a few inches?


if your making 620whp, you should be in the 10's. im doubting you are, unless you've dynoed it and you actually put down 620. 12.70's are pretty realistic, but since your at sunshine, expect to go 8 teens, maybe 8.20's. your biggest thing will be leaving as absolutely hard as you can off the line. 1.8 60's wont be bad for you, anything better is just going to me that much more fun for ya :)

The 620 is crank. Don't forget I'm driving a vehicle that weighs 5800 pounds and is shaped like a brick. :) It makes 470 crank hp stock, I haven't dyno'd but pseudo racing with gforce or just point to point clocking looks about right for 620 crank based on the weight of this beast.

[Sneakin Deacon]

Wow, great advice, thanks. I have a general idea of how drag racing works with the ambers but I'm not very knowledgeable at all on it. The tree auto starts once you're staged right? And then you've got three amber's before green? How far are we talking between deep and shallow once you're showing as staged; just a few inches?

For sunshine, the tree starts to drop when the guy kicks the switch. your going to have 2 staging bulbs. deep/shallow is only a matter of a few inches but can drastically affect your reaction time, and can affect your E/T aswell. deep staging is usually considered when you move far enough forward to turn off your top stage bulbs, and if you want to do this, the track usually asks you write DEEP on the window beside your number. shallow staging is when you just barely trip the 2nd bulb on (top and bottom stage bulbs are lit). after that, on .500 tree, its yellow yellow yellow green. protree is something entirely different, and is based on a .400 tree, where the person staging last controls the start of the race, but i wont get into that, it gets complicated with strategy.




The 620 is crank. Don't forget I'm driving a vehicle that weighs 5800 pounds and is shaped like a brick. :) It makes 470 crank hp stock, I haven't dyno'd but pseudo racing with gforce or just point to point clocking looks about right for 620 crank based on the weight of this beast.

well, for a fair guess, we'll say it makes 500 to the wheels. but yea, thats a fat auto.















AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL
there are THREE (3) turnoffs...one right at the timing towers incase of a botched run, one more about 50 yards further down, and one more at the very very end of the track.

(reason i point this out, i was coming through the traps at just about 110mph one night and im shutting everything down and kicking the headlights on just in time to watch a mustang coming straight at me. when i ran him down and started to cuss him out in the pits for damn near killing me, his excuse was it was his 1st time at the track)