Tips for drag racing the MM

[ctrlraven]

Just wondering what everyone does when they race their Marauder.
Do you drive around the water box then back up into it or just drive thru to do a burn out or spin the tires to clean them off?
With running OEM tires do you lower the psi and what to?
Do you turn back on the traction control before staging?
Do you line shift or just leave the o/d off and in drive gear and mash the gas?
And lastly what rpm do you try to launch at when brake standing while staged and waiting for green?

Sorry for seeming so dumb about this, I'm so used to drag racing my 89 Mustang 5spd for the past 3 1/2 yrs and can run mid 12's all day long. My MM is the 1ST automatic vehicle I've run at the track so I want to make sure I'm doing things that will help decrease my time instead of increasing it.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome, thanks guys!:D

[Black_Noise]

dont take my advice cause i havent been to the strip, but on the street i try a 2k tourqe stand launch and just leave it in D

only lost so far to a massively turbocharged AWD elicpse anti-lagging from 6k, from a dead stop

[Vortech347]

With radial tires you can safely go down to about 25ish but don't drive anymore than just that 1/4 mile. But these cars hook up pretty damn good out of the hole so unless you've got more mods in your sig I'd just leave your tires the same Psi unless you get alot of spin. Drive around the water box. Back up almost to the box then do a small TQ stall and just churp the tires a bit to clean them off. I lock mine in 1st gear. Once the yellows start Crank that stall all the way up and unleash the beast. Once 5500rpm comes I click it into 2nd this usually shifts it at around 6000, shifting it this way makes the car shift much firmer, infact it barks the tires sometimes. Click it a 2nd time into 3rd (D) about 5600rpm, the car will finish the shift at 6-6100.

Thats what I've been doing racing my buddies and its very consistant. I'm in the process of teaching the wife how to so she can race it at our annual mustang track meet in April. So far she's kickin ass. However when my tuner gets here I'll have it all setup so she can just launch in drive.

[ctrlraven]

I lock mine in 1st gear. Once the yellows start Crank that stall all the way up and unleash the beast. Once 5500rpm comes I click it into 2nd this usually shifts it at around 6000, shifting it this way makes the car shift much firmer, infact it barks the tires sometimes. Click it a 2nd time into 3rd (D) about 5600rpm, the car will finish the shift at 6-6100. You'll have to excuse my lack of exp with automatics. Locking in 1st gear? Cranking the stall all the way up? The OEM t/c has a 3000 stall correct? So the grunt force of tq is put out around the 3000 rpm mark? Ok so if I'm staged up and got my 2nd yellow lite, lock it in 1st gear, left foot on brake and how much rpm can I raise up to without the tires spinning? That's something I really want to work on this Sunday at the track was my R/T cause like I said, never drove a automatic at the track before and I would think it would of been simplier than doing my line lock then staging and trans braking waiting for that 2nd yellow to lite, BLINK my eyes and go. An old trick my grandfather taught me cause he was a racer back in the 50's-60's with his Falcon and Bel Air, once that 2nd lite lights up, do a normal blink and when you open your eyes back up go.

[Smokie]

You seem to be stock, based on that.

Do not wet your tires at all.
Turn of O/D and T/C if you have it.
Hold car with brakes and do a small burnout to clean the tires.
OEM stall is 2200 rpm's, I used to load the converter at the first yellow to 1200-1400 rpms and nail it just after 2nd yellow.
Do a shallow stage, will improve your 60' and Trap speed.
Let your Auto do the shifting, experience (over 90 passes) tells me it shifts faster than manually.

On a N/A car the best times are achieved when you get a slight chirp from your tires on take off, more than that you are losing time. Good luck.:)

P.S. My personal best N/A were done around 28 psi, anything less made me slower.

[Joe Walsh]

You seem to be stock, based on that.

Do not wet your tires at all.
Turn off the O/D and T/C if you have it.
Hold car with brakes and do a small burnout to clean the tires.
OEM stall is 2200 rpm's, I used to load the converter at the first yellow to 1200-1400 rpms and nail it just after 2nd yellow.
Do a shallow stage, will improve your 60' and Trap speed.
Let your Auto do the shifting, experience (over 90 passes) tells me it shifts faster than manually.

On a N/A car the best times are achieved when you get a slight chirp from your tires on take off, more than that you are losing time. Good luck.:)

P.S. My personal best N/A were done around 28 psi, anything less made me slower.

.....................^ This is exactly what I do. ^............................. .............

[ctrlraven]

You seem to be stock, based on that.

Do not wet your tires at all.
Turn of O/D and T/C if you have it.
Hold car with brakes and do a small burnout to clean the tires.
OEM stall is 2200 rpm's, I used to load the converter at the first yellow to 1200-1400 rpms and nail it just after 2nd yellow.
Do a shallow stage, will improve your 60' and Trap speed.
Let your Auto do the shifting, experience (over 90 passes) tells me it shifts faster than manually.

On a N/A car the best times are achieved when you get a slight chirp from your tires on take off, more than that you are losing time. Good luck.:)

P.S. My personal best N/A were done around 28 psi, anything less made me slower. Thank you :bows: :lol: . I guess I'll have to tell the ppl to move the damn cones at Capitol cause last weekend they made everyone wet them which I didn't mind creating a massive smoke show. Yeah it mostly stock for now, air filter and open exhaust from cats back. I will try to do all that this weekend see how much I improved over last weekend.

[MarauderMark]

Well as fer me i lowered the tires 25/27 lbs.
i do go threw the water and light em up till there alota smoke and so there i know there heated well.
get on the line brake and gas and when its green then it time to get mean.
with this process i usually get great take off @ the 2nd or 3rd time going down.
i did this about 10 times on oem tires(best was 12.1) and 2x' on drags..
Good luck and have fun out there..:burn:

[Black_Noise]

i tryed nitrous ssc shift plan and it does bark the tires for me, i sent a honda home with its tail between its legs:banana2:

[merc]

You will have the #2 & #3 fastest N/A Marauders on the track at Capital Sunday. Just bring a note pad.

Joe Walsh 13.611@100.45
merc 13.680@98.90

[1 Bad Merc]

I would suggest on OEM tires not to go through the water box. Drive around it and chirp the tires clean. I normally stage shallow and load the car up to just about where the front brakes feel like they are going to slip. I have DR's tune so I just leave it in drive with the overdrive and TC off as the tune changes the shift points. If your car is stock you probably want to manually shift it yourself. If you are doing some bracket racing remember you can change your et time on your window between runs to keep from braking out. Automatics usually run alot more consistent then sticks. Hope this helps.:banana:

[Joe Walsh]

You will have the #2 & #3 fastest N/A Marauders on the track at Capital Sunday. Just bring a note pad.

Joe Walsh 13.611@100.45
merc 13.680@98.90

I'm looking for a 101 mph trap and a 13.5.....
Hopefully we can narrow the gap between us and Barry. (#1: CRUZTAKER: 13.27@ 102.28)

[Smokie]

I'm looking for a 101 mph trap and a 13.5.....
Hopefully we can narrow the gap between us and Barry. (#1: CRUZTAKER: 13.27@ 102.28)

Should be able to reach your goal,:) Fordnut ran a 13.5 with a 100.0x mph trap speed.

[Paul T. Casey]

^^^ all good advice^^^. One more thing to try, during test and tune or after you've figured a good dial in on race day, take a few runs slowly increasing the rpm's at which you leave. If the VHT is good on the track, I've been able to go at 1800 rpm's without breaking the tires loose. If the VHT is poor, I can't leave at much more than 1000 rpm. This is one of those variables from track to track, day to day.

[John F. Russo]

dont take my advice cause i havent been to the strip, but on the street i try a 2k tourqe stand launch and just leave it in D

only lost so far to a massively turbocharged AWD elicpse anti-lagging from 6k, from a dead stop


Who makes the eclipse?

What do you mean by "anti-lagging from 6k"?

What have you done to the MM?

[Vortech347]

Eclipse's are made by Mitsubishi

[ctrlraven]

I want to thank everyone for their input. With your guys advice I increased my time from a best on 3/05/06 of 14.85 @ 93.73 to 14.62 @ 95.15 on 3/12/06. All of my 7 passes down the track were faster than last weeks runs expect for 1 15.0 pass and still ended up beating some kid in a mustang gt lol. I lowered my rear tires to 28 psi, removed the driver's headlamp, and was launching at about 1900-2000 rpm, reaction and 60' times imporved on every run. Best part was racing against :bows: Breadfan in his Trilogy MM (which was the 14.62 run) and just watching him pull away from me . I didn't mind losing to a better MM :up:. That just makes me want to go bigger and badder and totally off the way performance, maybe something like VT engines 5.0 stroker kit, trilogy s/c and who knows maybe a rear mount turbo :D :D :D yes both supercharged and turbo supercharged. If their is a way :thinker: and I have the funds I will make it happen.

[BISHOPSS95]

If all else fails you can always follow me.

:banana2:

[Gryphonzus]

Has anyone tried with their footpedal controls set all the way up and partway up? I know it made a difference on my Harley F150 when I set the pedals all the way up.