Akrion

I wanted to share some of the general advice's I have gotten from my drag strip experiences so far and to get your opinion about them as well as some new ones.
I am quite hooked on improving my times (current best is 12:56) since I do know the car can do better ...

Note: Please lets skip the non constructive posts (we all know the B8 S4 is not going to be the fastest car on the track). Post if you have some valuable experience/advice you think would help!

So here they are:

1. Expect your best time to be in your first 3 runs (assuming you drive your car normally to the drag strip etc.).
2. No point of more than 5 runs. The car gets heat soaked and the times are never even close matching the first 3 runs unless you wait (more than 1 hour) to get your engine cool and back in action.
3. Give your engine time to cool down. Making 3 consecutive runs is counterproductive without significant engine cooling in between.
4. Suggested tire pressure - front 34psi back 28psi.
5. Avoid high temperatures, going to the drag strip on a 35 degrees Celsius won’t help your drag times.
6. Go around the water when you get into position. Keep the water off your tires.
7. Make sure you drive in the tire marks on the track, that will help with the traction.
8. Get the spare & tools out.
9. Push the pedal all the way when you see the 2nd light. Do not wait for the 3rd.
10. Launch control is useless … primetime does not use it .

skiracerblah

Ever try spraying the IC with a shot of NOS or CO2 before a run?

primetime

Akrion, Glad you are enjoying the strip... while you are right these cars aren't dragstrip monsters they do pretty well and impress/surprise most folks...

Anyway, you make some very good points... Just some thoughts... Having the car somewhat cool is good but I have honestly found the car runs best with about 160-190 oil temp not totally cold... also much less risk damaging the car then when it is totally cold... tire pressure really needs to be based on the track conditions and weather conditions... you want to run as much air as possible as long as you don't spin the tires out of the hole and can hook... less air in the tires hurt you on the big end as there is more rolling resistance... you really lower the pressure to get more contact patch to the ground when launching... the colder it gets and/or less track prep requires lower pressure... for example in the fall months on say a 40ish degree day I'll go as low as 30-34 up front and 24-28 out back but in the summer I will go as high as upper 40's in the front and mid 40's in the rears... The biggest point to make that you didn't mention is staging and launching... for the best ET you want to shallow stage... you do this by barely activating the second yellow stage light... this allows for about 4-6 inches of rollout before the timing starts... As for launching I agree the LC on these cars and all the other Audi car vids I have seen show that it doesn't really help... Until someone starts cutting 1.6x 60's with it I'll say mashing the gas is better... Just my .02

Also, here is a great post from Saki with some really good advice...
http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=521.0

Akrion

Thanks for the info Ron! I will have all this in mind on my next trip to the drag strip.

What I am wondering is since I do live in Florida and the temps here are so far are in the 80+F plus the humidity etc. how much do you think that impacts my times?

I mean I know my best start was @ 1.81 not 1.60 but still ... I also noticed that so far I was able to get to 109mph max! Given what I see on the B8 S4 best times I need to get to 115mph to get where I want to be ... how much is the conditions impacting me and how much is my ability the root cause?

I do understand that there are quite a few variables there and there wont be a golden answer but anyway...

81bear

What is your goal? Where is your home track? What fuel do you run? what is your current mods? Can you post up a few time slips with an estimated DA? Etc.

Once you provide that info we can better assess how realistic your goals are and what supporting mods you may want to persue.

Akrion

Fuel: 93
Mods: APR ECU V2 + Pulley, APR CPS, AWE Resonated Exhaust, AWE Intake, MORR 19" LW Wheels, Front and Rear JHM LW Rotors, EuroCode AleKreauz & USS System.
Race Track: Palm Beach International Raceway
DA: No idea

Best Time/Slip:

81bear

Your DA was 1700ft on that run.

What's your target ET? Can you log your next few runs?

I'm a little over 2 tenths and 3mph faster in similar conditions and I have about the same level of mods you do. Was 110 mph your fast trap speed?

Akrion

Yes 110 mph was the fastest I have gotten so far.
I want to get bellow 12:3 on 93 if possible. I would love to try 100 octane I just am not sure how would the logistics of that experiment plan out since 100 octane is not easy to find in FL.

Akrion

Also how much would you think the Eurocode headers would help?

81bear

So you will need to pickup over 2.5 tenths. Before you change anything I'd do some logging of IAT's and boost levels. Just to see if your CPS unit has purged all the air out of the lines and ensure that your intake airboxs is installed correctly. I ran into a problem with my airbox rubber tub connector not lining up perfectly which would reduce air flow in the higher rpm range. I only noticed it after I logged the boost PSI and notice I only got about 10psi in higher gears vs 13.5psi at lower speeds.

I don't know. At that price point ($2500 + 10-12hrs install time) I'd probably go with a set of test pipes ($450 + 6-8hrs install time) as they seem to have worked well for Fonzie (PT and I have HFC's and I can't complain). Plus I haven't seen anyone run numbers that are so good they would justify the added cost. Just my $0.02!