Rowing through the gears is excellent advice. Something I knew, but
never thought about as it applied to shifting in a race...... thanks
Jon.
Tate
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Steiger [SMTP:stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu]
Sent: Saturday, August 22, 1998 6:59 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: Re: DML: Questions From Dragstrip1st Timer
At 02:06 PM 8/22/98 -0400, you wrote:
>1) What can I do about the shitty 5spd shifter on my 94? I'm not an
>experienced racer, but I've owned several muscle cars over the years
that
>shifted an awful lot better than my Dak. It's embarrassing to miss
3rd gear
>at the track.
I used to miss 3rd all the time too. (I still do occasionally, but
nowhere near as often as I used to.) Something that I found which
helped
was to row through the gears as you're in the staing lanes and when
you're
creeping forward into the staging beams. I just go 1,2,3,4,3,2,1...
A few
times.
I don't know wether this aligns the gears or what, but it helps a
lot.
As I do it, I can feel some of the friction come out of the stick and
its
a lot easier to move; it "glides" easier. One thing that is very
important
(on my truck anyway) is to never put it in reverse once you get close
to the
lanes and you're getting ready to launch. Some people drive around
the
water and then back up to give them a little more room to clean off
their
tires, but I just keep it in 1st. If I go too far foward while
steering
around the water and run out of room, I'll just do a quick clean. It
seemed
that just about every time I put the truck in reverse before
launching, I
would miss third. 9 times out of 10, when I missed third, I had put
it in
reverse just prior to the run. Also, if I put it in reverse, and then
row
through the gears, I can feel the "friction" I mentioned earlier come
back.
It takes a little while before it goes away again. I don't know
wether
you use reverse or not, but if you are, that might be something to try
out.
A little while back, a couple of people were talking about
fabricating
a different stick with a shorter throw. (Just replacing the stock
stick with a shorter one.) I've been thinking about that a little bit
and
I'm going to see wether I might be able to do the same. If it looks
do-able,
I'm going to give it a shot.
>
>2) El Paso is at 3700' elevation. My best time was a 15.58. What
would that
>be at sea level?
I'm not sure, actually. The best thing to do is to take along a
barometer.
(and a thermometer and something to measure humidity). The elevation
isn't really important; its the barometric pressure you want. If you
were
at sea level and ran while there was a low pressure system in the
area,
that would be the same as running at a higher altitude without the
system. (So, "barometrically", you weren't really running at sea
level.)
Pressure decreases with altitude, which is why some people use it
to
correct their times. As far as I know, if you record the barometric
pressure, it doesn't matter what the elevation is.
Here's a useful site for correcting your times to standard:
http://sura1.jlab.org/~bowling/etmphcorr.html
>
>3) My 60 foot times were in the 2.22 range on my best runs. Is this
good,
>bad, ugly?
>
That would be a decent time on a street tire, yep. My best time on
a 235/70 street tire so far is 2.117. IMHO, 2.3 and 2.4 is getting
slower than I'd like; I'm happy when I get 2.1's. (Which hasn't
happened
to me in a while; ever since I rotated my tires and have the fronts in
the back now.) :-P
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| Affiliations: DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA. RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.85@90.72), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
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