My Coupe on the Drag Track

[windex]

Took my coupe out on the track for the first time last night. Ran a 14.7 for my fastest time with a .751 R/T. This was with my VDC on and in automatic mode. All my other runs I had some horrible R/T and my wheels just kept spinning with the VDC off. All in all my highest time was a 15.4 in manual mode when i shifted a tad lad hence skipping a gear. Anyone else take their coupe out on the track?

[TheBourneAltimatum]

Took my coupe out on the track for the first time last night. Ran a 14.7 for my fastest time with a .751 R/T. This was with my VDC on and in automatic mode. All my other runs I had some horrible R/T and my wheels just kept spinning with the VDC off. All in all my highest time was a 15.4 in manual mode when i shifted a tad lad hence skipping a gear. Anyone else take their coupe out on the track?

14.7 aint bad...but i have a question...how did u launch. sometimes i go to back roads with a bit of a stretch to see how good i can from 0-60 the best i got was 7.1. my method is simple, hold down the brakes floor it and let go of the brakes, that gives you enough wheel spin for the CVT to rocket passed 20mph and toward redline quicker. i've been practicing so i can enhance my technique for track day, i think i can manage a 7.0 or maybe a 6.9 at the track because they have a better surface than backroads

[08altima35]

the vdc will kick your *** on the track if you have a 3.5se. regardless of spinning, total losses of power to your wheels regardless of how long will lower your times. are you spinning/ heating your tires and your line on the track before you run? i found it to help quite a bit and cut my times by more the .5 secs by heating my tires and line on the track.

[windex]

I just hold brake and let it rev to 2 grand then try to feather it upon launch to minimize spin. All my other runs yea i spun the tires first but it didnt help at all the 14.7 run i went around the water and my tires hooked perfectly i didnt even see the slip icon pop up, at least that i can member.

[Hussain]

ya dude when i raced my friend's SRT4 i step on the brake and give it gas to get the RPMs up and then just let go of the brake and continue flooring the gas..... with traction control off you get wheel spin. then i raced my friend's G35 and before we raced i stopped, pulled up the E brake all the way (with traction control off) and floored the gas. did a little burn out. then when we raced i stepped on the brake and built up the RPMs and did the same thing i always do BUT it felt 1,000 times faster and got NO WHEEL SPIN AT ALL!!! NOTHING! not even a little stretch! it just launched like crazy. if you want a good time, you MUST do a burn out before you race.... your tires heat up and get sticky and grip the ground and you lose like no traction when you take off with trac off (i don't have VDC). try this and for sure you'll get a waaayyyyy better time

[TheBourneAltimatum]

using your E-brake eh, is that good for the brakes? i have a foot e-brake so i'm not sure but i'll have to give it a shot

[Hussain]

really? for the Altima? the sedan doesn't have a hand brake? wow, i didnt know that... i don't know, i don't do it all the time but i dont think it does because the car isn't actually in motion. it just locks the back tires so the car wont move and the front tires lose traction. when i raced my friend's G35 and i did that, i was amazed how well the coupe launched, it seemed so much faster, the tires griped like crazy and i took off at over 2000 RPMs, like 2500 RPMs so it wasnt long till i was at redline just holding it with CVT.

[TheBourneAltimatum]

yup, all CVT sedans have the foot brake...but you know i noticed if you launch a CVT right you can burn an MT easily like you said, since my QR has very little wheel spin opose to the 3.5 i totally understand what you mean...as soon as i hit that baby its in 2500rpm and still running hard with no CVT lag at all, by doing this you avoid having to wait .5 second while the torque converter locks up

[cuzzbubba420]

I'm gonna have to try this method man, sounds like you get a way better launch off the line!!

[chow]

0-60 in 7 seconds???WHAt!?!Pleae tell me thats wrong.

[LongBeachCoupe]

I thought holding the brake when you are gassing it is a big no-no... even to smoke off the line.... if its not as bad as i thought... im gonna be smoking my 20"s lol..... Will it burn thru brake pads? harm rotors? I really dont want MORE dust to clean off... i gotta figure out what pads to get next time around...

[dangeris]

I really dont want MORE dust to clean off... i gotta figure out what pads to get next time around...

Get ceramics! All my past cars has them and so do all of my racebikes. Less brake dust and doesn't heat up as fast and dissipates heat quickly also.

[LongBeachCoupe]

whats the NEGATIVE's of holding the brake other than wasted pads?

[rwuarch2007]

0-60 in 7 seconds???WHAt!?!Pleae tell me thats wrong.

I have the 3.5 manual sedan and we did a few runs on a highway the other night and I averaged about 6.3 seconds with a relatively large friend in the car, and I weigh 210 myself. They rate the care at 6.5 stock, so not too shabby. What's the weight difference between the coupe and the sedan?

I really don't think there's a successful way to "launch" with the FWD, even with VDC on it cuts power and you lose a few tenths.

[chow]

Why do people report the 0-60 time for the coupe at 5.7 seconds? .1 second behind teh g35?

The sedan should only be at MOST .1-.2 seconds more than the coupe because the coupe is maybe 100lbs lighter. I wonder how fast i can launch my car.. going to do some crazy cardio and lower my body weight to 100lbs , then ill have a faster launch

[TheBourneAltimatum]

0-60 in 7 seconds???WHAt!?!Pleae tell me thats wrong.

no lie buddy, the CVT cripples your time but if you have the right technique you can pull it off and i did, i was only able to replicate it twice though, most of the time i get about 7.2

[Hussain]

whats the NEGATIVE's of holding the brake other than wasted pads?

i'm not exactly sure. i just tried it out and found it to work really good. we talked about it in another thread and generic was saying that i was right and people do that at the track... something about engaging the torque converter. but if you're talking about doing a burn out (heating up the tires before you race) then nothing will happen if you pull up the e-brake when you're stopped and floor the gas, it'll just smoke up the tires, its safe. then when you move forward and launch your car when you race, don't launch it with the e-brake up if course.

[windex]

Yea I see a lot of people do burn out to heat up the tires before running... I'm just saying skipping that with our cars stock would prolly be best. When I practiced launching on a dry street I got very little spin. personally I think there was too much water in the burnout area. Most of my friends that ran just skipped the burn out. Just the boosted SI and a freak 350z (We call it the freak cause his car beats a lot of cars it shouldn't, he's prolly jst a much better driver).

[08altima35]

just because your not hearing your tires screech does not mean they're hooking up properly. and the more water the better. makes it easier and takes less power to break your tires loose. about holding the e-brake to get your tires spinning. just hold the ebrake up with your thumb on the release and once your tires start spinning ever so slightly let off the ebrake slowly as your tires start spinning faster and faster and slowly smoke your tires down the track. don't do an all out break stand as you're trying to heat up your tires and your line on the track. lots of people have a spotter guide them when backing up to the line on the track so they launch over the freshly heated rubber on the track.I really need to race a cvt at yello belly in dallas. any takers????

[Hussain]

ya i really want to race a stick shift but texas is a little too far for me lol last semester i saw a guy with the same exact car as mine but stick instead of CVT. i haven't seen him this semester but i'm going to look for him and see if we could do a race and let you guys know how it goes (maybe film it too if i can) lol but ya, i noticed a HUGE difference in launching the coupe with and without heating up the tires. i was amazed by how much quicker it launched. and windex was saying that he went in the water (to help break traction and do a burnout) but then didn't burn out.... which made him lose even more traction.

windex, trust me, next time you go to the track do a little burnout first and then race it with traction off and VDC off.... you'll do much better

[Loop]

Oh man this thread makes me want to go to the track and test my car. But I am hoping that Tanabe is going to come out with the coil overs.

[windex]

Actually I did do a burn out 3 times... and one time i just skipped the water all together....

[cliffy21]

You're not supposed to use the water on street tires. It's meant to be used on slicks. You should skip the water and just do a quick burn out to heat the rubber up.

Another way to improve your launch on a FWD drive car is to lower your tire pressure. Take some air out, and the tire gets a little more spongy. Not too much of course, just enought to get a little sag in the rubber. Works great.

[wild willy]

Took my coupe out on the track for the first time last night. Ran a 14.7 for my fastest time with a .751 R/T. This was with my VDC on and in automatic mode. All my other runs I had some horrible R/T and my wheels just kept spinning with the VDC off. All in all my highest time was a 15.4 in manual mode when i shifted a tad lad hence skipping a gear. Anyone else take their coupe out on the track?

Were you towing a boat

Better watch out for those Kia Rio's with those times

[bigred311]

Hussain i hate to seem like the jack *** of the altima coupe section but your dumb, its horrible for you to have your hand break up and press on the gas at the same time, you are literally just burning money, the next thing is you dont do burn outs on stock street tires, i could be wrong about you having stock tires your could be sitting back with nitto's or something but generally if you are you should mention that because its nearly impossible to heat up stock street tires, you literally do more harm than good for the run, generally you'd just rip some of the tread off, so dont tell people to pull up their hand brake or to do a burn out before hand on there street tires unless you feel like paying for their new break system or new tires

[08altima35]

Hussain i hate to seem like the jack *** of the altima coupe section but your dumb, its horrible for you to have your hand break up and press on the gas at the same time, you are literally just burning money, the next thing is you dont do burn outs on stock street tires, i could be wrong about you having stock tires your could be sitting back with nitto's or something but generally if you are you should mention that because its nearly impossible to heat up stock street tires, you literally do more harm than good for the run, generally you'd just rip some of the tread off, so dont tell people to pull up their hand brake or to do a burn out before hand on there street tires unless you feel like paying for their new break system or new tires

from your comment you've proven to have never been or driven on a drag track. I have the stock tires and if i don't burn them a good bit i can't launch worth a damn. launching at even 2500rpms will have me spinning if i don't heavily feather the clutch which will do a sh*tload of damage and i'll be going thru clutches every other weekend. it really makes YOU look dumb when you're calling people "dumb" when you really don't know what you're talking about. perhaps you didn't know that the ebrake only applies pressure to the rear non drive wheels on your altima coupe. maybe you should just go to the track and get some pointers or possibly rent some instructional video from blockbuster because playing grand tourismo on your playstation alone isn't going to make you at all knowledgeable about racing on a track

[chow]

Do you think performance tires would improve that number? Im really sad that they annouced that the coupe could do 5.8 but your actually getting 7.0.

Im still not getting it.

[Loop]

You have the 2.5 and the 3.5 mixed up.

[Hussain]

all i'm saying is that i've personally done a burn out before i raced my friend's G35 and had an amazing amount of traction VS racing my other friend's SRT4 without doing a burn out first. theres nothing at all wrong with my brakes. if you burn your tires for affective launching, it wont kill your tread horribly... if you burn your tires for show then if course it'll kill them like crazy... like a 9 sec chevelle i saw with street tires lol so much smoke they needed a machine to blow the smoke away and delayed the race for a minute or 2 lol

[TheBourneAltimatum]

Do you think performance tires would improve that number? Im really sad that they annouced that the coupe could do 5.8 but your actually getting 7.0.

Im still not getting it.

i have a 2.5, and getting to 60 in 7 seconds is awesome, if i heat up my tires llike everybody is sugesting i could get a better time. i am suprised of how bad the coupe is doing on the strip, a stock sedan 3.5 owner on the other forum ran 14.2@102 mph at 70* Fahrenheits...but he's been doing drag racing for a bit, you just have to go practicing on a back road to see how good of a launch you can get