Traction.
I can tell you i ran a 15.3 (@104mph, lol) on my first run, spinning first, second, third, and gripping in fourth....(with drag radials on the car, not street tires!!!)
Launching is the biggest part...most drag racing and races are won/lost in the first 60ft. If you run a 2.3 60ft mark, you did not launch/drive good, lol.....you'll be very suprised on how difficult it is to lower a 2.2 60ft to a 1.9 60ft...you'd think it might be easy, but its one of hte most difficult and aggrivating things in the world...
the t25 boost so fast that its hard to get off the line without spinning the tires....i do have an iron clutch, if i had an organic clutch (like most of you) it would help that 60ft time, slipping out the clutch, as opposed to dumping the clutch is going to allow you to get out of the hole with more traction, therefor lowing your ET....You'll also realize that a 'perfect' run does not happen 100% of the time...adn missing a gear, nto gettting a fast enough shift, little things like that, will make huge (1-2 second) diffenrences in ET's, and its amazing how such a little mess up will ruin the whole run...miss a gear, expect a 15 second slip...even though that miss only wasted .5 seconds, it translates into more....every little thing counts....
Then you come to variables like tire pressure...you wont get traction so you take out air from the tires to lower them, and give the sidewall more grip.....so your 60ft will be lower.....BUT then lower air pressure will make your MPH at the end lower, therefor your ET be the same as before...the matching of that stuff becomes very important...you cant just say "i ran a 14.2 w/ a 2.2 60ft , so i'll take 2lbs of air pressure out get better traction, lower the 60ft to 2.0 and lower the et to 14.0...but that ET could go up, because your slower at the finish....
its a lot of trial and error, and drag racing is one of the most complex types of racing, practice practice practice...
JESSEhttp://
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