jjwm82

I have a 98 Maxima GXE 5 spd w/ Intake, Y-Pipe, Hi-Flow Cat, Cat-Back Exhaust...I goto the track and run 60 ft times in 2.2 but my 1/4 times are 15.3-15.5ish...I see people running high 14's w/ the same exact car as me! Would my 115,000 miles slow me down THAT much? Just wondering what it could be...

...Thanks!

bullseye

Lighten ship. Remove the spare tire, jack, subwoofers, books, CDs, floor mats, your dog, and any other loose items in there. Run with 1/4 tank of gas or less. Lose some weight.

Cool the engine. Ice-down the intake manifold before you run. Spritz the radiator with ice-water. Remove the fuse to your A/C *and* then turn your A/C on. The A/C compressor won't run, but the radiator FAN will run, dumping heat out of the coolant. (Turn the A/C off before you run.)

Slightly under-inflate your front tires for better traction. Slightly over-inflate your rear tires to reduce roll-resistance. Experiment with different combinations.

Don't run through the water. Don't do a burnout. Just spin your tires for a couple revolutions to knock rocks and stuff off of them. Look to see where the car in front of you launched from in the lane. Try to line up your tires with its "tracks" to take advantage of a warm, rubberized track surface.

Run the engine up to red-line in each gear before you do a FAST lift-throttle up-shift. Is your clutch slipping? Replace the clutch.

Use low-profile drag radials on 15" rims. Better grip. Less front to back weight transfer. Better gearing... You can actually shift into 4th gear soon enough to get back into the meaty part of the torque curve before the finish line!

Clean the throttle-body. Clean or remove (!) your air filter.

Practice makes perfect... Good luck.

jjwm82

I don't have a spare tire or jack...but I try to run like I would on the street for a *realistic* time...maybe that's why I'm pulling 15.3 Would that make my time about right since I have my stereo/seats and everything in like a daily driver?

ericdwong

I race with trash, change, extra clothes, all the seats, the entire stereo (2 15" woofers, 3 amps) all in the car. I've never iced the intake, nor do I raise the hood at the line. I do not play with tire pressue either. And I hit consistent 14.8s @ 93 mph now. You probably just need to shift faster. Make sure your car is in good running order too. Check spark plug torque, check aftermarket Y pipe flex section.

Nismo87SE

We need 1/8 ET/trap along with 1/4 ET/trap also where are you racing at? Some tracks are slower than others because if the elevation above sea level. But if you want fast times move to houston .

jjwm82

r/t .509
60 ft 2.209
et 15.308
90.013 mph

my car has 115,000mi on it...I don't think it should make THAT big of a diff? (1/2 sec seems like a lot)

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

Mileage doesn't have anything to do with it, though engine condition might. I have 132K miles and I'm consistently the quickest N/A Maxima on this board. BTW nice RT and 60'


All of the stuff bullseye listed is good advice for getting better times, with the exception of running each gear to redline. There are a few people who run each gear to redline, most however shift at redline, then 6300, then 6000 for best results. Our engines don't make power all the way to redline so going to redline doesn't really help. At least not for most people.

What were your 330', 1/8th time and speed, and 1000' time? Also, what track are you running at, and what were the weather conditions. All this information will help us analyze your run. your launch looks great, I think it's one of 4 things why you are running slow-ish times. 1) you don't shift fast enough, 2) the weather was incredibly hot and humid and sapping alot of power, 3) your gar is out of tune and not making the power it should, 4) you are at high altitude.

soundmike

iTrader: (24)

Uhh.. yeah, in 100% humidity and 100+ degree weather

bullseye

On 2nd thought, I agree with you on the shift-points you mentioned. Those put us back in the torque curve pretty well, and prevent us from spending too much time in the "previous" gear waiting for the engine to spool up to red-line. Good catch.

jjwm82

Hey, thanks for all the advice! I'll give you the full rundown on the slip tomorrow, I'm pretty drunk right now and it's 3:33am here in NY and I can't function very well When I ran it was in Naipierville, Canada...it was pretty god damn humid but I'm not sure about altitude. I'll be going to Lebanon Valley next Wed so hopefully I'll see some improvement! I'm keeping all my stuff in again and will work on those shift points. I have a STS and am a very good shifter so I'm positive it's not that. I could possibly use a tune-up but who knows...I just put in Denso Iridium plugs and such...what does a full Maxima "tune-up" usually consist of? May be a dumb question but oh well, we're all allowed a few of those right? Thanks for the help and like I said I'll hit you up with the full slip info tomorrow!

Night!

2000 SE

I am sorry but I think it is rediculous to "Gut" your car before dragging! The amount you save in weight most the time is not reflected in your time, unless your time is extemely consistent already.

JAIMECBR900

Three main things are going to determine the improvement or detriment of your track times (some have been mentioned already):

1. experience- The more time you have learning your car and track the better times usually get (all other things equal).

2. track conditions- Some tracks are notoriously slow, while others are much quicker. Elevation, weather, available traction,and prep work by track are big factors. Some really good pointers were given earlier by bullseye for you to try while at the track to improve your odds.

3. car condition- If car is not putting down the numbers it should, it will never match/beat others. You should do a couple of dyno runs or atleast check after any mods/changes to see what your car is doing before comparing or trying to improve track times.

Bottomline, don't despair about track times printed or talked about. Some publications/people exagerate or plain lie. Other times people have a great run and have absolutely no consistency, so the time for a best run is a little off. Look for people willing to share timeslip times and not hearsay. Just know that there are infinite number of variables to make your car/track different than others.