Into the 12's now

[Caduceus]

Sorry not to give a heads up to the Brisbane guys who were interested but had some Friday night plans cancelled so I made s last minute decision to go to the drags at Willowbank again.

Previously I had only been able to run low 13's but was determined to get into the 12's tonight. In my favour was new rubber, thanks to a spare set of OEM 18" wheels I recently purchased from another forum member. So off came the OEM RFT's and on went identical wheels but this pair shod with Toyo Proxes RA-1's in 245/40/18. I ran 18psi in these tyres.

Best time for the night is here (I am vehicle 128 in the right lane):



12.699 @ 111.94mph

The tyres helped a lot. These aren't a dedicated drag tyre but are a road legal circuit/sprint motorsport tyre. They are very soft. On the RFT's my best times were obtained in DTC (1 press) traction control mode. With everything off (press and hold) wheelspin was too difficult to control.

Now with the Toyo's I can switch all traction nannies off and do a very short burnout to clean the tyres up then have heaps of grip. In fact, the first couple of runs I was too conservative with the takeoff and bogged down slightly. Once I gained confidence in the available grip I gave it a lot more at the start and the 1.9 60' time and PB ET and trap were the result.

The only other performance change from my previous outing was that I've updated from JB1.1 to version 1.22 and was running map 6. Everything else is stock on the car.

I'm stoked. I also ran against a new XR6 turbo and a HSV Clubsport with a 285 badge on the back. Beat them both - easily. I did 3x 12 sec passes tonight. Now I'm just waiting for winter to see what it will do when the temp is in single figures.

[Tj303]

nice work... what was car 563?

[bobbynoway]

Excellent times.
Last wendsday I did 4 runs at eastern creek drags.
My times were 13.8, 12.9, 12.9 and 13.1. Last 3 runs was consistant so I didnt bother to do more races as I have an auto.
These were on the runflates.

[Breville]

Nice one mate.

[Alext]

I had some RA1s and they are indeed a great tire. Went through a set in under 5000km as they are soft (treadwear 80 or something). I do not believe they are legal for road use though and might be considered defectable as they do state on the sidewall 'For competition use only'. This was a few years ago so they might have changed. Should be noted that in standing water they are not particularly safe if you want to push it.

Excellent times...are you guys all running tunes of some sort?

[BBK]

Originally Posted by bobbynoway

Excellent times.
Last wendsday I did 4 runs at eastern creek drags.
My times were 13.8, 12.9, 12.9 and 13.1. Last 3 runs was consistant so I didnt bother to do more races as I have an auto.
These were on the runflates.

Is that stock? Or tuned? Great times!

[bobbynoway]

Yeah, didnt mention it earlier these times were with JB3, same as the OP has.
Im running map 4.

[BBK]

How did you launch? DTC on/off? Sorry for all the questions! Just interested to see what the auto can do as I will probably never get to run it down the quarter.

[Zuzu]

Great times Caduceus..

[Caduceus]

Originally Posted by Alext

I had some RA1s and they are indeed a great tire. Went through a set in under 5000km as they are soft (treadwear 80 or something). I do not believe they are legal for road use though and might be considered defectable as they do state on the sidewall 'For competition use only'. This was a few years ago so they might have changed. Should be noted that in standing water they are not particularly safe if you want to push it.

Perhaps they've changed the wording but the specific phrase used on my tyres is "recommended for competition use only". Whether this changes their legality for road use status is debatable.

In any case, since I have a complete spare set of wheels, I'll be fitting them only for driving to the track, at the track and home. In fact, I've already switched back to the RFT's since I had to go out this morning in the car. No point wasting that sticky tread on a boring commute.

[Caduceus]

I had another thought that I might experiment with next time. The tyres I used last night are 245/40/18 which gives a larger rolling diameter than the stock 35 series tyres. This may have a slight negative impact on acceleration.

On the other hand, the spare fronts I have are fitted with RA1's in 225/40/18. I'm considering fitting these to the rear next time to see how it goes. I'm inclined to think that the small loss of width of the contact patch (20mm) will be more than compensated by the smaller rolling diameter and theoretical better acceleration performance.

This tyre isn't available in a 245/35/18 in case you were wondering.

Thoughts?

[WAY]

Wow! I am impressed with the times! Didn't realise that you can go that fast in our cars! Great to see my wheels going to great use!

[Kris]

Wow! Seriously fast numbers, 12.6 is smoking!

[andrew@southernBM]

wow great times and mph

C'mon melbournites, lets do it.

[WAY]

Andrew, Sub 3 Zero is organising a drag day at heathcote in May I think. It's open to both members and non-members of BMW Car Club Victoria. I'm keen.

[555]

Originally Posted by andrew@southernBM

wow great times and mph

C'mon melbournites, lets do it.

Count me in.....

[Guran]

WOW! Impressive times, guys. Nice job.

[andrew@southernBM]

Done.

[smarm]

I'm around in May for a week. In if I'm around.