Not the best time, but I'll take it

[Lightning254]

I have a 2002 True Blue Lightning I took out to the track for the first time on Friday. I need to work on my reaction time but for the most part I was happy with my times. My best run of the night was a 13.61 at 101.8 :huh: . My truck is stock except for a JDM cold air intake. I was told that I could get a little lower time if I shifted manually? All I did was leave it in drive. Is shifting it manually any better?

[Greg@SVTOA]

Did you have fun at the track? That is all that really matters...

To answer your questions about shifting- You might want to keep a log book or journal for when you go racing.
What you can do is chart shift points and how they affect your performance. What you can do is make "scripted runs". What you do is make a pre-script of a run where you decide what RPM you will shift at for each gear change, and then chart the results and compare the data. You go make your run and you stick to the script you plotted. For example, shift at 5400 RPM and chart the results, make three passes. Then change the shift RPM and make three more. You also can vary the RPM depending on the gear- For example, I find my car likes to be "short shifted" out of 1-2, but then I run it high in the RPM band on the 2-3 and 3-4. I found this by charting the shift points.

As far as your reaction times, this will not have any effect on the ET or MPH you post, so don't worry about that aspect right now- that can come later. Right now your goal should be to find the best shift points for your vehicle and getting the best ET out of it. If you do it right, you find the "wall" where you simply cannot do any better unless you make changes to the combo.


Hope this helps...

Greg