OK folks, as I said in a post earlier, I am new to this, both in the posting and lightning ownership so if I ask dumb questions in the beginning, please bear with me. I am enjoying reading all of the information and stories about our trucks. What I seem to be reading is alot of information about how well the truck performs on the track. This is my first L so I am trying to soak it all up as I go. I have not as yet tried mine in an officially timed pass. Now with 2500 miles on it, I guess it is time. So far the only changes I have made are flowmaster exhausts and a k & n filter. Unfortunaley after I had purchased the k & n, I heard from you guys about PSP and hope to get one of their filter kits when the back-orders clear up. I had a chip in my Lariat that I sent back to Street and Performance in Little Rock which they re-burned for my L. In the time they had it, I learned about PSP chips and am now wondering if I should get one from PSP and discard the Street and Performance one. So my question to all you veteran L owners is , are there any tips or pointers I need to know about checking my times and etc., how does the overdrive play into all of this, and any other advice that you can give this rookie. Thanks

 

You say you haven't been to the track with your L, so in my response I'll assume you never ran anything at a track. Its up to you if you want to powerbrake to warm up your tires. If not, try to keep your tires dry when driving up to the staging lights. Slowly creep up until both staging lights turn on. Keep your left foot on brake and right on accelerator, and hit accelerator when third yellow light comes on - or keep right foot on brake and hit accelerator when second light comes on. Some guys take overdrive off. I don't bother since its still in third gear by the end of the run. I took the tailgate and spare tire off and had 1/4 tank of gas. I was too light in rear and spun my tires too much. One guy posted that he has good results with 3/4 tank of gas. Your R/T (reaction time) should be .500 or more. If less, your are redlighted. My best time on my L so far was 13.77 and 98 mph. I should run about 13.6 once I improve my reaction time (which was about .75 to .8)

Tom

 

Sorry TomG, but reaction time has nothing to do with your ET. Your ET starts registering the moment you leave the STAGED beam (lower of the two small yellow lights at the top of the tree). It's done logging at the finish line.

However, since the idea is to get to the end of the track quicker, the first one who leaves (without leaving before the green lites up) has a better chance of winning. That's why you see races where the quickest running car didn't win.

Hope this clarifies things...

 

Roger,

Thanks for the clarification. I'm learning all the time. Guess I'll have to think of another way to run a 13.6.

Tom

 

Don't bother heating up the stock tires, does no good. Just torque the sand and road trash off of them and go.

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Red '00 Lightning,
Adopted 4/19/00,
PSP Filter,
Sound effects provided by Flowmaster,
Track time pending...