Some of you people (me included) may not be too familiar with what different settings do to affect your car while racing down the 400m drag strip. This basically means you are probably not getting the most out of the car, resulting in times which could be a lot faster!

Regular contributor, Andy R, has made up a small guide of what settings you should use for each drivetrain type to gain the most time at the track. Although exact settings aren't mentioned much (due to the many makes and models of cars with different drivetrains) he does explain it in a way which makes it easy to figure out what settings should be set to where. So I hope this guide helps you as much as it has helped me reduce my ET's!

GT3 1/4 Mile Records

TUNING YOUR CAR FOR THE ¼ MILE… A SMALL GUIDE
By Andy R

FRONT ENGINE, REAR WHEEL DRIVE

The main aim with this drive type is to transfer as much vehicle weight over the rear drive wheels to enable maximum grip for takeoff. This requires the rear suspension to drop (and stay down), the front to rise (and stay up) and the differential to be set to allow for the best grip settings. Generally, the settings are:

~ Front springs - soft as possible, it allows the front end to bounce upwards under acceleration.
~ Rear springs - medium to ¾ hardness as too soft or too hard will make it wheelspin.
~ Ride height - front right up, back at standard factory height. Don’t lower all the way.
~ Damper front - bound 10, rebound 1.
~ Damper rear - bound 1, rebound 10. Front will rise fast, and come down slowly. The opposite happens at the rear, it drops fast and stays down.

LSD Settings
~ Variable, generally the harder the initial setting, the more grip the car will get, but it will be hard to get off the line consistently (may bog down, may wheelspin). Softer settings result in a more consistent launch. The Acceleration must always be set to full to give equal drive between both drive wheels.

Example
~ Ford Mustang GT - gained 0.870 seconds.

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FRONT ENGINE, FRONT WHEEL DRIVE

This drive type is the hardest to drag race with, as the inertial forces of acceleration transfers the weight to the rear of the car, and off the drive wheels. This problem is generally compounded by the fact that most front wheel drive cars have hi-rpm powerbands that tend to make acceleration hard - the harder you rev the car, the more top end power made, less weight over the wheels and more wheelspin. So in this instance, weight must be kept towards the front. In some cases it’s good to not to do all the weight reductions for the car, as this will hinder traction, so experiment to get the right combo.

~ Front springs - medium/hard.
~ Rear springs - very hard.
~ Ride height - front down slightly from stock, rear all the way up.
~ Damper front - bound 1, rebound 10.
~ Damper rear - bound 10, rebound 1.

LSD Settings
~Both Initial and Acceleration full. For best results start in 2^nd or 3^rd and use high revs/ low throttle to get the car off the line. This “pulls” the car off the line cleanly using the inertia of the engine and then gently apply throttle while listening for wheelspin, you will have to “pedal” the throttle to get maximum acceleration. If you want more pull off the line like this, change back to a heavier flywheel.

Example
~ Honda Civic VTi - gained 0.954 seconds.

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FOUR WHEEL DRIVE

This drive type provides the most grip of all, but in most cases it will require large amounts of low/midrange torque (or very narrow gearing) to run fast times. This is because the extra grip tends to be more than most engines can deal with, and as such balancing the gearing to suit can be frustrating - too long and it “bogs down” either off the line or between gears, too short and it will accelerate hard but run out of revs before the line. With this type of car, the suspension is the deciding factor, as longer gearing needs more “slip” to allow for a fast take off. Keep the factory shocks and springs as they are, and dial the LSD initials to help “slip” or hook up. Less initial give slip, more initial provides grip.

You will need to set the front/rear torque bias to 40/60, as this helps best for takeoff. Also, raise the rear ride height as much as possible, and have the front slightly lower than normal. Another trick to play with is when you want to really fine-tune the amount of slip for takeoff you can start to move cambers in and out to effectively change the size of the tyre’s footprint. The more camber dialled in, the less tyre on the ground, so more slip.

Example
~ Nissan Skyline GT-R - gained 0.467 seconds.

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MID ENGINE, REAR WHEEL DRIVE & REAR ENGINE, REAR WHEEL DRIVE

These setups are excellent for drag racing as the heaviest part of the car is positioned right near, or above the drive wheels. This setup uses the same settings as for the Front engine, Rear wheel drive cars, as all the weight transfer principles are the same. As a general rule the gains with this type of car will not be as large as those for a FR car, as the MR and RR cars have excellent traction to begin with.

Example 1
~ Vauxhall VX220 - gained 0.258 seconds.

Example 2
~ Toyota MR2 GT-S - gained 0.333 seconds.

GT3 1/4 Mile Records

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