At the track. The How To:

[N2O'dturbocivic]

I have had this in my room for a while. I read it every time before I run the first time of the season. I found it on here a really long time ago when they had huge stories or whatever. I hope it doesn't make anyone mad that I kept it. I didn't sell it to anyone so no one yell at me. I just thought it was a really really well writen artical. Well anyways...Have fun...and yes it's really long. But I have already seen three different posts asking what they can do better. So here it is...

Before a race, you will want to do a few things. This is even before you get to the track. You will want to make sure you have enough oil and that it has been changed enough (as many times as you can). You may also want to have valve adjustments as much as possible. This will help keep your car running healthy and prevent valve float from redlining your engine. Then you will need to have a 1/4 of a tank of gas of 93 octane, or the highest octane gas in your area 100-103 in some lucky test area's, (I also really like chevron with techron). Also you should clean your car and engine, and take out all the extra's (stereo, sub boxes, spare tire). You may also want to take out a seat or 2, but that doesn't help too much. You need to bring with you, all your vehicle documents, something to drink, and some ziplock bags, Ice, and some basic tools (screwdriver, wrench, what you think you will need) you'll find out why.
Next step, is to drive to your destination and on the way pick up a bag of ice from anywhere it doesn't have to be special just h20 in solid form! Be sure while your driving that your not racing there, your trying to keep your car engine cool (so you can run faster.....so go easy on it on the way). Its also fun to bring along friends, and they can help you out.
When you first arrive, you will want to arrive right on time so it wont be crowded and you can either go and park and follow the next couple of steps or start to line up and wait for your turn to run. For those of you that like to prepare then read on (if not go on to the next paragraph) . Ok so you'll want to park somewhere, maybe in a shady area, if possible. Pop your hood and let it cool a bit, (You can also turn on your AC FAN and turn it to heat so you can cool your headers and get all the extra heat out of the radiator.) Now grab your ice pack and dump it into your ziplock bag, not all of it just enough to fill that bag. Place it on your PGM fuel injector (intake manifold). Next put another bag on your intake (most aluminum,even a shitty iceman. Then place it on your valve cover and anywhere else you think its hot. Next if you have a stock airbox, you'll want to remove the tube from the airbox to get better flow. Next you can throw on your slicks, if you have them. Then get some of your friends to push you into line. Also if your intake is by the headlight, maybe try taking off your headlight so it can get colder outside air to your filter.
Your in line, and your waiting to race, your hood should be popped open and you should have ice cooling your intake, your fuel injector/throttle body, intake manifold, and whatever else you can cool off. Have your engine off the whole time and maybe you might want to turn on you car fan to cool the engine more.Also starting it every 5-8 minutes will help circulate the coolant through the engine, also be careful on really cool nights...it is possible to make your car too cold and it wont run as well. Also once certain parts get cold, closing the hood while having the ice everywhere and the ac fan running, circulates the best, it helps circulate cold air to everything. The basic thing you want is warm-hot oil and cool parts. Now your friends should help you move your car up in line, till there ready to let you race. Then start your engine, maybe even a few seconds before, so you can get your car out of warm-up idle mode, which might make your car run slower. Now just calm yourself, and pull up in and get ready to stage behind the other cars who are staging right in front of you. Try and watch the people in front see when they left, and watch the light pattern. If you got slicks on drive up through the little puddle of water and do a tire burnout, just make sure they get smoked don't liquefy. If you have street tires, then don't drive over the water and don't do a burnout, your tires will slide all over the place like you are running in the rain if you do! Street tire compounds are hard and just puts a thin layer of slippy tire. Maybe if you really have to a quick clutch out clutch in burnout at about 5k is alright. It might clean the rocks and shit off. OK...enough with this lets move on.
Your staging your car, when the pit official tells you to move up after the cars have taken off, do so. You will want to slowly pull up and make the first stage light turn on. You can also do the second right away or wait until the other car gets their first stage light. Then pull up some more and turn on the next stage light, by this time you better be ready for the lights to start changing. Also make sure you are shallow staging in which you just barely light up the 2nd light, this means you can give a little jump before its green, but I'm talking not even a foot...so this is where it comes down to how you know your car and how good of a driver you are. Then the lights go 1 yellow 2 yellow 3 yellow 4 green. So its 123 GO. Also this only really matters in events it doesn't matter if you sit 4seconds in the box and then finally go, you'll still get the same quarter mile times, its just when you pass the line then it trips the clock, so that was all for either events where reaction time plays a part, and its for kicking someone's ass even if there faster than you, and its for just plain looking good. Oh well I always go late on the 3 yellow so I leave on the green. Now it takes about half a second to get rocking. Now just get on it. Then you know what to do from there, go as fast as your car can go. Just do like I do it, run the car like you hate it, but dont over rev.
Shifting down the track, now in your normal honda with mods you'll most likely finish in 3rd gear with around 80mphs. (if your car is majorly modified go to the next paragraph.) You will want to start in first of course and bring it to redline (this is for some cars...some of you might need to shift before, because you might not be making enough power up top and will lose speed.) Take it to second fast as possible, if you want to abuse your clutch and hurt your car, try not taking your foot off the gas and just hit the clutch, I take my foot about halfway off so I dont bounce off the rev limiter. Now in second I would take the rpms a little bit before redline maybe 200-500 rpms before, and do the same into third another 500-800 before redline and so on... also remembering to shift as fast as possible, not as hard as possible....shifting hard on poor transmissions tends to mess them up. Also try remembering I dont know your car so this might not apply to some, some people actually get better times redlining every gear, or by not even taking it to redline in first, test it out on the track or if you know your specs/gearing you can calculate it out. A good way is also to dyno tune your car. Basically what you want to do is shift at a point to where your tach goes down to the highest torque peak so your car is going as fast as possible.
If you majorly modified making above 90mph you need to get into 4th gear before you finish make sure you shift around a few 500-1000 rpm before....remembering I dont know your car so this might not apply to some, some people actually get better times redlining every gear, or going into the red in 1st, then just redlining in 2nd, then shifting 200rpm earlier then red in 3rd.
After your done you pull around pick up you ticket and get started on cooling your engine down again. Good luck.
- superhonda staff