Anyone who's been around 5.0 and 4.6 Mustangs for any time knows racing these cars on street tires is often a frustrating proposition, especially with a stick. Too much throttle and the tires go up in a cloud of smoke; not enough and it's bog city. The problem can rear its ugly head both at the track and on the street.
More often than not, a drag race is won and lost by the 60-foot marker. So we've enlisted some of the biggest names in Mustang drag racing in our quest to provide you the best tips to help reduce your 60-foot time. Your Mustang may not be as stout as Dan Millen's Outlaw car, but he has some-thing to say that can help the first-time drag racer's 60-foot times plummet and keep the competition in the mirrors.
With every facet of drag racing, you want to be consistent first and establish a baseline. If you've realized your best 60-foot time by leaving off-idle, try slipping the clutch at 2,500-3,000 rpm. With an automatic car, first try launching off-idle and then bringing up the rpm against the converter. In either case, too much throttle and you'll end up spinning your wheels, which results in a poor 60-foot time. With a stick car, slight wheelspin is good-especially in a modular Mustang-because you don't want the engine to bog. A pushrod car will recover more easily than a modular Mustang because of the pushrod engine's superior bottom-end torque.
Our experience with Fox Mustangs is that they're more finicky at launch because of their abundant bottom-end torque and light weight. However, when done right, we've gotten 1.9 60-foot times on BFGoodrich Comp TAs. This was on a Fox GT with 3.55 gears and a few modest bolt-ons-pulleys, K&N filter, shifter, and the like. The car featured a totally stock suspension. Through much practice, we realized our best 60-foot time by letting out the clutch off-idle and gradually pressing down on the gas pedal so we wouldn't blow off the tires. It also helped that we were in the tracks of the car that ran just before we did. Compared to SN-95 and New Edge Mustangs, a 5.0 Fox takes more launch practice to get a good 60-foot time.
When we tested ATI ProCharger's '97 GT project car at Moroso Motorsports Park for the June 2000 issue ("Core Shift," p. 28), we used a 3,500-rpm launch on Mickey Thompson slicks. Any higher and the slicks would lose traction since the blower was under boost by that rpm. Our best 60-foot time with that car was a 1.828 on a 12.73 run. Bogging the engine of a blown car on slicks won't hurt the 60-foot time as much as it would with a mostly stock engine since the blower helps recover the lost rpm. However, the extra power made with a blower car means you'll need to be even more deliberate with your launch. A fluctuation between launch rpm will help in deciding which is the best launch rpm.
Dan Flowers of Idle Wild Racing [(727) 507-9453; www.idlewildracing.com] in Largo, Florida, has his own theories about launching a car with slicks. He likes to get the momentum of the engine going before he drops the clutch. Dan holds the rpm at around 2,500, and right before he lets the clutch out, he stomps the throttle. It's almost as if his right and left feet are simultaneously passing each other. "When you feel the engine revving up, lift up on the clutch," Dan says. "I like to use inertia. It's hard to explain and it takes prac-tice. You shock everything when you launch at 5,000-5,500 rpm, and the engine is not making peak torque at that rpm." By holding the throttle at 2,500 and simultaneously stomping the gas and lifting up on the clutch, the engine will be right at its torque peak, which will get the car moving at an efficient pace. "With my natur-ally aspirated coupe, I consistently pulled 1.5 60-foots using this method," Dan says.
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