Tips for winning 1/8 mile street legal races?

[Olavxxx]

I will attend races with my 3P in may.
My car is quite new ak milage is low, OEM 20" wheels are unused.

As far as I can tell 3P should do 201 metres in less than 7.5, if I do it in less than 7.5 I will get disqualified.

I of course know I should have high SoC, I also have a short trip to the track. So I can't arrive with 100 percent.

Will keep car clutter free.

Questions:
1) should I use track mode?
2) does having a passenger affect a lot?
3) what tire pressure is best for drag race with OEM 20"?

Any other tips? My tactic will be to floor it and look in rear view mirror, then enginebrake into finish line if the other car is far behind.

 

[1.21GW]

Not much setup required. High SOC is the biggest benefit.

I wouldn’t worry about changing the tire pressure unless you are having traction problems. Just show up and drive. Have fun!

Most places don’t allow you to have passengers.

 

[timk225]

1/8 mile drag racing is a joke. Ignore it. The American standard is 1/4 mile. So race 1/4 mile or don't race at all.

 

[juanmedina]

1/8 mile drag racing is a joke. Ignore it. The American standard is 1/4 mile. So race 1/4 mile or don't race at all.

Many 1/4th miles track has close while many 1/8th mile tracks have opened. The NHRA doesn't even run the 1/4th mile lol.

OP if I were you I would take your car to the track and try to find out what SOC will get you a 7.5sec ET in the 1/8th mile. I would probably start at 85% SOC my car run a 7.399 at 93% SOC. After that just work on your reaction times, this car is so consistent that if you figure it out you will be making a killing.

Track mode is not needed for straight line passes and tire pressure shouldn't make much difference since we don't have traction issues just use the same tire pressure all the time to dial the car.

 

[Lunares]

I will attend races with my 3P in may.
My car is quite new ak milage is low, OEM 20" wheels are unused.

As far as I can tell 3P should do 201 metres in less than 7.5, if I do it in less than 7.5 I will get disqualified.

I of course know I should have high SoC, I also have a short trip to the track. So I can't arrive with 100 percent.

Will keep car clutter free.

Questions:
1) should I use track mode?
2) does having a passenger affect a lot?
3) what tire pressure is best for drag race with OEM 20"?

Any other tips? My tactic will be to floor it and look in rear view mirror, then enginebrake into finish line if the other car is far behind.

Why do you get disqualified if you finish in less than 7.5?

 

[juanmedina]

Why do you get disqualified if you finish in less than 7.5?

Bracket racing

 

[hckyplyr]

put a banana in his tailpipe

 

[Uncle Paul]

Tesla will be fantastic for bracket racing.

With a little experience you will learn just how fast to push down the pedal without breaking out.

As your state of charge reduces, you can simply put your pedal down quicker.

Few cars are as consistant as an EV. You will quickly develop the skill set to become consistant.

AWD will be magic in this case.

 

[SD_Engnr]

I will attend races with my 3P in may.
My car is quite new ak milage is low, OEM 20" wheels are unused.

As far as I can tell 3P should do 201 metres in less than 7.5, if I do it in less than 7.5 I will get disqualified.

I of course know I should have high SoC, I also have a short trip to the track. So I can't arrive with 100 percent.

Will keep car clutter free.

Questions:
1) should I use track mode?
2) does having a passenger affect a lot?
3) what tire pressure is best for drag race with OEM 20"?

Any other tips? My tactic will be to floor it and look in rear view mirror, then enginebrake into finish line if the other car is far behind.

I think you'll be right at 7.5X consistently. If conditions are perfect, you might dip below 7.50. If you're concerned, about dropping below 7.50s, then instead of mashing the accelerator in a split second, just rapidly depress the accelerator in a longer amount of time.

I took about 15+ trips down a mediocre 1/8 mile strip, and was consistently seeing 7.52Xs. This was before track mode was released, so I have no experience with it on a straight line race.

 

[Olavxxx]

Ok, now weather report says +7 Celsius for Saturday, also rain. So I won't get max performance, but I think it will be even easier to win against fossiles then.

Does anyone know if trackmode heats battery? +7C is quite off the +20C I believe gives best performance?

Ps: we don't have 1/8 mile here.

 

[Triplett]

Race the 1/8 of a mile, turn around as quickly as possible and race back....it's the swim meet version of a quarter mile.

 

[brianman]

An observation I didn't clue into when I did bracket racing (that one time)...

If the driver and conditions are consistent, your first run should be your quickest unless you are charging between runs. As such, the pace set by you first N runs should set a good lower limit (best) for your subsequent runs. Seems perfect for bracket racing where you choose your time.

 

[AndyW318]

Questions:
1) should I use track mode?
No, it does spin a bit, but doesn't seem to help my times, and if you are bracket racing, will be slightly less consistent due to the spin.
2) does having a passenger affect a lot?
Depending on weight, the general rule of thumb is every +100 lbs shaves a .1 off your 1/4 mile. Most tracks do not allow this.
3) what tire pressure is best for drag race with OEM 20"?
It doesn't seem to matter much. I've tried lower and higher, and state of charge and warmth of battery pack makes most of the differences.

Any other tips? My tactic will be to floor it and look in rear view mirror, then enginebrake into finish line if the other car is far behind.

If you have 2019.12+ firmware, there is a feature to pre-condition the pack for maximum charge rate when navigating to a nearby supercharger. So set your nav to the nearest supercharger while at the track as it also roughly optimizes the pack for discharge as well (and is super consistent). My car does go faster than 7.5 in the 1/8, so you will break out. My best is [email protected] in the 1/8 on a [email protected] in the 1/4 mile. BTW, this is on factory 19"s with the Continental All-Seasons (long story, not that interesting).

Good luck and have fun. Ignore the 1/8 mile haters, this car is a beast in the 1/8, and OK in the 1/4.

-AndyW

 

[Triplett]

Go faster than the other guy.

 

[Olavxxx]

Ok, tomorrow is the day.
I was a bit confused before, the track is 1/8 mile.

I will not race bracket I think, but race bad boys.
Turns out bad boys gets you disqualified if you go faster than 7,7 seconds.

So I know the 3P can do 1/8 mile in about 7,4.. But the temperature is between +6C and +12C.
So this means I won't have 100% power, also I will leave home with 100% charge but I will have maybe 90% when I arrive.

Then I have to wait some until racing starts, so the battery won't be very warm.
This is why I think I can just hammer it/floor it and not get disqualified, as I guess I will then do less than 7.7 seconds with maybe 90% SoC and a temp of battery maybe +12C. If I do go faster, I will have to learn to let go off the throttle while watching the other car.

I think this is easier to win than bracket, as this means I mostly can mash it and the other car doesn't have handicap then.

 

[Olavxxx]

I got disqualified for being too fast. They didn't give me the time but said I was way below 7.6.

I didn't think I would get disqualified as the temperature was +12C, cold battery and about 90 percent SoC.

Went against a super tuned Volvo 240, I was a bit slow in the start and he took the lead. After some metres I dominated him. But then I should have let go of the pedal the last 50 or so metres, I ended up a long way in front but disqualified....

Will maybe run tomorrow also..

We don't have these races often in Norway regrettably, so I can't practice.

 

[Big Earl]

I got disqualified for being too fast. They didn't give me the time but said I was way below 7.6.

I didn't think I would get disqualified as the temperature was +12C, cold battery and about 90 percent SoC.

Went against a super tuned Volvo 240, I was a bit slow in the start and he took the lead. After some metres I dominated him. But then I should have let go of the pedal the last 50 or so metres, I ended up a long way in front but disqualified....

Will maybe run tomorrow also..

We don't have these races often in Norway regrettably, so I can't practice.

Next time, don't go flat out on your first run. Ease into it to see how fast the car really is, then speed up as necessary to win without breaking out.

 

[Olavxxx]

Yes Will try again tomorrow.
Then I will try to not go flat out. But then it's even colder (+4 to +6C) and it might shift to rain.

Still I will try to barely win rather than dominate.
Here is a video of my breakout:

I dont dont what I ran. Km/h is displayed in video, but the timing is old school paper based. And they wouldn't give time because I got disqualified.

I see my dashcam says I did 143 km/h, but I don't know if that was after finish line. There is a short stretch for braking, not sure I started braking at once or not.

 

[wenkan]

Why fast cars need to be disqualified? Do they have some kind of multi levels/classes? If yes then you may just enter the one level faster group.

 

[Olavxxx]

There is no faster groups. Maybe it's because the braking area is very short. It's a track built for go-cart and extended for rallycross. Used just 4 times a year I think for street legal 0-201 metres (1/8 mile)