SST Newbie In Need Of Guidance

Pony Pilot · 09-30-2012, 05:18 PM

I’m a lifetime footbraker just now entering the world of Super Street. I purchased a #1 Stop and Biondo 4 stage timer in July and have been working to get to learn it since. The car is a small block Mustang with a 3 speed tranny and 5.14 gears. Vehicle weight is approximately 2,800 lbs. Wide-open performance in the heat is 6.40 to 6.42/105 to 107 MPH. Cool weather best is 6.25 @ 110 MPH at 75 degrees, 33% humidity.

After reading some of the posts on this forum, as well as any articles I could find on line, I’ve found that there appears to be a balance that needs to be found between RPM while on the stop and length of time on the stop. Too little RPM on the stop means too short a timer setting; too high an RPM means more time on the stop and more RPM creep while on the stop.

I live in the South, where there is only 1/8th mile tracks available. While there are several pro tree events, none allow throttle stops—which boggles my mind since stutter boxes and nitrous timers are allowed, but that’s a separate topic. Back the point, I’ve had to estimate quarter mile 10.90 times off of my eighth mile times. While many of the on-line sources state that a conversion factor of 1.56 was accurate, my own calculations came up with 1.57 being more accurate. Therefore my goal has been to get to 6.94 sec on the eighth, which will hopefully get me into the region of 10.9 on a quarter mile track.

The closest I’ve come to achieving this goal is a throttle stop RPM of 5,000 and a timer setting of 1.5 seconds (6.93 @ 105 MPH). From my reading, it seems the preferred timer settings are from 1.7 to 3.5 seconds, so I wonder if the RPM should be increased slightly so more time can be put in the timer? My only hesitation in doing this is the RPM is rock-solid at that timer setting. I varied the timer settings from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds to come up with a throttle stop ratio of 5.882. Does that sound reasonable? I have the stop coming on at 0.3 seconds. The 1-2 shift is done on timer at 0.5 seconds, and the 2-3 shift is done manually at 6,800 RPM.

I need to know from you guys that have been doing this for a while if I’m on the right track. I’m getting ready to dive into the deep end by entering Super Street at the NHRA Divisional race at Silver Dollar in two weeks, so if I’m screwing something up, it would be nice to know now!

Thanks for any guidance you all can provide.

09-30-2012, 05:18 PM	#1
Pony Pilot Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 25 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	SST Newbie In Need Of Guidance I’m a lifetime footbraker just now entering the world of Super Street. I purchased a #1 Stop and Biondo 4 stage timer in July and have been working to get to learn it since. The car is a small block Mustang with a 3 speed tranny and 5.14 gears. Vehicle weight is approximately 2,800 lbs. Wide-open performance in the heat is 6.40 to 6.42/105 to 107 MPH. Cool weather best is 6.25 @ 110 MPH at 75 degrees, 33% humidity. After reading some of the posts on this forum, as well as any articles I could find on line, I’ve found that there appears to be a balance that needs to be found between RPM while on the stop and length of time on the stop. Too little RPM on the stop means too short a timer setting; too high an RPM means more time on the stop and more RPM creep while on the stop. I live in the South, where there is only 1/8th mile tracks available. While there are several pro tree events, none allow throttle stops—which boggles my mind since stutter boxes and nitrous timers are allowed, but that’s a separate topic. Back the point, I’ve had to estimate quarter mile 10.90 times off of my eighth mile times. While many of the on-line sources state that a conversion factor of 1.56 was accurate, my own calculations came up with 1.57 being more accurate. Therefore my goal has been to get to 6.94 sec on the eighth, which will hopefully get me into the region of 10.9 on a quarter mile track. The closest I’ve come to achieving this goal is a throttle stop RPM of 5,000 and a timer setting of 1.5 seconds (6.93 @ 105 MPH). From my reading, it seems the preferred timer settings are from 1.7 to 3.5 seconds, so I wonder if the RPM should be increased slightly so more time can be put in the timer? My only hesitation in doing this is the RPM is rock-solid at that timer setting. I varied the timer settings from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds to come up with a throttle stop ratio of 5.882. Does that sound reasonable? I have the stop coming on at 0.3 seconds. The 1-2 shift is done on timer at 0.5 seconds, and the 2-3 shift is done manually at 6,800 RPM. I need to know from you guys that have been doing this for a while if I’m on the right track. I’m getting ready to dive into the deep end by entering Super Street at the NHRA Divisional race at Silver Dollar in two weeks, so if I’m screwing something up, it would be nice to know now! Thanks for any guidance you all can provide.