Foot brake drag racing

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Texas Red

Texas Red

Old Flunky
FABO Gold Member
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Location
Lake Corpus Christi
Is there anyone else on here that runs a footbrake car or participates in Foot brake drag racing. Thats the way I set my Duster up and was wondering if anyone else runs a setup like that. Thanks Texas Red
 
What do you want to know?
Try to get consistent reaction times either at the track or on a practice tree then do everything possible to mechanically speed up the reactions of the car itself to get the quickest average RT's without redlighting.
 
We don't have a track anywhere close to us in the Corpus Christi Tx area. so that is out. The only track even remotely close to us is Edinberg TX (3 hours South ) where the land is now owned by the city of Edinberg and race schedules are sketchy to none.... One such incident was where a Test N tune day was scheduled only to be shut down by someone on the city council after racers had made the 4 hour tow to the track. Thats how sketchy ....Enough on that

Foot braking to me is knowing your equipment. Knowing what RPM to launch at without the car creeping, Having your braking system set up correctly, Having tire pressures set up optimally, Knowing and practicing over n over n over again getting your 60 foot times to optimum.................

I really think I need to do some reading on techniques etc... Technical articles etc....... as I built my 72 Duster trying to recreate a 1972 Super Stocker where 90% of the cars were 4 speed....(Mine is a pro built automatic 727) as I watch old drag racing videos etc.... Ronnie Sox amongst many others would rock their car into the beams as I am guessing here but they did have a line lock to keep the car still until clutch dump time.
I am not sure but don't think you can even have a line lock in a rea competition series like they run at Bristol each year
I may not have the optimum set up in my car to begin with as Set up is everything Just as you are describing!
 
Here is a picture of my junk.............. straight out of the make shift paint booth in my shop.
3100 Hughes stall, Pro built 727, 4 wheel manual disc brake, 410 CID, Ford 9 inch 350 rear gear
for street ability purposes
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Practice, practice, practice. In your personal vehicle if you are caught at a red light, start to lightly power brake when the cross-light turns yellow. Then when your light turn green just do the launch part and then back off.

Also good to know how the car reacts when you let off the gas in full throttle. Is the parking brake working?

If you have a forward pattern valve body, you can downshift to slow your car down (if the rpms aren't too high).

Maybe someone local has a Christmas Tree on private property where you can powerbrake launch.
 
Charrlie_S said:
I am a foot breaker. As far as I know a Front wheel "line lock" is allowed in every class of drag racing.
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Line locks are allowed in all classes to do a burnout and worked by the driver. It can not be used to launch a car with any electronic assistance, as in "delay box", which is usually also used with a trans brake.
 
Yes on the practice, practice, practice thing I get it. I already do the power brake thing to get out into traffic as well as get out of some peoples way. Yes to a forward transmission shifting pattern, Parking brake is fully functional............ This is a new ground up build so refining systems is a must... Know your equipment...Enough said. It now sports spilt mono springs and a Cal trac system plus new rear shocks....The car does nothing strange when let off of after full acceleration but yes that needs to be a known prior to any surprises. The Cal Trac system made a huge difference on the way it leaves. As I do agree with the practice , practice , practice thing as that creates low/ lower 60 foot times. The same holds true of beware of the guy who has had his old Camaro for 40 plus years because he knows the car.
 
If you mean a "regular footbrake racer", there are many out there. I do it once in a while, but I have friends that do it for points for years and years - some going as far back as the 60's. You and your car gotta become one. Some of those I know cut .00X lights a lot.

Some tips:
  • stage the EXACT same everytime. If you trip the stage light then bump in another inch, then do it everytime.
  • Leave the same everytime. Same rpm's, same spot on the tree.
  • You need a car that runs consistently.
  • If 1/4 mile, race yourself the first 1/8 by being as consistent as possible. Once you cross the 1/8, then you should be in high gear and then you can look to race the other car.
 
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Back to the mechanical reactions of the car that I touched on in post #2:

From the looks of the car, it would appear that you have the roll bar and frame connectors in it, which are important to reducing the cars reaction time by keeping everything stiff. Any flex in the car is wasted energy which is dissipated instead of working to push the car forward. This becomes obvious in un-reinforced cars when body seams start to crack and even doors becoming misaligned. Also:
* Solid aluminum front spring eye bushings in regular or SS leaf spring cars.
* Solid motor mounts, or at least polyurethane with a "locking" mechanism. May cause an uncomfortably stiff ride on the street.
* Radial race tires or radial slicks are quicker reacting than bias ply because they "wrinkle" less and can be run with more air pressure than bias ply tires.
* A wider rim can also allow for more air pressure & less wrinkle while maintaining a full "footprint" for better RTs. (i.e.: 9" slicks on 10" rims) Each car is different so testing is important to find the optimum pressure.
* Taller rear tires can provide more initial "leverage" on launch along with optimizing the gear ratio. But the gear ratio may be an inconvenience on a dual-purpose car.
* Shorter front tires can make RTs faster compared to taller tires when staging exactly the same way. Shorter tires leave the starting beams quicker. More air pressure (within safe reason) can actually also help by minimizing any flat spot where the tire meets the ground. The result is less tire diameter at the beam height to travel through the beams.
* Front end alignment. Make sure everything is square and the wheelbase is the same from side-to-side. If there is any stagger, the tires together will have further to travel (block the beam longer) before leaving the starting beam resulting in slower RTs.
* Weight - 1 - Less weight is easier to move and can result in quicker RTs. Aluminum wheels are a beneficial item. Unfortunately, many lightweight race wheels may not hold up well to the bumps and potholes found on the street. A bonus is usually quicker ETs. However.....
* Weight - 2 - A race track surface may not remain in tip-top condition round-to-round or race-to-race. One may not hook the same round-to-round. It may be improper or lack of prep, or something beyond the tracks control. Adding weight towards the back can sometimes help a car hook better, have more consistent RTs as well as ETs.
* As mentioned in an earlier post, bumping in a bit when staging can quicken RTs. But it's difficult to do it consistently (gauging the distance) and you can get caught unprepared if the tree drops before you can refocus on the last yellow.
* In bracket racing, deep staging is allowed (turning off the prestage light). That usually helps slower reacting cars & drivers. That requires knowing the track rules for deep staging and getting the routine down pat. But if that strategy results in better RTs, take advantage of it.
* One possible downside of some of the aforementioned suggestions, like shorter tires, lower air pressure, deep staging, etc. is that these efforts to reduce your RT will slow your ET. The reason being is that your car isn't getting a "running start" before leaving the starting line beam because the tire is in the beams for less time. BUT, Faster ETs don't win bracket races. Faster RTs and consistency does.

Many results may not be immediately obvious because there is always a "margin of error" on each run. But the benefits will add up. It's like the goal of removing 100lbs in order to run the rule-of-thumb average of 1/10 of a second faster in the 1/4 mile. It's difficult to find a 100lb hunk of metal to remove to reach your goal. But find a pound here and a few pounds there and the benefits will eventually be obvious.

Bottom line is get your reactions as consistent as possible, even if they aren't very good. Then start experimenting to change the car reactions to get it as close as possible to .000 or .500. It's easier to change the mechanics of the car than for a person to change his/her reactions consistently.

I can't tell what kind of tach you have but I believe a good playback tack will be VERY beneficial towards learning and seeing what is actually going on instead of relying on you senses while trying to race. I learned a lot with my Autometer playback. It showed exactly what I launched at, converter flashed to, what I shifted at and what I went through at the finish....not what I thought it was doing. Especially helpful with keeping track of your stage and launch rpm when experimenting with RTs.

Specially built converters can help in RTs as well. But I let my trans/converter builder handle the science behind that.
 
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Texas Red said:
Is there anyone else on here that runs a footbrake car or participates in Foot brake drag racing. Thats the way I set my Duster up and was wondering if anyone else runs a setup like that. Thanks Texas Red
Click to expand...
I am 60 miles south of Dallas and it looks like your car and mine are twins! I footbrake and leave off idle. If I have idle set around 1500 rpm it will give me about a .01 light if I do everything else right. I have an 8" 5500rpm stall converter.
 
I'm a footbraker also in the avatar. But since i moved to Florida, don't copy me as my RT's have been inconsistent. Still working on it! I second @Locomotion 's comment on a playback device. I have a programmable playback shiftlight that has a digital rpm readout that I use to insure my launch and shift rpm's are consistent. I record them after each run. These aspects are quite consistent but ole dummy here has to get better on RT's.

Interestingly enough, there's a few guys down here that do a lot of winning and they all deep stage. Maybe it's a case of "If ya can't beat'em, join'em." Time will tell.
 
Demonx2 said:
Interestingly enough, there's a few guys down here that do a lot of winning and they all deep stage. Maybe it's a case of "If ya can't beat'em, join'em." Time will tell.
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Most of the tracks here in Texas don't allow deep staging for bracket racing, just for index. I know of 1 track that allows deep staging in Sportsman (Street) class, mostly because one of the track owners, who is in his late 70's, races in that class and he definitely needs it.
 
Still not clear to me what the goal is. Are you ever planning to race at the track? If no, then why?, street racing?

Lots of response regarding reaction time, but if you’re never racing, it will never matter.

If it’s about best potential et, i.e best 60’, the only place to make that better is at the track where you can trial different launch methods and collect data. It is car specific. No one can tell you what will work or do best for your car.
 
I know I guy that has a presser gage on his beak system, he makes every effort to use the same break pressure every pass.
 
RockinRobin said:
Most of the tracks here in Texas don't allow deep staging for bracket racing, just for index. I know of 1 track that allows deep staging in Sportsman (Street) class, mostly because one of the track owners, who is in his late 70's, races in that class and he definitely needs it.
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I wish nobody allowed deep staging. Not sure where/when that came about. I am in the Sportsman class and its allowed here in Florida.
 
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