Anyone tried launching there car in second gear.

Is it likely to break anything? If so what?
will it improve traction/times?

CheeRS

 

never tried it in a RST but used to in the cossie.

anti lag on, bit of revs, 2nd gear, 23psi, whoosh, lol, much faster than 1st if done right for me as it didnt bog down in the slightest and gave better traction.

lots of cars do it, i know of a fair few low 10sec and 9sec GTRs in the world that do it, i know of an turbocharged elise hillclimber that does, infact i think kev sharpe does too as his 7speeder has a mega low 1st gear.

try it, see what happens. its going to be as much to do with the cars traction and power delivery as much as anything else to know if it will be good for you.

 

I want to try it but I'm a bit worried it will break the gearbox. I might give gearboxman a ring as thats who I got the box from.

 

If 2nd is no weaker than 1st, ul be fine really, gearboxman will know probably as its an uprated RST box i dont think the rules from a std RST boxs weakpoints will apply.

I dont know what gears the weakpoint on a cossie box, 3rd i think. Deffo 3rd on a GTR box.

 

Interesting one this...
On the one hand you have a reduced torque multiplication, leading to less wheelspin. On the other hand you will not be able to produce high revs, so you won't be developing much power, so theoretically not accelerating as fast as you could (as rate of acceleration is governed by POWER to WEIGHT ratio).
As a front wheel drive racer myself, I use as many revs as possible without paying a penalty of wheelspin. It's a case of finding a balance really....

So to conclude...................





















........ask Sunny!

 

CheeRS bernie. My car makes peak power very low down i.e. peak BHP= 4300 rpm and peak tourque = 3700 rpm. I'm going to practice my 1/4 mile technique very soon so if something does break I can fix it in time for TOTB

My launch control allows me to set what revs the car will rev to untill XXmph its currently set at 4000rpm and will switch off when the car hits 20mph. These settings seem to work quite well but can you suggest any other settings to try? What RPM would you lauch a FWD with a paddle clutch?

 

impossible to say. you just need to try it out at various revs etc. too many variables. tyres, suspension, diff, as well as engine spec etc all change things totaly.

go find some deserted industrial estate, and do launch after launch at various revs, gears blah blah till u get it right, the only way youl know.

esp with launch control youl build up boost the longer your bouncing off the limiter too, so thats another thing to try out. with L/C you should easy get 1bar boost+ after a few seconds on it, and then a 2nd gear side step clutch launch is deffo on the cards, even then it might spin too much, need to try it to find out.

what engine you got anyhow? peak power at 4300 is like a bloody turbo diesel

 

I will be doing some launch practice soon and will try a second gear launch. My engine is a 1.9 cvh. I wanted low down power for 2 reasons 1. its more drivable on the road and 2. It stresses the engine less not having to rev to 7K to get the power

cheeRS

 

Has anyone tried a sencond gear launch in an RST?

 

BTT

 

tried many 2nd gear launches in my s2.

work very very well, had to give it serious rev's and it does bog a little, but once the turbo's spining there's a massive advantage, especially if you have a raised limited and you can just hit 60 in second

 

Nice. In theroy it should work quite well but I never heard it talked about on the board. Thats why I wanted to know if anyones tried it before.

CheeRS

 

must say though my gearbox didnt last 2 long.

Brand new ford big bearing box and it last 4 weeks

Im sure one of bernie's boxes would be up to the challenge though

 

How can a brand new Ford Box be Big Bearing?? Surely it would be standard??

Also there are some vids going about of DaveE launching his big power RST in second and it does look very quick. See if you can get those vids from somewhere

 

Its garrented with exception of gear tooth breakages.

I'll definatly try a second gear launch at TOTB. I just don't know whether to try one before in case it breaks something

 

no i dont steven !
my 1st gear is very similar to a standard 5 speed

stop spelling my last name with an E at the end and i,ll stop putting an N on your fist name steveN

 

It depends alot on ratio's. I used to do it with my close ratio quaife box however with taller 1st gear ratio the only way of avioding 'bogging' the car down is to ride the clutch...soon defeats the objective. All down to ratio's and personal launch techneque I think.

Personally use 1st gear though.

Thanks - Sunny.