Changing Gears in C4

[guscorty]

Hello Everyone,

One of the things that I am learning about Drag Racing is that there are many variables. It's not just about horsepower. One of the variables is how you drive the car. The last time I went out to the strip, the run where I drove the car the hardest and tried to take it to its max was my slowest run. There was a chap there who said to me the C4's have a short first gear, get out of it quick. My practice is to get out of first gear at the same revs as I do with 2nd gear (5200- 5500).Should I be changing out of first gear sooner. The box is only a mild box. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Cheers

[XT302]

There is a huge amount of variables in the above statement.

Every car different. I know of a C4 car that likes to over rev (above peak hp RPM) 1st , then a bit over the money ( just above peak power RPM) in 2nd then 3rd.

BUT if it is spinning first hard, might get hp down by short shifting to 2nd?

OR OR OR, like you said a massive amount of variables that the forum can't help you with, book into a private track day, Sydne limits entrants to 50, so that means you can have pass after pass. I know a guy that ran 20 odd passes in the last one I organised, and you can try different things.

Thats really the only way to know.

[mex351]

Holy smokes bro,really? Every single car is different so don't expect to drive em all at 8000rpm before you change gears.Has nothing really to do with what the gearbox likes it's the combination of the engine HP and torque,stall speed,diff gearing,car set up...blar blar blar.

Having said that my 250 ute runs faster short shifting @ 6100-6200 in 1st and 2nd then running out to 6700-6800 in top...go figure?

[Giant]

Try it! it makes sense so its worth a few runs to find out!

[prasac]

as mentioned, try different things, different things work on different combo's. write everything down what you did and the results then you can look back on it.

[guscorty]

Thanks for the replies everyone.