[M5 London]

Went down there yesterday.

What a good laugh that was.

Also went down with another board member Syanthan's E39 M5, Supercharged too, but by C.A. (who actually invited me to the event, which I confirmed I would attend ONLY at 7.30 AM on the day).

I have never been on a drag strip. But I loved it.

I loved all the variables that combine together, to determine your ultimate ET and Vmax.....

My car did admirably well considering, its on a stock clutch, and it sort of kept wanting to pop itself out of 1st gear when I tried to launch it quite hard.

On my first run of the day it popped out of first gear. This unfortunately set the precedent for me in terms of how hard I would attack on the day.

My best reaction time of the day was 0.116s but this prompted another episode of popping out of first gear.

I managed three 60 Ft times in the 2.0s range.

I am quite confident, if I can workaround the issue the car popping out of gear and keep my reaction times under 0.3s and 60ft in the same range or perhaps just under 2.0s, AND stop hitting the rev limiter (since fitting my Van Manen headers, the car revs its nuts off from 5000 rpm to 7000 rpm !!), I feel my car, without any further modifications, will run 12.6s/12.7s/12.8s. I am currently running the standard pulley size of 96mm, stock BMW clutch, 135000 Miles 1999 MY, and she drinks Castrol's finest at a rate of a Litre per 400/500 Miles when I am driving relaxed and alot more when I am using the whip liberally

My best time of the day was with my girlfriend on board ! :thumbsup:

PS: I will let member Syanthan discuss his runs and experiences of the day. But I must admit that he was suffering an E6 code (Drive by wire throttle issues).... This was leading to some pretty interesting issues....I kept catching glimpses of him in my mirror trying to man handle massive amounts of yaw, created by what seemed to be a massive amount of lack of traction, as the throttle was definitely not acting in a normal fashion.

PSS: The night before we did about 15 runs, on a private and deserted, stretch of road. Runs started at 60/70/80 mph and I remeber letting off at 170 mph a couple to times too ..... In 4th gear runs starting at 60 MPH he would pull on me...but I seemed to catch him pretty spectacularly when my ESS M5 came into the boost zone, and then sort of left the CA car quite comfortably...doing a 60 mph run in 3rd showed both of us staying with each other, but as the revs and speeds rose, during the run I would start pulling away....The runs we had at night give a much better representation of how powerful Syanthan's car actually is, than our drag runs the following day.

I also got the impression when I am over 100 MPH there was no way the CA car was going to catch me.....Although we will need to do more runs to confirm this

The CA car is a stunning machine, and really looks the business too ! It basically shouts "I MEAN BUSINESS, COME GET SOME"

Whereas my one is a little meak looking in comparison, but good luck if you can catch me

 

[zarnd]

Thanks for sharing. Quite a few differences between the two cars though.

cheers

 

[rao]

Great pics. Not bad for your first time to the drag strip. A 2.0 60 foot time is not bad with street tires.

Your reaction times will not have any impact on your elapsed time, the clock doesn't start until after you break the second (forward) staging light.

 

[Andy_ran]

Nice write up.

on the face of the original results i would have personally been a bit disappointed with the results, but after reading the story i can see why. my PB on a standard car at pod was 13.8 with serious traction issues although the rest of the days were in the 14's/15's. I have done a fair bit down at pod and its all about the start. One of my slowest times has the highest TS and the fastest run was one of the slowest end speeds. Weird!

good to see the beast getting a spanking

personally i don't feel as the M5 is a brilliant 1/4 mile car and only start coming into its stride above the 100 mark

Again brilliant write up and pictures / vids

 

[jgfabs]

Great vids and pics.looks like alot of fun

 

[sayanthan]

as kumuran said, the E6 issue is a PITA - the night before, car was fine, and kumurans - did pull away from me-over 120-130mph - i think that's where a van manen manifold+decat will be telling over a stock manifold+stock cats. the initial runs kumuran's referring to were with the dsc on.
at the pod, things were fine, on the 1st 3 runs-was on 13.8 sec with a **** launch, thinking plenty of room for improvement and then started getting issues, where when i applyed the throttle at not particularly high revs-the power transmission was not proportional to how far i depressed the gas pedal, 2nd gear 3000-4000 revs the car would wheel spin when it wasn't in prior runs and last night. on subsequent runs i then tryed moving from idle and applying gas at specific revs and the same thing would happen and was getting serious "yaw"-kumuran's words when trying to floor it, so i just eased off and cruised the rest of the way-no point trying, something wasn't right.
checked the fault code and it was E6 fault code which had come on again, anyway, will get it looked at -i notice ess cars have had throttle linkage issues with the same fault code, but does it cause the car to "yaw" in such a dramatic fashion?
also tryed out the clutch on kumuran's car-so much lighter, the luk clutch / fly wheel combo is definitely the way to go (apparently it's been updated from a previous version) given that it's had a year on it incl a trip to the nurbughring and a series of launches at the pod, i think it's more than up to the task and cheap!-will definitely be getting this once i've sorted this E6 code issue on my car.

 

[Mfreakin5]

Great, crystal clear vids! That looks like it was a blast...too bad the track was so wet, otherwise you would have been ripping some times in the 12's. As it was you were taking off quite well, looks like you have zero axle hop back there, which is great.

Great sounding cars too, both of you guys.

 

[Slippery]

Hey glad you enjoyed yourself & gave the car a good pasting. I also used to be a regular at the Pod a few years back. Never taken the M5 on the strip as i packed in going to the Pod about 7yrs ago. I've got the slip somewhere for my old 3.0 E36 M3 bog standard 13.9 @ 101mph & a Cossie i had 13.4 @ 109mph. I would have expected your terminals to be around 115mph or more with the power that you are running, i suppose it shows they aren't that quick off the mark or maybe you were being gentle.

Simon.

 

[sayanthan]

one thing i will say is that i am doubly determined to get my car right, take it back to the pod, thrash the hell out of it and put down a good time.

 

[chowdah]

I admittedly have not seen my fair share of drag races. Are the carbon plumes, on gear shifts, to that degree, "normal" for our cars?

 

[Clemster]

one thing i will say is that i am doubly determined to get my car right, take it back to the pod, thrash the hell out of it and put down a good time.

That's the spirit! Practice getting away clean with minimum wheelspin as this will shave big chunks off your ET's. I've been improving my results each time I race and hope to be at it again very soon. The heads up racing against other E39's is something I've never had a chance to do. Looks like fun!

 

[Valley Motorwerks]

Look under the left front tire - there's a lot of torque being put down!

 

[nerio02]

finally some action ..yeahhhh



great videos guys..looked like fun.

 

[sayanthan]

Look under the left front tire - there's a lot of torque being put down!

so what's the conclusion from that? educate me!

 

[J Irwan]

nice videos and pics, thanks for sharing.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I am not sure which one of you two but I notice in addition to excellent taste in car, somebody also has a nice taste in watch too :M5thumbs:.


Regardz,

J Irwan

 

[Mikey_M5]

i'll be up for the next time

not taking mine on the strip unless i have done the clutch by then though, although a slipping clutch means its easier on the drivetrain :M5launch:

 

[sor118]

Thanks for sharing the vids! Looked like great fun! I was definitely expecting better times to be honest but with the problems you guys were having, you still did fantastic!

I'm surprised that you didn't have to wear helmets nor fire suits since you are both running Forced Induction. Here, anything under 14 seconds requires you to wear a SNELL 2000 or better approved helmet. I hope to hit 12.9x this summer with some new rubber and a good launch!

A road course would be way more fun though!

 

[sor118]

so what's the conclusion from that? educate me!

I'm certain he is referring to the front end becoming unweightened from the power pushing the beast forward since you can plainly see the tread and the full shape of the tire as if suspended which is entirely possible with the power you guys are putting down.

 

[blackxs]

Third video down... Im so glad im not the only one who "hunts" for 1st after being... in 1st. Whenever I clutch in I pretty much double check im in the right gear. I thought I was alone in that weirdness.

Looks like some nice runs, get some more practice and I think you can shave a lot more time off that time.

 

[Clemster]

Just watched the vids for the first time. You guys were rockin' the Pro Tree! That's pretty hardcore for the average racer. I have lots of track time and have never done this. I like it!