I am heading to a local raceway Friday night for some quarter mile drag racing. I am looking for any competative edge I can get (the friends I am going with are all american muscle car guys who frown on my import). Will a bottle of octane boost (in addition to my 93 octane fuel) be a benefit?

I plan to:
have AC off
Normal mode (not sport or snow)
Brake and gas held at same time preparing for launch
RPMs at 2k waiting for green light

Anything else I should be doing?

 

Remove anything you don't need in the trunk, spare tire, jack , speaker box. Less than half a tank of gas.. If you can get some 100 octane fuel that would be better.. What muscle cars do they have?

 

Launch on the last yellow to get your R/T down.

 

One guy has a 350hp Dodge Daytona, I know another guy with a newer camaro (no idea what model). My buddy has a Challenger, but it has 500hp, so I will be staying away from that race.

 

Traction and vsc off, empty out the car, get there with the gas light on so less weight, lower your rear air pressure and reset the ecu to learn the aggressive drag drive. Octane boost is a waste of money. My best time on stock was 13.4 with 1/4 tank.

 

don't be afraid of the Challenger, its heavy plus you have a better gear ratio. Just make sure you beat him on the start..lol

 

To answer the original question, higher octane gas isn't going to do anything for you.

Higher octane basically means more resistance to detonation, which allows you to make more power through higher compression or more timing advance (or on a boosted engine, more boost/airflow). The fact that you are asking this question tells us you have no way of making more power with higher ocatane gas.

 

You can pull out the rear seats too, fairly easy from what my audio installer told me.

 

Well Said.

To the OP

You won't make any gains in HP by simply using higher octane fuel. It's just like Honda Cvics that run 87 Octane won't make any gains by pumping 91-93 Octane fuel.

In order to take advantage of high octane fuel, you need to upgrade your ignition system and entire fuel management system as well advancing the vehicle timing.

 

I also agree, no need for any additives to "up" octane. Your best bet is to remove anything you can, roll in on a quarter tank, adjust the tires (I assume you'll be on street tires) down to 28-30 psi, turn off T/C, turn off A/C (track madiatory of course), NORMAL mode, avoid the water box, NO BURNOUT, load-up on the converter (roughly 2-2.5k), launch when the last yellow illuminates, AND HAVE FUN!

 

Stickers, turbo whistler, ebay performance chip...




Just playing, looks like people have hit all the key points especially regarding weight. Safe racing and bring us back some videos! GL!

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I will post my times on Monday.

 

I got to race 4 times over 2+ hours. TY Gville350 for the tip about the water box - I would have had no idea otherwise.
My first run was at 2.5k RPM with a brake stance, but I had way too much wheel spin. I was so nervous, I let the wheels spin for a quarter of the track. Time was 19.355 :-(

Next run I did no brake stance, just stomped on it and got a 13.895 @101.10

Next run I did 1.5k RPM brake stance and ended with 13.947 @98.81

Lats run (the wait time was getting to be 45 minutes) I tried for 2k RPM brake stance, but the other driver beat me to the line, so when I got set the light started to change. Not sure if I hit 2k or not, but got my best time at 13.754 @99.65

I was getting more comfortable and am sure I could have done better, but the lines got longer and the wife got cold (I think the temp was about 58 degrees), so we left.

I did beat the Daytona guy who did a best time of 14.3, Lots of supertuned Mustangs and camaros were there as well as some imports that did not look fast, but did quarters in the 12s.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

13.7 isn't bad for your first time! I would have LOL'd at you on that 19 second pass.

 

I'm no drag racing expert, but this makes me wonder what tires you are running, and what the weather was like???