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14K views 178 replies 20 participants last post by  Linda's Hell Cat 
#1 ·
How much gas should I run with a stock SS at the track? And should I leave traction control on? I was wondering what would happen if I left it in traction control and did launch control at 1000 RPMs what would be the outcome. Let me know what you think it will do and I’ll try it at the track when I go.
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#2 ·
Half a tank. Sport mode. Def leave some sort TC on, if you get squirrely itll save your ass.
 
#5 ·
Track mode is too stiff, unless hes autocrossing. Street suspension for better weight transference.
 
#9 ·
#10 ·
Is the traction control different on a super stock than on a regular hellcat? I ask because I've accidentally left my traction control on and it's awful running down the track like that, felt like the motor was cutting out, and I was like what the heck just happened. It's so completely different than running it without that it seems like it's not worth doing.

Is there some type of stability control that he should still have on?

Or is the super stock different as far as the traction control goes? Please school me, SS owners.
 
#11 ·
FYI. The reason you go for 1/2 tank is because during race conditions, you can easily slosh the gas back away from the fuel pumps during launch if the tank is too low. I never had this issue with my Hellcat, because I always ran it with a near full tank (more traction :) ). However, in my 2015 Mustang drag car I owned, I did suck air into the fuel pumps once and it crapped out a few of my injectors. Lesson learned.
 
#15 ·
Well, it's really you don't want to go too much under a half a tank. And I will tell you that was not known or ever posted on here until it happened to me back in 2015. I was testing the 1st Diablo Tune and that happened and that experience almost made me cry! I thought it was the Tune but it was the tank was too low. I always keep my Tank around the 1/2 full. Maybe 2 runs after but that's it.
 
#12 ·
Op, race the car near 1/4 of a tank for the little bit weight savings and yes leave TC on. I don't think you would want to chance wrecking a beautiful SS if anything. Sure anything can happen but having TC on will ensure peace of mind.

When I race my custom setup is....

Track - Transmission
Street - Suspension
Sport - Traction

I've raced with the TC off and I don't think it made any difference so might as well have some sort of TC on to play it safe. You could still always try it with the TC off and see but get comfortable knowing the car first before making that move.

You can try those settings I use and try leaving at 1k rpms like you mentioned. It's all trial and error as I've done many 1/4 mile passes and have found what's worked for me.

If 1k rpms hooks well off the line cool, maybe stick with it or even play around a little and bump up the rpms just a tad on each run and see how the car responds.

Honestly the experiment and Challenge of it makes it quite fun and interesting. Eventually you'll find the sweet spot. 😉
 
#111 ·
Op, race the car near 1/4 of a tank for the little bit weight savings and yes leave TC on. I don't think you would want to chance wrecking a beautiful SS if anything. Sure anything can happen but having TC on will ensure peace of mind.

When I race my custom setup is....

Track - Transmission
Street - Suspension
Sport - Traction

I've raced with the TC off and I don't think it made any difference so might as well have some sort of TC on to play it safe. You could still always try it with the TC off and see but get comfortable knowing the car first before making that move.

You can try those settings I use and try leaving at 1k rpms like you mentioned. It's all trial and error as I've done many 1/4 mile passes and have found what's worked for me.

If 1k rpms hooks well off the line cool, maybe stick with it or even play around a little and bump up the rpms just a tad on each run and see how the car responds.

Honestly the experiment and Challenge of it makes it quite fun and interesting. Eventually you'll find the sweet spot. 😉
what is your best time and list mods.
 
#13 ·
once again he has a super stock... suspension in Track !!!

There is still traction control when in track mode..


Just put it in track.

check to make sure cooler is on.

Burn out.

learn what works best for you to 60 foot it..
 
#14 ·
once again he has a super stock... suspension in Track !!!

There is still traction control when in track mode..


Just put it in track.

Wouldn't street suspension be better for transferring the weight?

But again it's a Super Stock so maybe it's different as opposed to a regular Cat.

You have an SS so I'm sure you would know better.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Hey purrkitty. That sounds backwards to me, at least for how most drag cars would be set up. For drag racing, you want it stiff in the back. This is newton's 3rd law. If the suspension is "collapsing" that means that the tire is being pulled away from the ground. If the distance between the body and the suspension stays the same or increases, that means the force on the tire is going the opposite direction, which means it's planting the tire. Good "squat" is the tire biting down into the track and wrinkling up. I read online people talking about squat like it is a good thing. I guess that's what they mean, the tire smooshing which makes it look like the body is going down. But I am old enough that sometimes the words people use have changed, lol. It's always confusing to me to read that.

In the "old" days (the 80's ha ha), we talked about anti-squat bars, etc., which were used to keep the body from squatting, or we would run air bags, or a stiffer spring and lakewood drag shocks, or an adjustable shock, or lowering brackets for the lower control arms. Anti squat bars, like on my chevelle, shorten the instant center. Nowadays on 3 link or 4 link solid axle street cars everyone uses lowering brackets for the rear mounting point of the lower control arms to achieve the same effect rather than raising the diff mounting point of the upper arms. IRS is a whole different game, of which I don't know much.

Watch a street car at the track, especially if it's a stick, and if they have stock suspension you'll see the back end squat down ever time they shift, and they are probably also losing traction momentarily.

In the front, run loose. Adjustable shock. My mustang I set the front shock on 3 and the rear on 8 (12 being the stiffest setting).

I haven't found that unbolting the front sway bar matters if you still have the same spring and shock. But I haven't checked this on my hellcat, just other cars like my Chevelle and mustang. Front springs have to have stored energy so there is front end travel and an adjustable shock. Measure from the edge of the fender, right above the tire to the ground, and then start jacking up that side until the tire is almost off the ground. Measure down from the fender again. That difference is your front end travel. I had like 8 or 9" of travel on my Chevelle. Great for drag racing. Terrible for street driving. But it's easy to check just do what I described here and see if the front end travel changes when you disconnect the endlinks. Getting the weight off is another matter, so if someone were trying to save every pound it would make sense.

These modern cars are pretty amazing with how they can hook up without having the suspensions set up for drag racing. Today's race tires are probably a part of that too. A good track and really good tires make up for a lot of the poor setup in suspension, I guess. And, again, this modern IRS and all that is pretty darn cool.

To really see how much the car squats in terms of the body relationship to the suspension, put a zip tie on the shock and make a pass. Then look and see how far the zip tie moved up.

The one thing I wish the hellcats had is an adjustable rear shock.

Pretty cool that the SS has a setting like that for drag racing.

Front drag shocks usually come in 90/10, 80/20, or 60/40. The first number is how easily it will extend and the second is how easily it will compress. The idea is for it to extend quickly and then stay there and slowly come back down, etc. So a 90/10 shock basically extends 9 times more easily than it compresses. For rear shocks it might be 50/50 or whatever. I have single adj on my mustang so it changes both extension and compression together. A double adjustable shock you can control the compression and extension separately. I've never had a car that was fast enough to need double adjustable, lol, but my friend has a chevelle that runs 6.40s in the 1/8 lifting to stay legal, at 5500 DA and he really has that thing dialed in, all motor. The shocks are $$$.

I also haven't found that an adjust front shock doesn't matter much if you are still using the stock front spring since the spring rate isn't designed for stored energy to allow the front end to travel.

Dang I wrote a lot. Sorry about that everyone.
 
#36 ·
For me the fun part is figuring out how to make it leave quick n consistent and figuring out when to leave to cut a light once I do

From there it’s only fun when you aren’t the guy going home…

Unless you are lucky enough to have won the final round!

I love bracket racing. Not as much as I love index racing but I like bracket racing more than heads up today. Even back when I had unlimited funds… index racing is more competitive. Drivers win index races. Of course you have to built it right and know which numbers to put in the box too : )
 
#49 ·
Hi Vet Rider....I think this is the first time I have heard of the problem happening with a half tank. Just curious at what part of the track did it happen and did you datalog back when you had the Hellcat? I've never owned a Hellcat but interested in fuel delivery system. A motor going lean is the best way I know of to have to replace it!!! Thanks
 
#45 ·
@Chris jimenez how are you doing your Burnout.?

MT ETrs do not like to be overheated. If you do they will turn into a slick. Slicks are not what you want for for your Hellcat.
18s the psi can go lower. I start out at about 17 psi on my mine.
 
#47 ·
@SickToo The Best I can say is My husband @Top Cat while we were at the track was figuring this out. But I also know he read for information the Wallace Racing - Automotive Calculators

Lot's of guys went to the 17's They also usually have more mods to go faster.
I continue to stay with the 18's and I also have 309 Gears.
My husband @Top Cat figured the 18's and the 309 Gears were a good combo.
He liked starting out the tire PSI at 17. More tire patch.
Our cars have a lot of Torque and getting the Power to the ground is something that takes Finesse to Launch.
It's nice to have some of the after market parts now that can be bought for our cars these days.
For instance, I like having the HHP Drag Springs for transferring the weight.
I like to race and Daily Drive my Hellcat. I also have changed somethings in the more recent years, because the Parts are specifically made for our Cars. There are more plentiful for either Performance and Racing


Linda :)
 
#48 ·
Hi Linda can you give us some of the logic and parameters (ex. how he used the 60', mid track, and trap ETs and MPH numbers) our husband used and maybe the Wallace Racing Calculator(s) that helped him arrive at his conclusion? The HP had to have a considerable impact and I'm wondering where the breakpoints are to go from 18 to 17 to 15 might be. This trial and error method gets expensive unless you have friends that can loan their tire/wheel combo for a few passes. Thanks
 
#51 ·
Chris--Go on YouTube and look for Kevin Herr under Herr Jugs Racing. I believe these are the same exact tires and size he is using on his SS. He has vid of his install to confirm (what I hate about...). He's hooking good now or at least way better, the car still has more in it as a stock setup and running mid 6's??? His last vid shows time slips as does the others where he is at the track. His vids will normally be good for a laugh as a bonus (watch the opening to his last one). His story line is just like us...new Super Stock and learning how to make go w/o big mods...he goes thru using launch control, line lock, etc. and has good viewer comments based on their experience. Hope that helps.
 
#57 ·
Hi Sick Too So I'm thinking that a 1.77 60' is good for a normally asperated 394??? It's interesting to note that he had the identical tire and size as is on factory Demons and Super Stocks (might also be on the Jailbreak). Did he have the wheel also? You can't buy that size from Nitto or at least they are not on their web site and when I called them they told me to use the 555RIIs. The Parts Mgr at the dealer tells me he can't get them either. He says his suppliers are out of stock. Didn't even find any on Ebay. So your competitor must have gotten them from someone who owned one of these models that changed them out for something else. He was lucky to get them. I only have 700 miles on my SS and in my opinion up to 500HP the Nitto NT05R are a great tire, quiet, and probably as good as the MT ET Street SS and the ET Street Rs on the street (pick up too much gravel etc). I've only had mine loose traction once (trying to conserve since getting a replacement might be a issue) when I had to goose-it pulling out into traffic, it got a little sideways in a 4-wheel drift. In a straight line rolling acceleration (in 500 HP) I can feel the tire slip just ever so slightly then bite, the car reaps forward and takes off. Never experience that before but never been on a true wrinkley slick and way better than the 305/35-20 Pirelli's on the Redeye. At 800HP they can't handle the job at the track let alone the street w/ one exception; apparently a track that is prepared my Mass Traction (I think that their name...a professional group that goes around preping tracks for big events) can do the job. These tires are known to break differential housing if you have the power. That's why I have a the Drag Pack from my previous Redeye for the SS at the track. I wouldn't get on the track in a SS or Redeye w/ this tire unless I cut the HP to 500 and did some testing to ease into a full launch.
 
#70 ·
I'm not sure what you mean?
 
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