B8.5 and B8 First Time to Drag Strip

B8 S4
#1

Go easy on us, was the first time for both of us. We both got about 7 runs and ran each other on 5 of those at Milan Drag Strip DA 1410 (best recorded at 9pm). Take our times with a grain of salt, we were both noobing it up in various ways. I never used launch control (but accidentally enabled it once lol) and tried to do the Jeff/Ron launch technique as it was described. Fully disabled ESC and sport mode every time.

My car 2013 B8.5 S4 DSG - APR Stg 2 93 - nuespeed catback exhaust, roc euro intake, Stoptech BBK ST60, JHM rear LW rotors, Forgestar CF5V 19x9.5 (crudely weighed as 22.7 lbs) and 255/35R19 Tires. Bunch of suspension mods that don’t matter and the diff + trans bushing upgrades fwiw. Removed spare tire and tools. Ran with about 1/2-1/4 tank of 93 and my fat ass (200lbs).

Mrmomo313 2010 B8 S4 DSG - APR Stg 2 93 - roc euro, VMR V710’s in I believe 19"(?) with PSS tires I think. Also a bunch of suspension stuff that probably doesn’t matter. A recently replaced mechatronic circuit board and 24AS update before flashing. After all our runs, I realized that he had DTC’s like a christmas tree, so his shop never cleared all the bus noise from the flash “lost communication with ECM”. Not sure how it affected him.

My best time was 12.75@107.9, I believe I trapped higher once (like 109 ish), but I can’t find the slip so…

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3890/14734848954_da3f87c4f6_b.jpg

My best, of course occurring at the last run after the temp started to drop

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3909/14714205786_0831e30b2a_b.jpg

Here’s a first shot at logging and plotting what I took. Only recorded on the first pass, where I ran 12.88@106.9

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2921/14550717470_f93b7c8c9a_b.jpg

I recorded a couple other signals and sent them to Ron. Let me know if any of the other ones would be interesting to put up. I was boosting 16.4 psi according to my P3 gauge with analog tap. I forgot to record the manifold pressure, unfortunately I didn’t pull up wifi and had to go off my phone and what I remembered. Also, vcds poops it’s pants if you log more than 10 signals. The bypass valve was closed the entire time according to the logs.

I’ll let mrmomo speak for his own cars performance. We were pretty close in general, I would say I was launching my car better, while he had more HP and was trapping about 2-3 mph faster. My et’s were probably .1 sec faster in best scenarios. But there was a lot of noobing going on.

We both had a great time and I’m obviously not where other B8’s are, but I’m happy that the tune is doing something and I look forward to running in better conditions. Can’t be a bit disappointed with the shifting and you can really see where APR is leaving power on the table. I know the plan is to first release the B8 DSG software, but if my car + others is the norm rather than exception, a lot of people will be going GIAC and REVO (tentative) given the DSG tune. I’m doing a HPDE at mid-ohio this weekend, so I might try to log there but doubtful. Hilarious how much more anal those guys are about safety and tech compared with the drag strip.

#2

Pretty bad results vs. the list since most of the guys on the list who did well ran in winter or fall or early spring.

Take your car to the track when it is 45 degrees like they did, and you’ll see probably 3 tenths and 3 mph improvement vs. summer times, and that will put you right there in the low 12s like everyone else at the top of the list. You don’t see primetime making many BOOM! threads in July. Now you know why.

Your modlists are pretty solid for making power. The formula is there. It’s just tough in the summer, especially at Milan. Gets busy, and you end up in that staging area just eating heat for dinner.

How was the track prep? When I was there in September, a friend’s car had a problem and when he stepped out of it on the surface, his shoe stuck to the track, it was so heavily VHT’d/prepped.

#3

Didn’t go into it thinking we’d be in the record books, but figured it was a good opportunity to see how the cars ran and log in a safe environment. Surprising how high the IAT’s climbed, that CPS is starting to sound tempting. The sampling rate was really low on the logging, but you can see how low the trans was shifting

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2931/14551960290_1793f9b2d8_b.jpg

The APR DSG tune is a necessity if they want to keep customers from going GIAC on these B8.5’s, really can’t have it short shift 1-2 at 6k rpm.

Definitely agree that running in late fall will be the way to go. Not really sure about the track prep…there was a tractor that went out every so often ??? There were some ridiculous muscle cars, fox body mustangs with parachutes that were so loud it required ears to be covered. None of them even ran times, or in many cases, even continued after the launch.

Not a lot of street cars as the night wore on, maybe 15 or so. It was a decent day, so they stayed open till about 9pm.

#4

This is exactly what I suspected re: temp… Track was sticky, my shoes were sticking to the track a bit when I was walking around… There’s a vid floating around of one man who fell over because his shoe got stuck to the track at Milan lol. Planning on getting headers (or test pipes haven’t decided) and exhaust then trying again with cooler temps. My best run was 12.8 and highest trap was 109 which is in one of the above slips. The car definitely felt like it had more to give. My best run was also the last one once the temp dropped to 69.

In the first 3 runs the car got hung up on the 1-2 shift but worked well afterwards. Need apr to make dsg software asap as the stock programming can’t keep up with the added power. I couldn’t get a good 60ft all day but I suppose that’s due to my noob skills. Planning to go back out when it cools down a bit and run with a CPS as well. Great first experience overall though

#5

Mike, good stuff thanks for posting… Similar to what I just posted in regards to skywagon, the short shifting is what is killing your times… However, you also had much much higher IAT’s than his logs showed, which I feel is causing some of the timing pull… Your average IAT over the run was 79.4 C with a peak in 4th gear of 83.25! Just for reference I looked at some logs I did when I ran in 3100DA with mid 80 temps and went 12.1, my IAT’s were on average 72.5C and in the fall/sprin I’ll see averages in the low to mid 40s C and peaks in the low 50’s! Skywagon’s averages when he logged(not at the strip and only through 3 gears) were mid 50’s with peaks in the low 60’s, as he has the CPS… They would have been higher had he gone through 4th gear obviously… Given all that I think your car is doing good for the short shifting and conditions… Love seeing the graphs and such and glad you had fun at the strip as that is really what it’s about…

mrmomo, Welcome to the forum!

#6

Headers? They’re a waste of money. No offense if you like them…they just don’t work. We have a long ass thread about this. Loads of 1/4 mile testing…loads of PBOX testing. All show that headers add ZERO vs. test pipes or even HFC http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=1569.0

primetime (APR stage 2, 034 HFC, Milltek, intake etc) vs. a GIAC car with similar mods + headers http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=2164.0

primetime vs an APR headers car (virtually identical modlists except primetime had HFC vs. other guy’s headers, and primetime kept his seats in while the other guy thought we all own Hondas lol http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=719.0

primetime won both showdowns, if that helps save you some time/money

Test pipes? They’re definitely adding a little bit…not a huge amount like on the 4.2 cars where decatting gets you 20-30 hp, but certainly they help. JHM is making test pipes for the B8 S4 and B8 S5. I saw them last December when I was there…although I don’t think they’ve announced their full B8 program yet.

#7

To be honest, this is one of the best 1/4 mile threads ever

  1. two similar cars so it’s great to compare different things
  2. timeslips presented (although a bit scrunched up…work on that next time lol
  3. logging data presented

Well done. This helps the decision makers become educated decision makers. +karma for you both

#8

Thanks Ron, this log was only taken from the first run, after driving from Windsor -> ann arbor -> Milan in the span of 1.5 hr. I wonder if things got a little better as temps dropped, but who knows.

I need to wrap the intake in some exhaust insulation and see about that CPS…although about to buy a house, so cash might be a little tight lol :-.

Definitely looking forward to running in better conditions.

#9

Hmm yes from what Ive seen the headers aren’t providing much gains if any (though with an awe exhaust the sound imo is very intoxicating but I don’t think its worth 2 grand). If a nice used set pops up for the right price I may consider it. It seems that all the faster cars are running hfc or catless. I may hold off and see how the JHM ones turn out. I really want to break into the 11s with this car so every bit will help. From what your saying and what I’ve been reading the most cost effective and greatest power gain solution would be test pipes so I’ll most likely go that route.

#10

Thank you! Already liking this place more than az

#11

Thanks, the structure of this thread and going to the drag strip was mostly fueled by the annoyance of the AZ noise, tired of reading the middle school drama and wanted to get back to actually talking shop.

I have the timeslips individually captured so you can read them, but figured it wasn’t really that interesting. Honestly, each of us were fucking up so frequently that comparing the individual slips is kind of a waste of time. Real thing to take away was B8 stg 2 12.8@109.5 and B8.5 stg 2 12.76@107.9 (with additional mods).

Next time will hopefully join up with Jeff, so we can compare with people on top of the list. I know another 2014 B8.5 DSG guy who is waiting on GIAC and a someone with a tuned F32 335i. We’ll try and go together in the fall once the temps dip.

#12

you will get a bunch of MPH when you get a TCU, and a bunch more when you go in late fall temps.

We should rent St Thomas Raceway near London, ON. Probably a 90 minute drive for you. There are 6-7 of us out here near Toronto (also 90 minutes away) who would come.

#13

Yes.

#14

Milan was super sticky. So, unless you’re able to make enough power to spin, you had a lot of track prep to drive though. I was there Saturday.

#15

Milan track prep is always spot on.

#16

It is, I like how they prep the lanes for big tire cars and street cars. Me and a few friends met the track prep guy last year. He is super excited about his job and takes it very seriously.

#17

I’ve had a nose around, but cannot find any other reference to this. Does this relate the s-tronic (DSG) or the 6MT? Is there a post/thread that covers this?

#18

Graham, First off welcome to AR and nice times… I guess I can comment since I’m one of the folks you referenced… lol

Before we get to the actual launch lets make sure you are staging correctly… I pull up to the lights and as soon as I trigger the “pre stage” light or first yellow I stop and use my left foot to brake and barely inch forward as slowly and as little as possible in order to barely trigger the “stage” light or second light… You literally just want to trip it so you are “shallow staged” This will help run the best possible ET… Once you are staged keep you left foot on the brake and the right on the gas but not depressing it… On the second to last yellow as the tree counts down in one motion dump the brake and floor the gas as quick as possible… It’s not hard but takes a little practice… You want to do it all in one motion and do your best not to ride the brake, this will net the best possible 60ft times for the car and conditions… Better than LC on any stock or GIAC modded car… Looking forward to seeing more of your times/passes and let me know how it works and if you have any other questions as I’d be glad to discuss and there are a lot of other knowledgeable folks on here that will as well… Ron

#19

Good point… I notice Graham staged kinda backwards

. Graham search “audirevolution.net dragstrip tips” on your Google and you will find a good thread outlining a bunch of this stuff. It’s a b67 section thread but most of the info applies.

#20

Thanks. I follow the principle of shallow staging and was attempting to - whether I managed it I don’t know. As long as the car does not creep before you give it full throttle, I can’t see the go technique make much difference? I’ve run 12.92s letting the parking brake auto release!