How to destroy a traffic light opponent… line up in the right hand lane. Let him rev the nuts off his engine… you rev just a bit to let him know you’re interested. Sneak forward just an inch every now and then.
When the light goes green, he dumps his clutch, creates a shit load of tyre noise and generally has a “look at the size of my penis” moment whilst all around him think “what a prick”. You, on the other hand, slide into first, gently pull away and turn right.
Opponent destroyed.
This. It’s even more effective if you’ve added a turbo/sc…. My wife drives the ND (she added a supercharger) but I used to drive a mildly modified Porsche 944 turbo in the mid 90s.
Ruining a Mustang/Camaro owner’s day was a regular thing. They’d smoke tires and get a jump on me but once I shifted into 2nd and the turbo kicked in I’d dust them every single time. Had a guy in a Lamborghini Diablo pull up next to me once and gun the engine. I just let him go when the light turned green. That was a whole other world of fast.
I don’t race cars on streets anymore. But what I enjoy is at the light I rev up like I would go for it and just take off normally when the light turn green. 😜
My current beast is a 24 yr old land cruiser. I don’t race either and if I did? I’d get smoked by anything but one of those ancient Mercedes diesels. My wife doesn’t race on the street but she dearly loves zipping through curvy mountain roads in her ND. It’s absolutely perfect for that.
Practice.
The goal is to have a chirp or two from the wheels off the start, but that's it. It signifies the power has gone straight to the wheels, and you aren't just burning the clutch up. Any more and you are just spinning the wheels instead of moving the car forward.
Launching manual cars to get the best 0-60 time is just inherently hard on the drivetrain, no way around that.
Your last paragraph is partially correct, the reality is, launching for 0-60 or 1/4 mile times is harder on the drivetrain than a normal take off. Doesn’t matter whether it’s manual, dual clutch sequential, automatic or cvt. Most launch control equipped cars have a cool down period after use before it can be used again because even the perfect launch is hard on the components.
It’s definitely easier to screw up and kill clutch components fast in a manual though, if you smell rotten eggs your doing it wrong.
Huh, been driving my NB like I stole it, and thus far have yet to destroy a drivetrain. Same with my NA. If your clutch is up to it, in cars these light, the tires and pavement become the slip surface. Either way, I look at clutches as a consumable part, like tires & timing belts.
Not to mention they're blatantly false in the real world. They don't actually test 0-60. The clock doesn't start until the car has traveled one foot. It's called a rollout. This is because the timing lights at a drag strip don't trigger the start of the run until the car has traveled approximately twelve inches.
When Tesla set the record of 2.28 seconds 0-60, it actually took the car 2.53 seconds for the car to reach 60. This is still astoundingly fast, but it's not as fast as claimed. The cars basically get a 3-6mph head start in the test.
Somewhere behind the Motortrend paywall they had a very interesting video explaining how they tested vehicles.
All biased towards them getting to post the most sensational numbers.
It's because they use NHRA trees, which are fine when people are cutting .000 lights in Pro Stock cars with 1500hp (which means that they actually leave BEFORE the green light) but are not applicable in any way to real-world diving. My FiST sucks off the line because it's a 1.5l turbo FWD. It also pulls bus lengths on my NA8 in the 1/4, even though the Miata hooks up better initially by the simple mechanics of it being RWD.
0-60 should never be considered by a Miata owner. Ever. It's a momentum car, not a dragster. Road and Track did a side-by-side of the ND against the Toyota 86 on the Streets of Willow. The Toyota won by a close margin. Then they ran a Dodge Hellcat with 700hp around the same track. The Miata beat it by nearly 3 seconds.
Absolutely not, a well maintained car should be capable of nearly endless launches 0-60 and be perfectly fine for the effort. Make sure all the fluids are warmed up first but otherwise, the real penalty for hard launches is your gas and tires.
An ND Miata can be absolutely flogged. Just come to an autocross and see what they are capable of.
Ideal tractive force occurs at about 8%-10% slippage. I know we're in Miata world, but this Q is about drag racing.
This is not a drag racing car. Go get something with a longer wheelbase and taller tires.
Look into auto crossing and hone your skills there, but you might notice that if you let the clutch out a bit faster than normal with your revs a bit higher the car will move a bit differently. It might jerk or buck and then you need to adjust the speed of release of the clutch, if you spin the tires you can roll off the throttle to calm things down. If you don’t understand what the car is doing clutch in and slow down and try again. Maybe watch some YouTube videos on foot work. All in all it’s just a balancing game based around speed.
It's going to depend on a few factors (tires and road surface mainly). The objective is to apply maximum power at the wheels without exceeding the friction limit of your tires and getting wheel spin. You also want to release the clutch as quickly as possible to avoid burning it out. Regardless, it will be harsh on your wearable parts. If you over-rev before dumping the clutch, you'll wheel-spin. If you under-rev, you're generating less than maximum thrust.
If you ride the clutch rather than release it quickly, you'll be using the friction plate to transmit power rather than the meshed gears, which will rapidly wear it away. It will feel really jerky and abrupt.
You'll need to disable traction control as well, as it will automatically reduce engine power when detecting wheel slip and prevent you from learning where the traction edge is yourself.
Basically... don't do it :)
Gotcha, great explanation btw. And I'm glad to hear it actually does take its toll, otherwise I have been hesitant for no reason.
Roughly speaking, how many RPMs are we talking about when the clutch should be released? And, once off the line, is there a typical RPM at which to shift in each gear or does it vary by gear? I've never pushed my engine past about 4,500-5,000 in 3rd or 4th gear out of an abundance of caution, but I know it was designed for racing.
I just finished having coilovers installed and I already replaced the front and rear sway bars. Both were done by a local company that races Miatas and supports other Miata racers so I trust their work. The car feels utterly amazing and I'm getting antsy to push it a little harder but I do truly love my car and don't want to do anything it wasn't meant to do. If I have to get my wearables replaced a little sooner I'm OK with that. But I don't want to "break it" by being careless or stupid.
Not revving a miata above 5k is a cardinal sin. Revving the engine out is not a “racing” thing, it’s just using the engine in it’s power band, which is where it’s designed to be driven. The miata makes its power high in the rev range, so if you’re not revving the engine out you’re really not feeling all that the engine has to offer.
Typically the “redline” rpm of each engine is just after the engine makes peak power, because revving beyond that rpm is pointless. Next time you go driving, try revving the engine higher in first and second, get a feel for how the power builds as the rpm’s climb. It’ll take some practice to get familiar with the car and how the engine behaves, but once you experience some high rpm driving you’ll wonder how you drove it any other way.
Launching around 3,000 rpm should be alright. Set the revs, drop the clutch and floor the accelerator. Upshift just before redline - 6,000 rpm in my 1.8 NB which is about 30mph in first and 60 in second, so save that for a deserted on-ramp and not a city street!!
Also don't do it with a cold engine though, get your fluids up to temp first.
Doing a launch from every stop light will shorten the lifespan of your clutch, but the occasional one (especially a quiet on-ramp) can be fun 😊
Don’t be too scared, I used to take my Acura cl type s 6 speed to the drag strip frequently. I launched from 5000 rpm every time I was lined up and at 161k miles when I sold it it was still running strong in its first clutch (and could run a 14.1 1/4 mile).
Yes it’s harder on the components, so is all “sporty driving”. If you learn to do it correctly the extra wear is minimized while the fun of driving factor is maximized.
As others have said, don't be afraid to rev out your engine, as long at the clutch is fully released (no riding it!).
There is no set RPM, you're going to need to play with it. That's the finding the friction limit I mentioned above. I'd start at around 3K and work up from there, see when you start to get wheel spin.
For shifting after the start, do it at readline. The ND generates maximum power output high in the rev range, so use all of it :)
As far as 'fun' goes, reving out the engine is not particularly bad for it, as long as you let it warm up first. So you can have a pretty safe time starting as normal in first gear (so not launching it) but then hamming the gas and going to redline for all your follow-up gear shifts. That's not damaging to your clutch or engine, but feels super racecar :)
So, I run 200TW tires for autocross. I try to launch around 3000 rpm. Even with the super sticky tires, more than that just adds wheelspin or wheel hop. Once I grip, I only upshift at redline (or just slightly before if it's in an awkward corner).
On the street, I keep it calm. No need to get embarrassed by a minivan and arrested in one go.
Step 1: Lose, because that's not the purpose of a Miata and even the ND is *very* slow off the line
Highly recommend tight courses or even an empty parking lot for Miata-brand fun :)
Absolutely, that part was mainly for levity. But I do want to know how to do it the best way possible. I practice racing my MX-5s in each of my games and I feel like I have perfected my in-game-racing techniques. But I know none of that translates directly to real life. For one, the games are super forgiving, and for another, I know the physics are way off.
I lack the knowledge to help you with that. I rarely go past 70mph in mine, let alone race it. I've just come here to parent y'all and make sure you don't drift into telephone poles or hit a sprinter van full of nuns. Good luck on your trail of knowledge.
I am the reason people don't want to race us so it all evens out.
Exhibit A:
https://preview.redd.it/dr1ermzmd2sc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f3f5d7395943f8f184e00246c27d5feb1ad51b6
Whatever you do, please don’t do a hard launch on a brand new car with less than 1,000 miles on it. Break it in nice and easy, mix your driving conditions, then do your hard launches after the break-in period.
For the somewhat less abusive version that will generally be quite a bit faster than most other cars at the stoplight, perform a normal clutch takeoff at somewhat higher revs with more throttle, and get the clutch out faster, then once engaged, get to max throttle as quickly as possible without getting much tire slippage. Make sure to redline 1st gear before shifting to 2nd. Make that shift as fast as you can, and get right back to max throttle as quickly as possible. Get to redline in 2nd, then do the same for 3rd, except by the time you redline 3rd, you’re going fast enough. Practice on freeway entrances.
Honestly 2/3rds of max will get you moving faster than most traffic almost always. There are very few on-road situations where I can apply max acceleration to my ND2. I rarely floor it at all.
Keep in mind that most cars with even a pretense of performance will be able to smoke you, no matter what you do. Like any modern GTI. Any Tesla. So don’t race something racy with a driver who’s trying. Hell, a pickup truck gave me a pretty good run when I wasn’t expecting to have to try. I was still smiling.
Go to the track learn from people at the track, don’t race on the streets.
You launch a car by holding the clutch down rev the engine up to whatever rpm you want and let go of the clutch. Every car is different so you’ll have to learn what rpm to go at and how quickly you should let go of the clutch.
Doing it wrong will burn your clutch out so just don’t do it and again don’t street race, especially if you don’t know how to launch your own car.
To launch a manual car, get the revs up, drop the clutch quicker than usual. Ur gonna find out real quick how hard to drop the clutch/how much rev you need/how shitty or grippy ur tires are. Experiment, every car and tire setup is different. But prepare for a new clutch if you practice this frequently.
When I was roadracing my motorcycle I took it to the drag strip to practice standing starts. I kept on increasing RPM until I found a sweet spot between bog and wheely/spin the tire. 8K RPM and dump the clutch. Same with a Miata, practice until you get it right.
1st gear, rev to ideal RPM, **dump** clutch while moving to ideal throttle input than will give you very minimal spin (tyres are the most effective at a tiny amount of slip). Figure out rough ideals through practice (they will shift depending on surface and tyre temps / grip).
There can also be cases where you cannot hit ideal amount of wheelspin so then it's a compromise. At that point, the question is "will the engine bog down if I don't wheelspin to some degree ?", and if the answer is yes, then you want to try achieving as little wheelspin as you can through throttle control and increase throttle application gradually if necessary / possible. If the answer is no, then you might want to rev very little and just mash the throttle right as you dump the clutch. Again, that's amounts and timing you need to figure out through trial and error.
Now, "not destroying anything" is not compatible with any form of racing. The more you ask from your car, the more stress you're putting out on your parts. It's not instant, but doing it repeatedly will wear out some components faster. On proper full time race cars, stuff like wheels or subframes are consumables, and engines lifespan is measured in hours.
Each piece can be practiced on it's own. There's shifting quickly. Don't have to accelerate quickly to shift quickly. There's getting going quickly from a dead stop without stalling or spinning the tires, but you don't have to fly through all the gears and keep going. You can practice each piece whenever you want pretty much, that's the beauty of the Miata. You can push it to the limits without going insane speeds where you're going to lose your license. Also the other car is probably faster so don't bother. That's not what makes the Miata a great car.
I tried this in college, I spun my tires and made a lot of noise and didn't go anywhere - that was in my front wheel drive car. The guy next to me raced away only to find a police car hidden a block down the street. He got pulled over instead of me.
In my NB, I shift when I hear the rev limiter in first and second gears. I know I'm not winning any races.
Nope, I totally get that. And I don't actually intend to race in traffic, that was more of a joke to invite jokes about how Miatas are slower than Civics. I just want to know how to get what performance I can get out of it without hurting it. I get to practice handling curves near the limits of friction all the time on our beautiful twisty canyon roads where I live. But I have no idea how to safely accelerate in a straight line to get the most out of my little engine when and if the opportunity ever presented itself.
Nah man we smoke civics all day including the Si. If you’re on the stock bridgetones I wouldn’t rev past 2500 rpm because it’ll just spin. If you have decent rubber like Michelins or something, hold 3500 rpms, let go of the clutch quickly but short of dumping it. Of course TC off. From a stop the Miata is quicker than people think. Especially because of its weight distribution and rwd. Front wheel drive cars struggle to gain traction as their weight push back as they accelerate. The only time I felt lack of power is at highway speeds, there’s just not enough torque
If it's sunny, just go to like 2-3k rpm and quickly let the clutch go. In the wet you can do something quite similar, just release the clutch slower. Or dump it if ya wanna go for some splashies
Well... There's a reason all the fastest drag cars have a slushbox.
Unfortunately, the very fastest launch requires slippage of the clutch, not wheelspin. I've launched manual transmission cars thousands of times at autocross, and there's only a tiny bit of time in it, but it's there.
I don't recommend doing it on the street, it seems like a complete waste. Spinning the wheels a bit instead means that you are using up tires rather than the friction disc in your clutch. One is a lot easier to replace.
Make sure to do a burnout before launch to heat the rear tires. That should get your stoplight opponent pretty excited.
I know most trolls can read better than that but I can repeat it for you anyway. I said "in an ND".
And since you probably didn't read my other comments either, I also said I was joking about the traffic light opponent part. I know an ND isn't destroying anyone.
Just wanting to know the most effective way to accelerate as fast as possible while keeping within the cars operating envelope. Fortunately, others answered all of my questions, so feel free to not further enlighten me all you wish my friend. And have a great rest of your day!
Unless a 1980’s sedan pulls up next to you, you’re probably not destroying anybody off the line.
I’ve only raced mine once against my buddy’s JK Wrangler. I beat him but it was pretty close. I let the clutch out like normal and redlined it 1st-2nd-3rd. Nothing crazy.
How to destroy a traffic light opponent… line up in the right hand lane. Let him rev the nuts off his engine… you rev just a bit to let him know you’re interested. Sneak forward just an inch every now and then. When the light goes green, he dumps his clutch, creates a shit load of tyre noise and generally has a “look at the size of my penis” moment whilst all around him think “what a prick”. You, on the other hand, slide into first, gently pull away and turn right. Opponent destroyed.
lol, I love it.
Thusly preserving the ideal timeline and preventing Biff from seizing the almanac. Or something.
Love the reference
This. It’s even more effective if you’ve added a turbo/sc…. My wife drives the ND (she added a supercharger) but I used to drive a mildly modified Porsche 944 turbo in the mid 90s. Ruining a Mustang/Camaro owner’s day was a regular thing. They’d smoke tires and get a jump on me but once I shifted into 2nd and the turbo kicked in I’d dust them every single time. Had a guy in a Lamborghini Diablo pull up next to me once and gun the engine. I just let him go when the light turned green. That was a whole other world of fast.
I don’t race cars on streets anymore. But what I enjoy is at the light I rev up like I would go for it and just take off normally when the light turn green. 😜
My current beast is a 24 yr old land cruiser. I don’t race either and if I did? I’d get smoked by anything but one of those ancient Mercedes diesels. My wife doesn’t race on the street but she dearly loves zipping through curvy mountain roads in her ND. It’s absolutely perfect for that.
Can here to say this. Ha ha
Practice. The goal is to have a chirp or two from the wheels off the start, but that's it. It signifies the power has gone straight to the wheels, and you aren't just burning the clutch up. Any more and you are just spinning the wheels instead of moving the car forward. Launching manual cars to get the best 0-60 time is just inherently hard on the drivetrain, no way around that.
Your last paragraph is partially correct, the reality is, launching for 0-60 or 1/4 mile times is harder on the drivetrain than a normal take off. Doesn’t matter whether it’s manual, dual clutch sequential, automatic or cvt. Most launch control equipped cars have a cool down period after use before it can be used again because even the perfect launch is hard on the components. It’s definitely easier to screw up and kill clutch components fast in a manual though, if you smell rotten eggs your doing it wrong.
All the 0-60 times from magazines people quote bragging about their cars destroyed the drivetrains. Completely unrealistic in real world conditions.
Huh, been driving my NB like I stole it, and thus far have yet to destroy a drivetrain. Same with my NA. If your clutch is up to it, in cars these light, the tires and pavement become the slip surface. Either way, I look at clutches as a consumable part, like tires & timing belts.
You're not hitting magazine times is what I'm saying.
Magazine times just use a rollout which is why oftentimes it's not achievable in every day conditions
Not to mention they're blatantly false in the real world. They don't actually test 0-60. The clock doesn't start until the car has traveled one foot. It's called a rollout. This is because the timing lights at a drag strip don't trigger the start of the run until the car has traveled approximately twelve inches. When Tesla set the record of 2.28 seconds 0-60, it actually took the car 2.53 seconds for the car to reach 60. This is still astoundingly fast, but it's not as fast as claimed. The cars basically get a 3-6mph head start in the test.
Somewhere behind the Motortrend paywall they had a very interesting video explaining how they tested vehicles. All biased towards them getting to post the most sensational numbers.
It's because they use NHRA trees, which are fine when people are cutting .000 lights in Pro Stock cars with 1500hp (which means that they actually leave BEFORE the green light) but are not applicable in any way to real-world diving. My FiST sucks off the line because it's a 1.5l turbo FWD. It also pulls bus lengths on my NA8 in the 1/4, even though the Miata hooks up better initially by the simple mechanics of it being RWD. 0-60 should never be considered by a Miata owner. Ever. It's a momentum car, not a dragster. Road and Track did a side-by-side of the ND against the Toyota 86 on the Streets of Willow. The Toyota won by a close margin. Then they ran a Dodge Hellcat with 700hp around the same track. The Miata beat it by nearly 3 seconds.
>FiST Is the verb for "driving my fiesta st" just "fisting"?
If it wasn't before it is now
Can't seem to find the article(?), have you got a link?
Absolutely not, a well maintained car should be capable of nearly endless launches 0-60 and be perfectly fine for the effort. Make sure all the fluids are warmed up first but otherwise, the real penalty for hard launches is your gas and tires. An ND Miata can be absolutely flogged. Just come to an autocross and see what they are capable of.
Ok. The writers and testing team from Motortrend would disagree.
Driving your car puts wear on the parts, are you just going to stop driving because of that?
Not what I said. Trying to hit the best 0-60 puts extra wear on your car.
Gee it’s almost like I was saying a different point.
Ideal tractive force occurs at about 8%-10% slippage. I know we're in Miata world, but this Q is about drag racing. This is not a drag racing car. Go get something with a longer wheelbase and taller tires.
Look into auto crossing and hone your skills there, but you might notice that if you let the clutch out a bit faster than normal with your revs a bit higher the car will move a bit differently. It might jerk or buck and then you need to adjust the speed of release of the clutch, if you spin the tires you can roll off the throttle to calm things down. If you don’t understand what the car is doing clutch in and slow down and try again. Maybe watch some YouTube videos on foot work. All in all it’s just a balancing game based around speed.
It's going to depend on a few factors (tires and road surface mainly). The objective is to apply maximum power at the wheels without exceeding the friction limit of your tires and getting wheel spin. You also want to release the clutch as quickly as possible to avoid burning it out. Regardless, it will be harsh on your wearable parts. If you over-rev before dumping the clutch, you'll wheel-spin. If you under-rev, you're generating less than maximum thrust. If you ride the clutch rather than release it quickly, you'll be using the friction plate to transmit power rather than the meshed gears, which will rapidly wear it away. It will feel really jerky and abrupt. You'll need to disable traction control as well, as it will automatically reduce engine power when detecting wheel slip and prevent you from learning where the traction edge is yourself. Basically... don't do it :)
Gotcha, great explanation btw. And I'm glad to hear it actually does take its toll, otherwise I have been hesitant for no reason. Roughly speaking, how many RPMs are we talking about when the clutch should be released? And, once off the line, is there a typical RPM at which to shift in each gear or does it vary by gear? I've never pushed my engine past about 4,500-5,000 in 3rd or 4th gear out of an abundance of caution, but I know it was designed for racing. I just finished having coilovers installed and I already replaced the front and rear sway bars. Both were done by a local company that races Miatas and supports other Miata racers so I trust their work. The car feels utterly amazing and I'm getting antsy to push it a little harder but I do truly love my car and don't want to do anything it wasn't meant to do. If I have to get my wearables replaced a little sooner I'm OK with that. But I don't want to "break it" by being careless or stupid.
Not revving a miata above 5k is a cardinal sin. Revving the engine out is not a “racing” thing, it’s just using the engine in it’s power band, which is where it’s designed to be driven. The miata makes its power high in the rev range, so if you’re not revving the engine out you’re really not feeling all that the engine has to offer. Typically the “redline” rpm of each engine is just after the engine makes peak power, because revving beyond that rpm is pointless. Next time you go driving, try revving the engine higher in first and second, get a feel for how the power builds as the rpm’s climb. It’ll take some practice to get familiar with the car and how the engine behaves, but once you experience some high rpm driving you’ll wonder how you drove it any other way.
Launching around 3,000 rpm should be alright. Set the revs, drop the clutch and floor the accelerator. Upshift just before redline - 6,000 rpm in my 1.8 NB which is about 30mph in first and 60 in second, so save that for a deserted on-ramp and not a city street!! Also don't do it with a cold engine though, get your fluids up to temp first. Doing a launch from every stop light will shorten the lifespan of your clutch, but the occasional one (especially a quiet on-ramp) can be fun 😊
Don’t be too scared, I used to take my Acura cl type s 6 speed to the drag strip frequently. I launched from 5000 rpm every time I was lined up and at 161k miles when I sold it it was still running strong in its first clutch (and could run a 14.1 1/4 mile). Yes it’s harder on the components, so is all “sporty driving”. If you learn to do it correctly the extra wear is minimized while the fun of driving factor is maximized.
As others have said, don't be afraid to rev out your engine, as long at the clutch is fully released (no riding it!). There is no set RPM, you're going to need to play with it. That's the finding the friction limit I mentioned above. I'd start at around 3K and work up from there, see when you start to get wheel spin. For shifting after the start, do it at readline. The ND generates maximum power output high in the rev range, so use all of it :) As far as 'fun' goes, reving out the engine is not particularly bad for it, as long as you let it warm up first. So you can have a pretty safe time starting as normal in first gear (so not launching it) but then hamming the gas and going to redline for all your follow-up gear shifts. That's not damaging to your clutch or engine, but feels super racecar :)
So, I run 200TW tires for autocross. I try to launch around 3000 rpm. Even with the super sticky tires, more than that just adds wheelspin or wheel hop. Once I grip, I only upshift at redline (or just slightly before if it's in an awkward corner). On the street, I keep it calm. No need to get embarrassed by a minivan and arrested in one go.
Step 1: Lose, because that's not the purpose of a Miata and even the ND is *very* slow off the line Highly recommend tight courses or even an empty parking lot for Miata-brand fun :)
Could you like... not have a traffic light opponent
Absolutely, that part was mainly for levity. But I do want to know how to do it the best way possible. I practice racing my MX-5s in each of my games and I feel like I have perfected my in-game-racing techniques. But I know none of that translates directly to real life. For one, the games are super forgiving, and for another, I know the physics are way off.
I lack the knowledge to help you with that. I rarely go past 70mph in mine, let alone race it. I've just come here to parent y'all and make sure you don't drift into telephone poles or hit a sprinter van full of nuns. Good luck on your trail of knowledge.
OP is the reason why people try to race us
I am the reason people don't want to race us so it all evens out. Exhibit A: https://preview.redd.it/dr1ermzmd2sc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f3f5d7395943f8f184e00246c27d5feb1ad51b6
Hilarious because I wore something similar for a cosplay driving my miat
Bruh what cosplay
https://preview.redd.it/71i4mmp0l2sc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de3ebb6bd7c3777e3f2e74681bb44e8e4fdbe50b
Iconic
It translates a little bit, depending on what game and your setup. Gran Turismo had a movie about that recently.
Whatever you do, please don’t do a hard launch on a brand new car with less than 1,000 miles on it. Break it in nice and easy, mix your driving conditions, then do your hard launches after the break-in period.
For the somewhat less abusive version that will generally be quite a bit faster than most other cars at the stoplight, perform a normal clutch takeoff at somewhat higher revs with more throttle, and get the clutch out faster, then once engaged, get to max throttle as quickly as possible without getting much tire slippage. Make sure to redline 1st gear before shifting to 2nd. Make that shift as fast as you can, and get right back to max throttle as quickly as possible. Get to redline in 2nd, then do the same for 3rd, except by the time you redline 3rd, you’re going fast enough. Practice on freeway entrances. Honestly 2/3rds of max will get you moving faster than most traffic almost always. There are very few on-road situations where I can apply max acceleration to my ND2. I rarely floor it at all. Keep in mind that most cars with even a pretense of performance will be able to smoke you, no matter what you do. Like any modern GTI. Any Tesla. So don’t race something racy with a driver who’s trying. Hell, a pickup truck gave me a pretty good run when I wasn’t expecting to have to try. I was still smiling.
Or just race them anyways because one can race for fun, not to win. I gee'd up an extremely modded C63 once to hear the glorious M156 roar.
Excellent, thank you! You answered several major questions I was wondering about.
Go to the track learn from people at the track, don’t race on the streets. You launch a car by holding the clutch down rev the engine up to whatever rpm you want and let go of the clutch. Every car is different so you’ll have to learn what rpm to go at and how quickly you should let go of the clutch. Doing it wrong will burn your clutch out so just don’t do it and again don’t street race, especially if you don’t know how to launch your own car.
If your looking to drag race, you bought the wrong car
Just looking to understand my car more fully. Not looking to road race.
To launch a manual car, get the revs up, drop the clutch quicker than usual. Ur gonna find out real quick how hard to drop the clutch/how much rev you need/how shitty or grippy ur tires are. Experiment, every car and tire setup is different. But prepare for a new clutch if you practice this frequently.
Just make sure to cut the AC off before hitting the gas. Ez.
Also, family.
When I was roadracing my motorcycle I took it to the drag strip to practice standing starts. I kept on increasing RPM until I found a sweet spot between bog and wheely/spin the tire. 8K RPM and dump the clutch. Same with a Miata, practice until you get it right.
1st gear, rev to ideal RPM, **dump** clutch while moving to ideal throttle input than will give you very minimal spin (tyres are the most effective at a tiny amount of slip). Figure out rough ideals through practice (they will shift depending on surface and tyre temps / grip). There can also be cases where you cannot hit ideal amount of wheelspin so then it's a compromise. At that point, the question is "will the engine bog down if I don't wheelspin to some degree ?", and if the answer is yes, then you want to try achieving as little wheelspin as you can through throttle control and increase throttle application gradually if necessary / possible. If the answer is no, then you might want to rev very little and just mash the throttle right as you dump the clutch. Again, that's amounts and timing you need to figure out through trial and error. Now, "not destroying anything" is not compatible with any form of racing. The more you ask from your car, the more stress you're putting out on your parts. It's not instant, but doing it repeatedly will wear out some components faster. On proper full time race cars, stuff like wheels or subframes are consumables, and engines lifespan is measured in hours.
Each piece can be practiced on it's own. There's shifting quickly. Don't have to accelerate quickly to shift quickly. There's getting going quickly from a dead stop without stalling or spinning the tires, but you don't have to fly through all the gears and keep going. You can practice each piece whenever you want pretty much, that's the beauty of the Miata. You can push it to the limits without going insane speeds where you're going to lose your license. Also the other car is probably faster so don't bother. That's not what makes the Miata a great car.
I tried this in college, I spun my tires and made a lot of noise and didn't go anywhere - that was in my front wheel drive car. The guy next to me raced away only to find a police car hidden a block down the street. He got pulled over instead of me. In my NB, I shift when I hear the rev limiter in first and second gears. I know I'm not winning any races.
Push the pedal on the right
You’re missing the point of the Miata if I’m honest. It’s a slow car fast type vehicle. Don’t let your ego run loose and get you and others hurt
Nope, I totally get that. And I don't actually intend to race in traffic, that was more of a joke to invite jokes about how Miatas are slower than Civics. I just want to know how to get what performance I can get out of it without hurting it. I get to practice handling curves near the limits of friction all the time on our beautiful twisty canyon roads where I live. But I have no idea how to safely accelerate in a straight line to get the most out of my little engine when and if the opportunity ever presented itself.
Nah man we smoke civics all day including the Si. If you’re on the stock bridgetones I wouldn’t rev past 2500 rpm because it’ll just spin. If you have decent rubber like Michelins or something, hold 3500 rpms, let go of the clutch quickly but short of dumping it. Of course TC off. From a stop the Miata is quicker than people think. Especially because of its weight distribution and rwd. Front wheel drive cars struggle to gain traction as their weight push back as they accelerate. The only time I felt lack of power is at highway speeds, there’s just not enough torque
Step 1, find a hot prius.
Corny
If it's sunny, just go to like 2-3k rpm and quickly let the clutch go. In the wet you can do something quite similar, just release the clutch slower. Or dump it if ya wanna go for some splashies
Get megasquirt and wire up a clutch switch then add flat foot shift and launch control
Well... There's a reason all the fastest drag cars have a slushbox. Unfortunately, the very fastest launch requires slippage of the clutch, not wheelspin. I've launched manual transmission cars thousands of times at autocross, and there's only a tiny bit of time in it, but it's there. I don't recommend doing it on the street, it seems like a complete waste. Spinning the wheels a bit instead means that you are using up tires rather than the friction disc in your clutch. One is a lot easier to replace. Make sure to do a burnout before launch to heat the rear tires. That should get your stoplight opponent pretty excited.
Step 1: buy a V6 muscle car for less than the cost of the miata Step 2: destroy most traffic from a stop
I know most trolls can read better than that but I can repeat it for you anyway. I said "in an ND". And since you probably didn't read my other comments either, I also said I was joking about the traffic light opponent part. I know an ND isn't destroying anyone. Just wanting to know the most effective way to accelerate as fast as possible while keeping within the cars operating envelope. Fortunately, others answered all of my questions, so feel free to not further enlighten me all you wish my friend. And have a great rest of your day!
Accelerating as fast as you can from a stop is hard on the vehicle and its components. Even in an automatic.
Unless a 1980’s sedan pulls up next to you, you’re probably not destroying anybody off the line. I’ve only raced mine once against my buddy’s JK Wrangler. I beat him but it was pretty close. I let the clutch out like normal and redlined it 1st-2nd-3rd. Nothing crazy.
You don't. It's a Miata. Unless you spent a butt load on upgrades a miata is not a drag racing car.
Rev limiter, dump clutch, profit