first timer - how much difference will my 18's make?

[AlienInv8r]

The car club at my school is going to the track tomorrow, and since I plan on joining I figure this will be a good way to meet some people. Anyways, it's a 1/4 mile track in Bristol, Va which is like 2 hours from my school. I plan on taking out my sub/amp and my spare tire and stuff. I was wondering though, how much are having 18" wheels (early C5's) and open 3.08 gears gonna kill my times? I dont wanna like be embarassed or something, ya know? My current mods are in my sig, I havent put any on the car since I bought it from the last guy. What would be a guess of what I could run? I've been reading a lot of the tips, and I think I'm just gonna launch from idle cuz my car feels fastest that way. I've read a lot of other people do that with the stock converter too. Is there anything else easy to remove from the car for weight reduction? How hard is it to get the seats out? I'm just afraid that my cars gonna have tons of extra weight and have stock hondas or something beat me (no way I can have that, I'd rather wait till I get my gears in..) Thanks!

[Redsix]

Don't expect to run better than a high 15 with that combo. 18 wheels and 3.08's is probably going to slow you down considerably. If you had 16's and 3.42's you could probably knock about .5 seconds of your times. Goodluck and try not to go with incredibly high expectations just have fun and do your best.

[AlienInv8r]

Yeah, I'm definately not trying to hype myself up about times. I'm hoping for maybe a 16-flat and I'd think my car was running ok. I'm not totally sure I'm going yet either, the track is 140 miles away and the next state over. Kinda far, but I still may go for the heck of it. Now I know my car is going to be hot, I've heard of icing the intake or whatever, do I just put a bag of ice straight on the lid? I would think the plastic would melt if it were on the tb or anything else metal. I think it'll be a whole lot of fun, but at the same time I dont wanna go for the reason of finding out how slow my car actually is.

[FireFighter]

i ran 16.1's with my 18's in the rear and with my 16's on the rear i cracked the 15.8, what gears do you have?

[Camaro_SLP]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by FireFighter:
what gears do you have?<hr></blockquote>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Originally posted by AlienInv8r:
and open 3.08 gears gonna kill my times? <hr></blockquote>

Do you still have the stock 16" rims/tires? If so, I would suggest putting them on. Good luck and have fun.

[AlienInv8r]

I wish I still had them, but I bought the car with the vette wheels already on it. Maybe some of the other f-bod guys in the club have a set I could borrow or something, I'll hafta ask around. It's pouring out here right now anyways, so I dont really think I'm gonna go now. I think if I like it that I'll buy a set of stock rims for the track or something and put drags or whatever on them. But that's a ways down the road. If it keeps raining today then I'll wait till next time, hopefully I'll be able to get my 3.73's installed by then [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[FireFighter]

sorry didnt see that, race before the gears so you will know how much time they took off!

[AlienInv8r]

I am gonna go before the gears I decided. I dont care how slow I am, that's why it's called a baseline for you to make yourself faster. There's an 1/8th mile track much much closer (like 45min.) that I think I'm gonna hit up before getting the gears done. I think it'll be fun though, maybe next week the weather will be better.

[98GREENGLOW]

There is a 3 tenth differance when I race with my 18 inch Z06 rims. With 3.08 gears and my 18 inchers on the best I could muster stock was a 16.6. With 3.42's and 16 inchers I went down to a 16.2

[Eddie B]

Going from sixteens to eighteens, you loose one-ninth of your totoal horsepower to the wheels, no matter how light the wheels are. Say you had 170rwhp with 16", this means that you know have about 151 rwhp. Thats a lot. If you're gonna race, but back on the stock, ON ALL WHEELs, not just the fron or the back...it all has to do with inertia. Good Luck.
Ed

[AlienInv8r]

Yeah, I vaguely remember all the physics about it and those extra 2 inches adding like tons of extra resistence to the rotating mass or something (too long ago...). I wish I had stock wheels for my car, but I bought the car with just the vette wheels, no stockers included. I like the look of em, but they sure do slow me down and can be expensive when it's time to replace tires. I'm gonna hope for something a tad under 16 when I go for the first time. Basically like firefighter said he got, I guess I'll aim for that since I have similar mods. But until I have a surplus of cash, I can't get separate wheels for the strip and was just wondering how much these things would kill me, thanks guys!

[Bird_Of_Prey]

If you are going to buy track only wheels, get something made for racing. Prostars, Draglites, ConvoPros, something along those lines.