Took Ares drag racing

"Dr_Watson" (dr_watson)
07/25/2020 at 13:49 • Filed to: Drag Racing

Preface:

I’ve never been drag racing before. So no making fun of my horrible reaction times. I was just reacting to the green rather than counting and trying to anticipate the tree.

What I was looking to do was get a baseline of performance for the car while it’s totally stock. So next year when my warranty runs out and I start changing things I can then take it back and see if I got my money’s worth.

Venue:

I took the car to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Which is the closest 1/4 to me. There is a much closer track but it’s only 1/8th mile... and what’s the fun in that?

Nice place, the track looked pretty good. Though I’ve never been to anywhere else so I don’t have much of a reference frame. GPS and OBD air pressure both said the track runs uphill by about 1° grade. Altitude is ~780ft, ambient temp was 80°F at the start and then dropping down to 70°F by the end.

Experience:

I’ll say that if I’m being brutally honest (with a street car at least)... Drag racing is kind of boring. The standing around to seat time ratio is even worse than autocross. It felt like a cars and coffee where we occasionally race each other. There was also a massive 2 hour delay when someone’s engine popped and spilled it’s contents across 1000ft of track.

Thankfully there was a bunch of old timey guys there who like to tell stories and it was very cars and coffee vibe in the staging lanes so it was easy to just ask someone questions about their car to start a conversation.

The car show aspect was also nice in that there was tons of crazy machinery there. An immaculate C2 427 corvette drag car was the highlight. Someone also brought a McLaren 720S, first time I’ve seen one of those in person. There were a couple other Audi’s (mainly S6s) so I could talk tuning with them. After that it was a sea of loud American muscle. So my passes were all just beating up on Mustangs. The 3rd run was close, a 2019 5.0 GT with some bolt-ons is a pretty quick car.

Results:

OBD data logger said the best 0-60 was 3.45s with 0-100 in 9.05s.

Now, as I said I know nothing about drag racing. However a nice fellow who brought a 1990 Miata (so of course I had to chat with him) because his usual muscle car is broken told me that this is pretty fast for a stock street car on OE tires.

Audi says the car is good for 11.7 @ 117 and I got pretty close to that so I’m happy with the performance. I’ll go back after I make modifications.

The plan is to prep it for track work early next summer: new tires, track pads and rotors, high temp brake fluid, fixed camber plates to add -1.5°, and maybe new roll bars to help take out some understeer.

Then the warranty runs out in August 2021, so the following early summer project will be a Unitronic stage 1+ ECU tune with a stage 2 TCU tune, new intercooler (the OBD was recording 150° intake temps on the stock motor so I understand why forums suggest a new cooler when the tune goes on), new downpipe. That’s supposed to add +105hp or so.

DISCUSSION (19)

gettingoldercarguy > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 14:41

Nice runs! Never ceases to amaze me how fast stock cara are today. Y ou can really see as your 60' comes down it really helps your quarter times massively. Like investing early in life, the payoff towards the end is manifold. At 150 degrees iat, I’d look at an intercooler asap.

BeaterGT > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 14:44

Those 60 foots are pretty good! These cars are Auto and AWD or do I have that wrong?

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 14:58

Heehee TiTteRS

Dr_Watson > gettingoldercarguy
07/25/2020 at 15:37

Yeah, bit of a golden age of performance we live in when you can buy a Camry with 300hp. With AWD and launch control it’s really easy to go fast as well.

With those intake temps think I should move the intercooler up the list and do it with the brakes before I start track days?

Dr_Watson > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
07/25/2020 at 15:37

I like TTee s.

Dr_Watson > BeaterGT
07/25/2020 at 15:38

Yeah, it’s AWD + DCT + Launch control. The mk3 TT RS is basically a 3/4 scale GT -R.

gettingoldercarguy > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 15:50

https://www.wagner-tuning.com/catalog/audi/audi-ttrs

With a stock tune , it’s a reliability mod that happens to add power.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 16:27

That is pretty quick. Given the TTRS has AWD, it’s not surprising it was a little boring.

Dr_Watson > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
07/25/2020 at 16:42

It also has launch control, so it basically drives itself. I feel like it could do repeatable times with a brick and a broom handle driving it.

Discerning > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 17:50

The ea855 evo is an amazing engine on the strip. I would maybe go as far as saying it has turned out to be one of the best performing engines of the last few years. I don’t think people were expecting them to be as quick as they turned out to be.

Nearly makes me want an RS3 or TTRS.

Dr_Watson > Discerning
07/25/2020 at 19:58

Thing sounds fantastic flat out to boot. If they’d given us the RS3 hatch back I might have ended up with that in stead since the RS3 is significantly cheaper and more useful as a daily. Though the baby supercar appeal of the TT is hard to overlook, it was my 40th birthday present so mind as well go full on mid-life crisis.

zipfuel > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 20:04

Is that motor the 2.5L 5cyl similar to the one I’ve got in the Jetta? (obv . plus crazy metallurgy block and turbo bits)

My unachievable tuner daydream would be to drop a junkyard TTRS/RS3 motor into my wagon but just powering the fronts like Robb Holland’s Pike’s peak car.

Discerning > Dr_Watson
07/25/2020 at 20:11

Is there a mechanical difference between the RS3 and the TTRS? I know the TT is a bit lighter and has better tires from the factory, but they’re otherwise equivalent, right? Same engine, t ranny, and awd system I think.

Dr_Watson > Discerning
07/25/2020 at 21:30

Yes, the chassis and power train are identical. The TT is some 300lbs lighter, gets a wider track, and has wider tires. I think that’s the bulk of the differences. Same engine and DSG unit, torque vectoring rear diff and the RS tweaked H aldex 5 unit that lets it send 100% to the rear.

Dr_Watson > zipfuel
07/25/2020 at 21:41

I think the Jetta application was an NA version of the older iron block motor EA855 that was in the mk2 TT RS. The mk3 EVO engine is aluminum with port + direct injection and variable timing. But I think it’s seems feasible if you found a copart mk2 car the engine would be a direct swap.

Discerning > Dr_Watson
07/26/2020 at 11:28

I didn't realize the new Haldex was that good or that the rear diff had torque vectoring. I'll definitely have to check one out.

Dr_Watson > Discerning
07/26/2020 at 20:49

I’ve felt the rear diff work, so I know that’s not BS. The Haldex optimizations the comm unity forum nerds are still on the fence about. It’s not how Haldex is supposed to work, full clutch lockup is supposed to be 50/50. But Audi says it’s true and every magazine published it so... I guess it is? Really hard to test that though.

I can say that after boiling the tires I was able to get enough oversteer with the TC/ESP off to slide sideways into a cone on the autocross today.

tl;dr... I know it’s all going to be very expensive when it breaks.

Discerning > Dr_Watson
07/26/2020 at 20:53

Would you say it defaults to understeer, or is it pretty neutral? If you flick it, does it kick out? What are people running for tires in autocross and the track? Is it a square setup and kind of beefy?

I saw a while ago that unitronic won the one lap of America with a TT RS and that’s super impressive, but I couldn’t find details on what they did to that car ANYWHERE.

Dr_Watson > Discerning
07/26/2020 at 22:14

It definitely defaults to understeer. It is still a typical nose heavy Audi. Getting it to rotate isn’t that hard though, just trail brake and it will point the nose in.

It’s not super good at autocross. It gets killed on PAX being in SS without having the agility to back up the power. Though people other than me do autocross them, they just don’t do street class.

Most people toss the OEM wheel in a box because it’s heavy and tire options are very limited on the 20" (unless you want to do Cup2's, PZero Corsa, or Trofeo R... those fit fine). Generally people go down to a 19 x 9.5 wheel and run 265's. 034 also now sells one of the only 18" wheels that clear the giant 8 piston front B rembos , so that’s an option people are doing now. No one runs staggered sizes. Once you step down to 18" or 19" there’s an RE71R option.

IIRC the one lap winning car was a stage2 unitronic tune with a bunch of 034 motorsport suspension mods. That’s all I’ve seen floating around on the TT forums.