[Johnny406]

I'm really flirting with installing a trans brake in the car this winter. It's not a big HP car, mid 12's at altitude all day bracket racing BUT I've also found another racing love and that's 1/8th mile no prep hard tire drag racing. It's taken awhile and a ton of suspension work and practice but my car is finally very competitive in the class. Unfortunately foot braking "instant green" lights I know I'm leaving valuable time on the line. I had a very close semi finals loss last month and a better light would've put me in the finals racing for $500 cash and a FiTech fuel injection system.

With that said, I'd like to install a trans brake that I can use in both heads up and .500 full tree bracket racing. We only have one old school footbrake class race a year, otherwise in the blue/gold class I usually race, could draw a dragster or a hearse.

When I foot brake I stage very shallow and go on the 3rd amber.

Anyone have a good recommendation on what brake I want/need? I see a lot of pro tree brakes but would that release too quick for a .500 light?

[cosgrove]

Every trans brake I have used would red light when leaving on the last amber on a .500 tree. If you did find a slower one, it would hurt you in that instant green class you run. My glide has an adjustment screw that slows oil to the brake but that doesn't slow it enough for the .500 tree.

Get a good pro brake and use an adjustable long throw trans brake switch. There are many available last I checked but it's been awhile. This type of switch may push the rules of the no box class where you race. Or you could just hide a box. lol

[Cliff R]

Tough thing to do if you are talking about using a TB w/o a box and 2-step? I suppose as mentioned someone someplace makes something that will work for that deal.

Nothing at all wrong with "foot braking", but the real key to success there is to make sure that you put the car in the exact same place each time. That part takes more practice than anything else. The biggest problem I see with folks getting their foot brake car in place is that they come up on the converter AFTER they turn on the second bulb. Often the car will creep in some, or they lack time to accurately adjust the rpms coming up against the converter, or a little of both, which changes the game.

Once you get the car in the same place each time you can try different stage rpms which will alter RT's and can be used to fine tune them. For my car I come up to 1100rpm's then "pat" the brake until the second light just flickers and finally just stays on. Leaving on the last bulb will net RT's in the .505-.530 range for most runs, if I don't get a stupid attack someplace along the way. For sure slipping it a little too deep is an INSTANT red light, or the tires slipping just a tad will net results worse than expected.

I've raced my friends dedicated race car with TB, and man is that a nice deal. Just set the car in the right spot, put the throttle on the floorboard and let go of the button at the right moment. Certainly a bit less complicated but neither method takes human error out of the equation, you still need to react to a light or lights someplace on the tree and have the car sitting in the same location for each run........FWIW......Cliff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zVdoLR-VzM

If you watch the video closely you can hear me come up to 1100rpms after the first bulb is turned on, and hear me patting the brake to set the second bulb, instead of creeping into the second bulb then coming up against the converter. The RT on that run was .514.....

[Johnny406]

Thank you Cliff for posting that. It's the hard part is trying to have the same car doing two different applications. I found a red light green light brain trainer that I set up on the basement computer and have been working it using my toe on the mouse and lifting my right/brake foot off a roll of TP when the light goes green. Bracket racing is still the priority and the heads up is a fun thing. I'll try that little strategy and bump in a little further. I'll get clarification on the rules if I can stage deep or not but that's probably pushing it.

[Cliff R]

The biggest problem I have is anticipating the light vs leaving when it just comes on. As long as I see the light I'm good. It also helps that I've been racing this car for decades, so have a lot of seat time I know what to expect from it. The other big part of the game is to fine tune the engine and vehicle so back to back runs are DEADLY consistent. Once you nail that deal down the rest is on the driver.

Below are two back to back runs I made at our local track on a "test and tune" night, they were 23 minutes apart:

R/T: .505 .514
60': 1.6230 1.6289
ET: 7.3169 7.3188
MPH: 94.35 94.36

Keep in mind that I've spend countless hours fine tuning every single part on the car so it works like it's supposed to. The suspension mods alone took two seasons racing couple of times a week to get it all figured out.
Once you get the car to basically repeat the numbers then the only thing left to blame when you don't do well is the "dummy" behind the wheel!......Cliff

[johnta1]

The biggest problem I have is anticipating the light vs leaving when it just comes on.

This is what is the funniest thing when someone gets a delay box.
Usually they say they always leave at the 1st hint of yellow (bottom bulb).

Well when you HAVE to release button at the 1st hint of yellow (top bulb no anticipation there), it's cool to see them sitting there while the tree turns green.

They find out just how much they anticipated the light when it's coming down.

[Bill Eveland]

I believe you can still run a just in time adjustable switch in a no box class

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...iABEgIDvfD_BwE