Has anyone ever set up their own starting line/launching pad

What if you had your own little chunk of drag strip at home, maybe 150 ft or so and then some shutdown area? You could really get the chassis dialed in. Has anyone done this? If so, how did you build it, how did you prep it?

you mean not the county pavement in front of the house?

That would work for the no prep guys! I'm thinking something that could be prepped like a typical drag strip starting line. That a guy could do unlimited launches to test every possible combination to see what the effect is on the 60 ft.

My driveway's a half mile long and it's gravel. I could potentially pave a stretch of it for this purpose. The site is secluded enough that I don't think I would be bothering anybody.

always thought about doing my gravel driveway (21 telephone poles long) was going to do first 60 ft concrete, then maybe 100 or so feet asphalt, but know my ex-wife lives there

For 20 years or so I've wanted a water box and maybe 150 feet, just for 60-foots.

Bet you could charge admission, say $10 a burnout

hot tires off the end into the gravel would be a mess of picked up rocks though? It's always been bad for me coming off the highway onto the drive after tomfoolery at least and that's at the end of 1/8mi or so

It would be very helpful to have though!

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

through out the years ive seen pics of private test area,if you have the land.money and all you do is race why not

I test in my driveway before we head out to an event. Maybe 150-160 ft of asphalt. You definitely pick up some stones but that happens everywhere with m5 or whatever flavor of sticky tire you run.

The main problem with these driveway antics are trees, buildings and power poles.

If your road is clear of hazards I say go for it. In fact, make at least 660' of it 14ft wide.

If you build it, they will come. Would you have a tree and some sort of timing system?

I had one. Concrete with a broom finish. Was great for testing.

So I live out of town on 8 acres.
The first 150 feet of my driveway is blacktop.
This is where I do my tire tests and transmission and trans brake tests.
Then I have another 400 feet of almost straight cement.
This is good for testing shift points and braking.
MJ

Would be fun to have. Without a timing system though, hard to tell by seat of the pants even a few hundreds regards 60 foot

Those "Dragy" GPS based systems do some pretty amazing things so I am sure you could use one of those. I have seen lots of people post real time slips next to a dragy app view and they are pretty damn close.

https://dragymotorsports.com/products/dragy-gps-performance-box

Good stuff, thanks for the replys. I'd need a timing system to test the effect of changes. My driveway has trees and drop offs on both sides. So I'd need so concrete barriers, or else build it out in the field where there are no hazards.

Cool. Looks neat!

You could just go to the local 1/8 track that is 45 minutes from your house…

We have all dreamed about this .

the opportunities are so few.

My driveway is about 1/4 mile long and mostly straight. Hay fields on both sides. Only the portion close to the house is paved w/ asphalt, the rest is recycled asphalt...so it isn't nearly as hard/durable.. Always wanted to do a 100' stretch of it in concrete and then pave the rest of it, but $$$$.

I live on a "dog bone" where each end of the street is a cul de sac and the neighborhood has cookouts and get-togethers on our end of the dog bone on occasion. My wife and I were going out for dinner the other night when there were a bunch of people hanging out; one of the local Dad's yelled "Do a burnout!" The old expression "Be careful what you wish for..." came to mind, but I slooooowly pulled out of the driveway and drove carefully through the crowd of kids and adults.

These are the same people who think of the 1320 as "the loud car", when the fact is most didn't even live here when the '73 Chally was last running. They have no idea...

If I turned our cul de sac into a 60-ft practice pad, people would totally freak.

You do know you can rent the track. Doesn't have to be a race day. Would be cheaper than trying to set up your own.

Stop it with your level headed, logical ideas. We are building backyard drag strips over here lol.

(Jeff is probably right)

I bet Jeff would even split it with you, 90/10!

I’m one of the very few on this board, that has ever been to Joel’s house. Trust me, it’s an accident waiting to happen, and don’t encourage him… Why spend the time and money on this, when the car isn’t running until Drag Week anyways?

99/1… I’m poor.

Think big!

I believe it would be possible to build a business around providing dyno services (both chassis and engine) along with actual on track testing for sixty foot launches. The launch testing could include video of all angles above and below. Reaction time tuneing with suspension setups would be available. The ability to include technical services for fine tuning various configurations of fuel injection, grid, turbos, Pro Chargers, and traction control software would be essential. Sales and installation of performance parts could also be iincluded. It could be a must "go to" for both the rookie and the serious racer.

lol you make several good points sir!

I agree however in practice most people are unwilling to spend the money for services like you listed above. At $100/hour for the dyno and $140/hour for a tech you can burn 5k worth of time up pretty quickly. Most of the cars we see on the chassis dyno are finished projects that the owner couldn't get to run right, always blaming the carburetor. About 50% of the time the problem will electrical/ignition , 25% of the time it's because the engine dyno guy "tuned it" only at idle and WOT, nowhere in between and the other 25% are installation errors and manufacturer quality control issues. It's really a good reason to have a guy like Dominic from Thumper Carbs go through your carb (s) before hitting the dyno. The machining is all over the place and assembly line (wet flowed) must be done without a human present. The AED 950 I have shot fuel straight up out of both squirter screws because the top gaskets were missing. It was marked "tested" or something like that on the spec card which makes it even more hilarious to me. If the car needs a $1000 or better carb/ignition/wiring rehab, 3-4 hours on the wheel dyno ($400 + 560) and then 3-4 hours of chassis tuning ($560) you have about $2500 into a days worth of work at the shop. Most people I know are too cheap or their lust for automotive knowledge keeps them from spending money like that when parts could be funded. Just one guys opinion..