Consistentcy

What is the most important thing to make my bracket car more consistent? Mid ten second a body.

been racing since 1974, my advice is just to make sure everything is right. Fuel system properly sized, keeping track of tire pressure, leaving starting line with the same engine temp, staging the same every time. I have a brake pressure gauge and I leave with the same brake pressure with a foot brake car. A torque converter has a lot to do with leaving the same every time, I had a converter once that you could not leave consistent. I just about wore out the 4-link and shock adjustments, changed the converter and all was well.

Would have never thought about that, thanks for the tip!

Best thing I can offer is to be consistent with engine temps. I drive my mid ten second car to the track so everything is good and warm when I start the day and I think that helps the rear axle and trans temp to stay consistent. I run electric fans and water pump and I try to hit the burnout box at 140 degrees every pass. My car usually doesn't lose the race, its always the guy hitting the gas on the starting line!

It all starts with consistent 60 foot times.

All replies above-mentioned are correct so I will say seat time also being comfortable and ready for when the lights start dropping

Test, test, and test. Keep a log book and record everything that you can. Figure out what you want to do in the off-season and do it then. Come out and test the first few test and tunes and get everything right, tire pressures, shift points, starting line procedures, and once your comfortable with your car, don't mess with it other than maintenance stuff . Breakages aside, changing something big halfway through the season and losing the handle on your car sucks and is frustrating as hell. Also watch the weather. Know what your car is going to do with the weather changes.

Repeatable 60ft is #1. Good weather station to predict#2 Engine oil/water, trans temps #3 All 3 of these items take various sub sections to achieve. I jet slightly fat to follow the weather. Tire pressure (checkall 4). Same temps, same leave rpm, same shift rpm, top off fuel every run. If we are off more than .01x I've made a mistake.
Doug

Staging the same way every time, and in the beams the same depth every time.

Stuff wears out. Don't expect it to last forever. Shocks, tires, ignition parts. fuel system, valve springs. I'd like to have a dollar for every guy who has said "I just put those shocks on 5 years ago." Yeah, and you beat them to death in the trailer dragging it up and down the road. Pay attention to that stuff.

Slow the car down.

As much as no one wants to do that, it lends itself to consistency....big time! LOL

To an extent, I tried to race my Jeep awhile back. It ran from 17.82 to 17.09 lol. I figured it was intake temp related, if I were to race it again I would probably hang a tube out the bottom of the compartment to let it get fresh air. Coolant temp was the same each pass.

You working on the car to make it as consistent as you can get it, once that is done work on your driving also

Just keep chipping away at the car over time. Most of the cars that I know print tickets like copy machines are cars that have been sorted out over time. My car is starting to get to the point where I feel like I have an equipment advantage most times I stage it. As you race, you need to pay close attention to what went wrong and why. Then work on those things. The exact same goes for your own performance behind the wheel. The ability to focus in on a singular thing when you need to is a skill. If you come away from a round where you missed you’re number, you need to know why. Can you be sure you hit your shift points? What was your exact thought just after the staged light came on? If you’re like me, it took a while to even recognize that I wasn’t cued into those things as keenly as I thought I was.

Bottom line: it is hard! Really hard... to be consistently good as a bracket or index racer.

Hold a 10th, and drive the stripe accordingly. LOL.

I agree with the converter being an important key. I have one for my 727 that produced a stack of 1.34 60ft times at 5 different tracks. It got so good we had a right and left lane dial at one. Helped us go a ton of rounds. My other converter will result in faster ETs, and would dip into the high 1.2/low 1.3 60, but not consistent. Of course doing this on a 10” tire mid 9sec ride leaves something to be desired.

.....of course I changed intakes, went to a dominator AND set the 727 aside for a 904 so basically ruined a perfectly good bracket car

4 link, and 14x32's..

A good practice tree also can be helpful...

They have online practice trees.

Mine is a Biondo Final Round III Probably don't make em anymore!

Full size practice tree set up to use the switch (or brake/foot pedal) in your car. Practice in your car using the switch/hardware in your car. Easy to do with the Biondo stuff.