Launch control, what a JOKE..

[MerlintheMad]

I finally tried this. Twice. So rare to get a spot alone an anything resembling a "highway" around here sometimes.

Anyway, the first time, it seemed to take forever and at the same instant it finally said "Launch Control Engaged", or whatever it is, I released and it took off. Eh, it was OK. I told myself I needed to really wait for that message next time and tried it, but got impatient and released at almost the same time again.

So, I have no confidence I've done it properly. It seems to take a solid 3-4 seconds to engage and that's just nerve-wracking on a public road, hoping nobody's coming. LOL

I'll try it again sometime soon.

As indicated earlier in this thread, once you disengage traction and stability control (which you can do at any time; it doesn't have to be part of LC: I disengaged both and turned both back on several times while just driving normally: I'd never touched that button before yesterday), you can use LC at any time while the car is running. You can simply brake to a full stop. And while holding the brake down, push down on the accelerator until you hear the RPMs peak (if you hold it down longer they actually drop off, preparing to disengage LC, which will occur if you hold the accelerator down for four seconds), then release the brake, and keep your right foot down, and "have fun"! This should be done from Sport mode; or, as I suspect, you can use Smart, since it will engage Sport while you have your right foot pushed to the floor. And the manual says that Custom works: "they" are assuming that Custom will have the engine setting on Sport, I guess.

 

[Kazz]

I was in Sport, and followed that process.

I will be trying again.

 

[Tonkabob]

The official launch control vs auto hold results are in. LC is still king. .03 advantage to LC. Also AH kills your reaction time as the car takes longer to start rolling which would not be reflected in the ET. The reaction time portion is .3 to.4 slower. So don't street race someone using auto hold. My earlier 0-60 test used the OBD port and phone app which would not pick up the lag before motion starts.
In the pics LC on the left slip and my run is circled. In the 12.796 run I beat a previous gen Z06 corvette which was quite satisfying.

 

[Helo58]

These times are good. However, I think the gist of this thread isn't that "launch control" is better than auto hold or foot brake (although that is good to know.. thanks!), but rather that LC should optimize launch in a way that complements the available torque and traction for the car and ours doesn't. With as much torque @ low rpm as the Stinger has, a 2 second 60' time is simply horrible. Every 0.1s reduction in the 60' time will reduce your E.T. by 0.15s-0.2s. A 1.8 60' time, in this case, would improve the E.T. to 12.4s - 12.5s. A 1.8 for the weight and traction available in stock form should not be a problem for this car, but for some reason it is.

 

[Dennis Macho]

These times are good. However, I think the gist of this thread isn't that "launch control" is better than auto hold or foot brake (although that is good to know.. thanks!), but rather that LC should optimize launch in a way that complements the available torque and traction for the car and ours doesn't. With as much torque @ low rpm as the Stinger has, a 2 second 60' time is simply horrible. Every 0.1s reduction in the 60' time will reduce your E.T. by 0.15s-0.2s. A 1.8 60' time, in this case, would improve the E.T. to 12.4s - 12.5s. A 1.8 for the weight and traction available in stock form should not be a problem for this car, but for some reason it is.

What type of work is done to your Stinger Nice seeing time slips Gonna wait for cooler weather and more miles on my GT1 before I take it to the track... NICE RT on the second slip !!!!

 

[Tonkabob]

These times are good. However, I think the gist of this thread isn't that "launch control" is better than auto hold or foot brake (although that is good to know.. thanks!), but rather that LC should optimize launch in a way that complements the available torque and traction for the car and ours doesn't. With as much torque @ low rpm as the Stinger has, a 2 second 60' time is simply horrible. Every 0.1s reduction in the 60' time will reduce your E.T. by 0.15s-0.2s. A 1.8 60' time, in this case, would improve the E.T. to 12.4s - 12.5s. A 1.8 for the weight and traction available in stock form should not be a problem for this car, but for some reason it is.

Agree our LC could be better. I made the claim that AH was actually faster than LC last week so i was updating and revoking that claim.
I have a pile of time slips here and the reduction in 60 foot times exactly matches the reduction in 1/4 mile times at least for my car.
Our 60 foot times seem average. Sure a drag car with slicks and a high stall converter with similar ET runs 1.7 but compared to RWD cars we are typical and much faster than FWD of course.
Raced a mustang cobra with drag tires 2.141 on a 12.5 run. Guy with v8 lexus running 12.2s couldn't break 2.0 60 foot. Z06 vet ran 12.8 with 2.168 60 foot.
Against dedicated drag cars last night 1.811 on a 12.2 and 1.856 on a 12.8.

 

[CaliSting]

do you think if we were to put soft 18 inch low profile drag radial on light weight 18 inch wheel that has smaller diameter than stock 19s our 1/4 times would be better. Our gearing is so tall off line that I'm thinking little better ratio with smaller tire might be way of grabbing faster time. Would think launch control would work even better too.

 

[Tonkabob]

What type of work is done to your Stinger Nice seeing time slips Gonna wait for cooler weather and more miles on my GT1 before I take it to the track... NICE RT on the second slip !!!!

It was 78-81 degrees last night. Stinger is AWD with Tork ECU tune, catback and k&n panels.

 

[Helo58]

Agree our LC could be better. I made the claim that AH was actually faster than LC last week so i was updating and revoking that claim.
I have a pile of time slips here and the reduction in 60 foot times exactly matches the reduction in 1/4 mile times at least for my car.
Our 60 foot times seem average. Sure a drag car with slicks and a high stall converter with similar ET runs 1.7 but compared to RWD cars we are typical and much faster than FWD of course.
Raced a mustang cobra with drag tires 2.141 on a 12.5 run. Guy with v8 lexus running 12.2s couldn't break 2.0 60 foot. Z06 vet ran 12.8 with 2.168 60 foot.
Against dedicated drag cars last night 1.811 on a 12.2 and 1.856 on a 12.8.

I apologize for not being a little clearer. My statement was made in the context of having a launch control. Without a launch control, a 2.x second 60' time is a reasonably good time for a stock production car. I had a Lexus ISF (V8) prior to my Stinger and I was able to cut a 1.8Xs 60' time on stock tires with a mostly stock car without a launch control. Ironically, these best 60' times were accompanied by small amounts of wheel spin. For all intents and purposes here related to 60' times, the cars were the same. With the low rpm torque, there has to be a way to get this car to launch harder and launch control doesn't seem to be the trick. I will have to look at the Stinger time slips to see what the best 60' time is currently. Edit: There doesn't appear to be many time slips in the 1/4 mile thread, so that is no help.

Given the cars you mentioned and their associated 60' times, is it possible that the track was not prepped adequately? A Cobra on slicks should easily be better than 2.141s and a Z06 should easily trap more than 111mph. A 12.2s Lexus is making good time for that car, the best I ever managed was a 12.6 with a great DA. DA at this track was about 1770 feet ASL at the time of these slips.

 

[MerlintheMad]

These times are good. However, I think the gist of this thread isn't that "launch control" is better than auto hold or foot brake (although that is good to know.. thanks!), but rather that LC should optimize launch in a way that complements the available torque and traction for the car and ours doesn't. With as much torque @ low rpm as the Stinger has, a 2 second 60' time is simply horrible. Every 0.1s reduction in the 60' time will reduce your E.T. by 0.15s-0.2s. A 1.8 60' time, in this case, would improve the E.T. to 12.4s - 12.5s. A 1.8 for the weight and traction available in stock form should not be a problem for this car, but for some reason it is.

So if the Stinger's LC allowed, say 3.5K RPM, or higher, the 60' time would be in the low 1.8s? Or even quicker? The power to weight ratio is that good, but the LC is a "JOKE" still and always will be?

 

[Kamauxx]

It was 78-81 degrees last night. Stinger is AWD with Tork ECU tune, catback and k&n panels.

Where are you located (elevation)?

 

[MerlintheMad]

Agree our LC could be better. I made the claim that AH was actually faster than LC last week so i was updating and revoking that claim.

I am curious what your "form" is when you use LC. Do you press the accelerator down all the way immediately as your brake foot is coming up? Or do you press and hold the accelerator for, say c. a second, then release the brake? It seemed as if the RPMs died down somewhat if I held the accelerator at all. So I'm thinking that "next time" I will just release the brake as close to the instant the RPMs max out as possible; which seems to me to be almost the instant your right foot hits the floor.

 

[Volvowith18psi]

As somebody with hands on experience with Jeep SRT(AWD) and Charger Hellcats(RWD) (Chrysler brands) launch control versions.... The Stingers version is indeed a joke lol.

 

[Tonkabob]

I apologize for not being a little clearer. My statement was made in the context of having a launch control. Without a launch control, a 2.x second 60' time is a reasonably good time for a stock production car. I had a Lexus ISF (V8) prior to my Stinger and I was able to cut a 1.8Xs 60' time on stock tires with a mostly stock car without a launch control. Ironically, these best 60' times were accompanied by small amounts of wheel spin. For all intents and purposes here related to 60' times, the cars were the same. With the low rpm torque, there has to be a way to get this car to launch harder and launch control doesn't seem to be the trick. I will have to look at the Stinger time slips to see what the best 60' time is currently. Edit: There doesn't appear to be many time slips in the 1/4 mile thread, so that is no help.

Given the cars you mentioned and their associated 60' times, is it possible that the track was not prepped adequately? A Cobra on slicks should easily be better than 2.141s and a Z06 should easily trap more than 111mph. A 12.2s Lexus is making good time for that car, the best I ever managed was a 12.6 with a great DA. DA at this track was about 1770 feet ASL at the time of these slips.

The lexus had a few mods and he removed his back and passenger seats! Hard core. He was shooting for the fastest Lexus in Wa state .(Sorry dont know my Lexus, the small one f-type)

 

[Tonkabob]

Where are you located (elevation)?

350 feet, Pacific Raceways in Wa State

 

[Tonkabob]

I am curious what your "form" is when you use LC. Do you press the accelerator down all the way immediately as your brake foot is coming up? Or do you press and hold the accelerator for, say c. a second, then release the brake? It seemed as if the RPMs died down somewhat if I held the accelerator at all. So I'm thinking that "next time" I will just release the brake as close to the instant the RPMs max out as possible; which seems to me to be almost the instant your right foot hits the floor.

If you just power brake the rpms go to 1900 ish and almost immediately pull back to 1700. If you disable traction control and stability control (required for launch contol) it will hold 2100 ish for 4 seconds. I floor the brake and gas when the second car gets staged so I'm reving for about 3 seconds then release the brake.

 

[MerlintheMad]

If you just power brake the rpms go to 1900 ish and almost immediately pull back to 1700. If you disable traction control and stability control (required for launch contol) it will hold 2100 ish for 4 seconds. I floor the brake and gas when the second car gets staged so I'm reving for about 3 seconds then release the brake.

"Power brake", what's that? Have you tried holding up the power brake (emergency brake) switch instead of pushing the floor brake? You mention a c. 200 RPM deficit doing the "power brake". And you hold the accelerator for darn close to the maximum allowed before LC disengages. That seems dicey to me (but again, I know nothing and less than nothing about drag racing!). I have to do this again to answer some questions about RPMs falling off when you hold your right foot down; not a lot, but I am pretty certain that I did detect a dropping of several notes when I pushed down, held it and then released the brake: prompting me to abandon the LC and just hold the car in place with auto hold, and then floor it swiftly. It seemed that I got away faster that way (entirely a gut judgment, and we know how subjective the gut is, heh ).

 

[CaliSting]

Shouldn't we be able to tune launch control? Is guy at Tork looking at this? I know on my race cars I can tune traction control to many levels - Launch control probably could be tinkered with to allow higher launch rpm.

 

[CaliSting]

The lexus had a few mods and he removed his back and passenger seats! Hard core. He was shooting for the fastest Lexus in Wa state .(Sorry dont know my Lexus, the small one f-type)

There is a Stinger race car in Korea that only weighs 3380 lbs - Im thinking thats one of the fastest Stingers in world right now.

 

[Helo58]

So if the Stinger's LC allowed, say 3.5K RPM, or higher, the 60' time would be in the low 1.8s? Or even quicker? The power to weight ratio is that good, but the LC is a "JOKE" still and always will be?

It is hard to say because I don't know the mechanism (if any) that the Stinger uses to manage wheel spin inside of launch control. Other brands will pull boost or engine timing to reduce power in the event of wheel spin. Others are brake based where the brakes are applied to limit wheel spin. I don't know how involved the Stinger system is.

I have heard that people who have added power can spin the rear tires to excess using launch control. This leads me to believe that the system isn't actively managing wheel spin throughout the acceleration process. If this is the case, the Stinger system is just a glorified "power brake." If that is the case, raising the rpm to 3.5k may just expedite wheel spin.

For me, the method to improve the launch would be to increase the rear tire width and minimize the slow rollout that precedes "real" acceleration of the car by modifying the parameters in the ECU. The acceleration plot (if you have a g-meter that plots acceleration) clearly shows a soft start.