Everyone knows not to street race. It’s common sense. It saves lives.

But if the facts aren’t enough for you then check out this article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/20/state/n132637D82.DTL

And another: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19339955

Long story short:

California Law Enforcement now has the right to DESTROY your car if you get caught engaged in illegal street racing.

This is a cool interactive way to learn how your engine works. Watch the interaction between the pistons, rods, crankshaft, intake valves, exhaust valves, intake manifold and exhaust manifold. You’ll need the shockwave plug-in (just download it after your browser prompts you.) Internal combustion engine

• Breaking out: Losing because you ran faster than your Dial In time
• Burning out: Smoking up your tires in an effort to warm up the rubber for better traction.
• Dial In: Quarter mile time that you say you will hit. If you run faster than your Dial In then you’ll break out and lose.
• Drag Radials: DOT approved tires specially made for drag racing. These tires have poor tread life and have horrible wet traction however it is legal to drive on the street with them. Popular Drag Radials include: BF Goodrich G-Force T/A, Mickey Thompson ET Street Radial, Nitto NT 555R, and Goodyear Eagle SS. BFG Drag Radials come in up to 18″ diameter!
• Deep Staging: Rolling past the PRE-STAGE lights so only the STAGE lights are lit. Technically you are now closer to the finish line however you don’t get as much of a “running start.” If you’re a beginner at drag racing, it may also be easier to red light if you’re deep staging.
• Hole Shot: The racer with the better reaction time has the Hole Shot because they have a better chance of winning.
• The Line: The starting line of the race track.
• Red Light: Losing because you left the starting line before the green light was lit (forward or backward.)
• Reaction Time: The time it takes for you to leave after the green light drops. Perfect reaction time is .000
• Slicks: Tires specially made for drag racing and not for street use. Must be heated up with a good burnout before they get sticky.

Yes it’s festive but what do all these lights mean?If you’re a beginner in drag racing just pay attention to the lights in your lane. Let’s go from top to bottom.

PRE-STAGE

The first two yellow lights side by side are PRE-STAGE. The PRE-STAGE light is lit when you trip the first light beam (There are 2 light beams separated by about 7 inches at the start of the strip.) You are NOT staged yet if ONLY the PRE-STAGE light is on. The actual yellow and green lights will only start dropping after you’ve tripped the STAGE light.

STAGE

When your car, truck, or motorcycle breaks the second beam of light at the line then the STAGE light is lit. IF you roll past the PRE-STAGE light then it will turn off and only the STAGE light will be lit. This is called “Deep-Staging” and it is OK. You don’t have to roll back and turn the PRE-STAGE light on. Now you have just seconds before the tree drops if your opponent has also STAGED. If your opponent has not staged then the tree will not drop. Basically the computer will drop the light about a second or so after both of you are staged regardless of the PRE-STAGE light.

YELLOW LIGHTS

These three lights drop in descending order from top to bottom at .5 second intervals. Leave before the GREEN and you will get a RED light (you lose.)

GREEN LIGHT

What are you waiting for? It ain’t gonna get any greener.

RED LIGHT

If you see this then you lost already. This can only happen if your car rolled out of the STAGE beam before the tree turned GREEN. Some people will pull their ebrake at the line to keep from rolling around. You may want to do this at Sears Point / Infineon Raceway as some people claim that it’s not level at the starting line.

Cool Christmas Tree Simulator

RWD Burnouts (Brakestands)

First determine if you should go through the Water Box.
If you are going to do a water burn out:

1. Roll into the water box and past the middle of it. You don’t want to be too close to the middle or it will be difficult to burn off all the water.
2. Rev your motor up… (depending on how much power/torque you’re making you may want to rev pretty high – maybe 1-2k under redline.
3. Drop the clutch and get the tires spinning.
4. After you get your RPMs back up and your tires are spinning you’ll need to get your LEFT FOOT onto the brake pedal. Gently now, just enough to keep the car from creeping forward. Too hard on the brakes and you’ll kill your burnout. Too soft on the brakes and you’ll roll forward too much and get too close to the line.
5. Feather the gas and keep your engine in the strong part of the powerband. Don’t sit there bouncing off the rev limiter unless you have an EMS or aftermarket ignition that cuts spark automatically for you.
6. You should probably burnout for at least 4-5 seconds. Possibly longer depending on the type of tires you have on your car. In some rear wheel drive cars and trucks you can sit there all day if you want to (not recommended unless you really like punishing your car and you’ve got a lot of money to spend on tires)
7. Roll out and stage. You’re ready to race.

If you’re NOT going through the water box (dry burn-out or brake-stand)

1. Drive AROUND the water box, NOT THROUGH IT.
2. Follow everything else above. It will be more difficult to initiate the burnout when your tires are dry so you may have to rev it up higher before you drop the clutch.
3. Your tire rubber won’t exactly be hot and melty but doing a little burnout before you get to the line will help knock all the little crap off your tires before your launch.

FWD Burnouts (Honda, Acura, and other front wheel drive car owners read on…)

First determine if you should go through the Water Box.
If you are going to do a water burn out:

1. Roll into the water box and past the middle of it. You don’t want to be too close to the middle or it will be difficult to burn off all the water.
2. Pull your ebrake (emergency brake) up as hard as you can [if you have one of those foot brakes I'm not sure if you should attempt this part since you don't have as much control over how fast you can engage and dis-engage the emergency brake]
3. Rev your motor up… (depending on how much power/torque you’re making you may want to rev pretty high – maybe 1-2k under redline
4. Drop the clutch and try to make some smoke! Feather the gas and keep it in the power-band. Don’t sit there bouncing off the engine rev limiter unless you have an aftermarket Engine Management System to stop fuel cut from kicking in or ignition that cuts spark automatically for you.
5. You should probably burnout for at least 4-5 seconds. Possibly longer depending on your tires. Your car will pull you forward eventually-you don’t have to do a burnout this long if you don’t want to.
6. Roll out and stage. You’re ready to race.

If you’re NOT going through the water box (dry burnout with FWD)

1. Drive AROUND the water box, NOT THROUGH IT.
2. Pull your ebrake up as hard as you can [Again be careful if you don't have a traditional hand actuated emergency brake. For example automatic 2005 Infiniti G35s have emergency brakes that are controlled with the driver's foot.]
3. Rev your motor up… (depending on how much power/torque you’re making you may want to rev pretty high – maybe 1-2k under redline
4. Drop the clutch and hope nothing breaks! Unless your tires are pretty bald (or they’re just crappy tires) then you won’t be able to do this for more than a few seconds. If you’ve got a modified car with forced induction then you can probably do some damage to your tires here if you burn out long enough. Don’t sit there bouncing off the rev limiter unless you have an EMS or ignition that cuts spark automatically for you.
5. Your tires won’t exactly be “hot” but doing a little burnout before you get to the line will help knock all the little crap off your tires before your launch.

Turbo and supercharged cars will benefit more from a nice burnout since they need all traction they can get.

The Water Box. You’ll typically see racers with slicks go through the water box and do burnouts. Cars that make decent power can do some very nice smoky burnouts. American muscle cars (old and new alike) are usually the burnout kings. Lots of horsepower + lots of torque + water = huge clouds of smoke.

Years ago it was unacceptable to roll through the water box on “street” tires. Now depending on the drag strip you’re at you may or may not be able to drive through the water box on DOT approved street tires whether they’re made for racing or not.

If you are NOT going to do a burnout, then just drive around the water box. It doesn’t make sense to get your tires wet if you’re not going to smoke those tires.

If you ARE going to do a burnout on street tires, first check with track officials to ensure that it’s ok to do it at that track. Infineon Raceway (previously Sears Point Raceway) is actually ok with water box burnouts on DOT approved drag radials as well as high performance summer street tires. Again, when in doubt just ask!

It used to be common practice to first drive around the water box and then back up into it if you are racing a rear wheel drive car. Times do change. Now at Infineon they want you to just drive straight in and NOT back in.