i 'raced' a friend of mine from a stoplight today, and he had me until around 10mph, then i flew past him (he drives a 99 bmw 528i). the reason he pulled ahead at first was because i had a bit of sand on my side of the road, and my wheels immediately started spinning like mad, and it took too long to get traction. this got me wondering...i know tires shouldnt spin, but if they do, whats the best way to recover? let off the gas slowly until you get it back? or take your foot off completely and try again? your thoughts will be appreciated. and please, no flaming for 'street racing'. it was an empty 55mph speed limit road, and i got up to maybe 75mph. dont know what he got up to, but it was probably lower.

 

don't completely let off the gas... feather it a little and maybe consider short shifting first gear depending on the amount of spin on the street.

 

thats what i did, and it worked, but took a while. maybe shifting to 2nd woulda been a better choice, now that i think about it

 

I typically feather more than I short shift.... but depends on how much spin and how quickly the car revs up....

I mean if you're spinning like hell and smoke is coming of the tires then shifting to 2nd is fine.... If you're just barely spinning, and shift into to 2nd when 1st gear revs are lower, 2nd will simply bog and you'll lose more time/speed vs. feathering....

 

well, it was bad. i was on maybe a bit more than half throttle, and i was spinning like mad. hell, a slow 6cyl bmw was pulling on me pretty hard, lol. i think short shifting may have been the answer.

 

I have the same problem. If I do a hard launch, I smoke tires all through 1st, 2nd and a little in 3rd with a few light mods to my LT1. I do have 4.11:1 gears in it though. Feathering the throttle seemed to be a better choice for me, but it can be real inconsistant on the strip times.