Lucky Devin

I am a relative newbie to these forums and Club Lexus in general. I am about to purchase either a SC300 or an ES300, depending on the condition and mileage (and other factors as well) of those forementioned vehicles.

My question is, have any of you run your ES's at the drag strip? I read in an older Car and Driver that the ES hit the QM at 16.1. Very respectible time, IMO. I am interested in modifying my ES if I do end up purchasing one, but I see there is not too too much that you can do with the engine, however. I'll do a search on this site to find out more info, or if any of you ES owners want to offer me a little advice, you can hit me up with an e-mail or private message

Anyway, let me know some of your ET's at the strip, and what mods you have. Thanks a lot in advance.

lexusk8

I took my '96 ES to a drag strip and ran a couple runs. Everything is completely stock under the hood. I did 16.7 sec on the 1/4 mile for my first run, and on the 2nd run, I did 15.8. I was very impressed with the stock performance of the car, and that I outdid the factory tested time of the car. One of the many things I miss about my car... <sigh>

Lucky Devin

Damn, nice job, 15.8 is a very good time for a stock ES. You just must have had a bad launch or something on your first run. How was the weather on that day? Just curious...

lexusk8

That was the very first time I ever took a car out to a drag strip. We actually had a CL crew meet up at the track for that purpose, so I thought it was cool to test out the performance capabilities of my car after owning it for 7 years.

So yeah, I think I had a screwy launch the first time around, but I got to see how other people get a good jump off of the start line, and then I adapted. The weather at that time was kinda windy and chilly, in the 40s during early April. That may or may not have been a factor to my 1/4-mile ETs, I don't know, but I would like to take my '01 ES to a drag strip one day to see how it does compared to my '96

amf1932

Did you start using Drive position and just flooring the accelerator or did you try shifing from Low and shifing up? Did you have the power button engaged during your run?

Alan

lexusk8

I did it out of "DRIVE" and floored it. I didn't use the gate shifter at all (i.e. shifting from "L" to "D"). I probably wouldn't recommend using the gate shifter since "2" and "L" induce engine braking, not something you'd want to do on a racetrack. I didn't think of using the ECT-PWR button during my runs, I guess I was too busy watching the RPM gauge and my fellow racer

amf1932

Maybe if you used the ECT-PWR power button you could have improved the run a bit, because it lets the engine rev's closer to the peak power in each gear. Just a thought.

Alan

Lucky Devin

Yeah, definitely not a good idea to gate shift the ES. Although on other cars it is effective to a certain extent.

squarehat

Yes, it's pretty much impossible on an automatic like the ES to "outshift" the ECU by starting in L. Maybe on a car with E-Shift (Lexus), Tiptronic (Audi/Porsche), or Steptronic (BMW), etc, but certainly not an ES. Like others have suggested, turn ECT POWER on, and if it's a newer car, disable TRAC or VSC, otherwise, the computer will detect wheelspin and stop sending power to the wheels as you're trying to launch.

mcelligott

<--- 13's with the slips to prove it coming this summer

EGainer

ha ha, sean is faster than the evo in fast and furious!

XenonES3

What?!!? 13's???? Damn!


Sean, what have you done to your car that has "most improved" its performance?

Lucky Devin

Yeah, no kidding. The times SCC recocorded for the 2Fast2Furious cars were utterly pathetic. The Evo got something like a 14.4?! Mystifying considering the stock Evo runs mid to low 13s... And how about that 600+ hp Supra getting a low 14? The cars in 2F2F (I sound like a riceboy saying it like that are all show cars anyhow, but those slow times are just ridiculous...

EGainer

the evo had nothing done to it but a paint job... most of the cars had STOCK engines.... sean has more than 100hp extra, and NOS(which he has yet to use). hmm let me think, rebuilt top end is the last thing i know of, but with a race clutch and well everything you can to the ES, he's done. even stuff you can't do...

mcelligott

Definitely the headwork. Easy 30hp gain, especially in the top end. Headwork included a 3 angle valve job and ported/milled/polished heads.