From what Ive seen (in France mainly) its a pretty even match. Which is obviously why theres such a 172/CTR rivalry! Possibly the 172 needs more work to keep level than the CTR? I dont know... Ive not driven either.
Anyway, it will be down to the driver so get down to your local industrial estate and start practicing in the middle of the night. The launch is the most crucial element without a doubt - you want to find out where your max power and max torque are and never let the revs move from between them. The only time you will ever want to go over the point of max power is if youre racing for the line and a change to 4th will lose you a third of a second (and thats if youre good!) So anyway, dial in the revs, lets say max torque at 4500. Go off the line balancing it on the clutch and you need to be on the verge of breaking into wheelspin, once youre rolling you can feel when you can let the clutch go and floor it. Get that perfect and youve got an unbeatable launch. Then keep it floored until just after max power (lets say 6500 for example), change up fast, hopefully the ratios are close enough so it drops you bang in the middle of your powerband again, and then repeat the whole process. When youre practicing get a feel for the gaps between 1st and 2nd, 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th etc. If they are not all close and even (which they wont be) you need to vary the change-up point according to the next gear youre going into, so you dont get caught out at low revs by a long 2nd/3rd gap for example. In this instance you would get to max power at 6500 in 2nd and keep it going until maybe 6900, then change up and drop right back into the power, rather than under the point of max torque.
It sounds a lot, and it is. Just needs practice, but thats why it makes my blood boil when Evo-reading track-day driving triple-garage arseholes try to talk about quarter miling as if its not a proper test of a cars poke. Its a fine art and is certainly not just idling at the line then putting your foot down when the tree goes green, which has been suggested before by someone who thought they were an authority on drag racing but had never actually been quarter miling themselves!
Practice practice practice and you will cane the CTR, and I guarantee once youve taken a proper run on the dragstrip you will keep coming back for more!
