97 king cobra said:
My car used to consistantly cut low 1.4's on 26x8.5's(old setup/new setup not finished yet). I personally like slicks over radials because for the most part you are going to get a better ET out of the slick and the car will be more consistant.
That being said, yes there is a class called x275 where the only tires u can run are 275/60/15 and with a limited set of rules most of those cars are running bottom 5's/high 4's in the eighth which computes to approx a high 7 second quarter mile pass.
There is also the ODR (outlaw drag radial) class which has even less rules and uses a 315/60/15 drag radial and those cars are running mid 4's or high 6's in the quarter mile.
But if you ask anyone of those guys if they had to make the fastest pass of their life (given time to setup their car for whatever tire possible) 99% of them are gonna go with a big slick.
Funny you mention the 275 cars. I went to a big 275 race a couple of weeks ago. I love watching those guys run freaking FOURS on 275 width drag radials! Ridiculous! I actually got a nice video of all of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfOfHVVw_PE
They would all DEFINITELY run faster on slicks, but the main reason they went the drag radial route was to keep cost down. If traction wasn't a big issue for most of the guys, it would normally boil down to who could spend the most money. That's what happened to the 10.5 Outlaw class from 6-8 years ago. So these guys decided to limit it to a drag radial so that it wasn't always just a matter of throwing more money at it.
AND, it is a TON of fun to watch.
Paul said:
I wanna hear more about the scooter with Mickey Thompson E/T Drags on it.
If I had the time and money, I'd do it just to prove a point.
knuckles4696 said:
Well its a fairly cut and dry topic, while Sneaky makes the point that if you dont have traction problems then dont adress traction idea is correct, even a stock Mustang will spin off the line be it a little or a lot.
Knuckles
Yes, that is really the only point I'm trying to make. In the first paragraph of my first post in this thread, I CLEARLY stated the slicks drastically outperform drag radials at the strip.
And that's still not entirely true about still spinning. Trust me, a mostly stock, stock geared, AUTOMATIC 94-98 Mustang GT has NO traction problems at the strip. I made around 150 passes at the strip while COMPLETELY stock, on 245 width street tires. Traction was NEVER a problem.
This thread/"debate" got started because it was suggested that someone with an almost stock 95 5.0 (automatic) was having traction problems because they were only cutting 2.1-2.2 60's, and that slicks and drag suspension were need to bring those times down. I KNOW, from experience, that 2.1-2.2 is about what a 94-98 automatic GT is going to cut in the 60' when it hooks up perfectly fine. Just like I KNOW that slicks and/or slicks would have done nothing for his car other than burned a hole in his pocket.
RockstarMentality said:
As a physics student, I know that increasing surface area does not increase friction.
As a racer, I know that running wider tires DOES increase friction.
Anyone want to take a stab at this one?
Sure. It's because neither the tire nor the road is a smooth surface. Friction is only a part of the traction of un-smooth surfaces. The other part is a normal force. Think of roughness of your tires and the road as valleys and peaks of mountains; as they touch, the peaks of the tires goes down into the valleys of the road, and vice versa. This creates a lateral (or normal) force against the tire. Thus, you increase the surface area and you increase the area that this happens over, resulting in more traction.
It also has to do with better heat dissipation, but that goes beyond my scope of knowledge on the subject.
Venom351R said:
I was going to post some useful info in here since I've been doing it for 10 years and have used street tires drag radials and slicks but since certain members want to bring up other issues in past threads ( and don't even have that info correct) and pass along bs info in general then it just ruined it for me. I like to help others out on this topic to repay those that have done it for me but I won't do it in this thread
Please post away. I'm not trying to single you or anyone else out, and I don't doubt one bit that you have a TON of good tech advice. BUT, you are incorrect in assuming that a 2.0-2.2 60' means someone is spinning (or doesn't have enough traction). I KNOW, from first hand EXPERIENCE, that with lots of mostly stock automatic Mustangs, this is NOT the case. They are simply not putting enough torque ON THE WHEELS to accelerate the car to a faster 60'. I have been there, and done that, HUNDREDS of times.
It's the same reason that a moped can't get better than a 5 second 60'.
It's the same reason that a 82 Ford Ranger can't get better than a 4 second 60'.
It's the same reason that YOUR CAR can't cut a 1.2 60'
And that reason has NOTHING to do with traction. It all has to do with POWER (or more specifically, torque on the wheels). The 60' time for a mostly stock automatic Mustang just happens to be in the 2.0-2.2 range, with PERFECT traction.
Rice_slayer said:
I use slicks as the tires them selves take most of the launch "impact". I'd rather have a wrinkle wall tire that will take a good chunk of the stress off my axles than a tire which, imo, is stupid to use on the street because they wear down soooo fast, will net less consistent results and give your drivetrain a harder shock off the line with a stiffer side wall.
I agree, and as I clearly stated earlier, drag radials are not as good as slicks for hooking at the track. Cut and dry. No debate there. But at the same time, if there is no need for slicks, why waste the money?
And as for the personal preference? I prefer to legally DRIVE my STREET car to the strip...
