I would like the stiff sidewalls because they would not allow your car to wander around at high speeds keeping it more stable.This is something I will research quite a bit before I buy slicks,talking to many people at different trks.As far as fronts go,I probably use a set of Nexens,165 80r 15s.A friend has a chevy luv drag truck & he says they work ok,they are about 26in tall.Might not be quite as fast with them as drag tires,but they are a real tire with tread.
Just my .02...I've run both on my car. I started off running the MT drag radials...They were the 235 or 245 size, can't remember for sure right now. They hooked just fine and ran well, but they just didn't last. Once it became clear that the car's street days were behind it, I switched to a set of Hoosier slicks. Mine hooks great, and they last at least a whole season on average. I have 3.89 gears as well, so I use a 26 x 9 slick to help with the starting line ratio. When I change to a lower rear gear, I'll move to a taller slick then. Am looking to mini-tub and move to a 28 x 10.5 at that time. For reference, I run 6.4x-50's in the 1/8th mile. Best 60 ft to date is a 1.37 with the little baby tire lol. It out 60's and out et's a whole bunch of guys I race with who run MUCH larger tires...including my brother, nephew, and niece.
This is proof of how your rear suspension is set up, Your car is working a 1.37 60 ft is good all day long This reminds me of my buddy's maverick, guys were complaining of not having any traction on the starting line John had 15 pounds of air in his tires and Wheelie to the back bumper!
Oops...I left that part out too...I typically run 14-15 lbs of air in the little tires...depending on the track. I think I ran 17-19 in the Drag Radials. I'd have to go back and find my notes on those runs. It's been too long ago lol.
I don't think you can go wrong with that. My burnouts were always very short. These tires need very little to work well.
Stiff sidewall doesn't have anything to do with high speed stability. They were intended to help launch a heavier stick shift combination. These cars tend to wad up a regular sidewall slick which leads to cupping and inconsistent launches. The stiffer sidewall helps spring the car forward instead of beating the tire up on the launch.
Just to kick in my two cents, I run a Hoosier 28x10.5 stiff sidewall slick. 1.28 60', 9.37 @ 143 and change. Car hooks and drives excellent start to finish. I now have over 110 runs on the current set and they are working as good as new. JMO.
If your having problems with the car wandering in the lights you are running to low air pressure or the car is a bad handler! I have run both hard and soft side wall tires with no handling problems!
While some of that is certainly true.. stiffer sidewalls most certainly will allow more lateral control in any car. Proper alignment should help mitigate most issues but then you get into potential energy losses associated with those settings as well. Higher powered/smaller tired cars that hit the tire harder on the shift also need to balance carcass movement(wind up) with additional directional stability as well. A softer side wall can potentially always slow a car down due to more lost energy being wicked away by sidewall friction but if you can't hold traction or the car becomes squirrelly because the stiffer tires are getting hit too hard then that's what you run to soften the hit on the sidewall to still allow net ET reductions. As with just about anything car related, it's always a balancing act. I've been a fly on the wall through many of these discussions and if you talk directly with the mfgrs and hardcore racers themselves(who often have their own designated tire rep's) they will also give reasoning as to why the tires need to match the power delivery to the chassis and balance stability. Although not as much an issue for run-n-done type racing, they(stiffer sidewalls) also work to help reduce heat build up as well. That's why pretty much any sports car/max performance tires will have additional belts and reinforced sidewalls to improve stability and reduce heat related failures. Tires are a science unto themselves and are used as a fine tuning aid for various tracks and conditions by all the best racers. As may have also been mentioned prior.. softer sidewalls can give a sort of variable gear ratio as well as they tend to grow in diameter moreso than the stiffer designs. Whether you can make use of that gain or loss in total diameter on the track will again fall back to the aforementioned balancing act.
Slicks are for race cars. Drag radials are for race cars that have rules dictating that a "street" tire be used. Never seen a drag radial that would run as consistent as a dedicated drag slick. Not saying it hasn't been done, just saying that I've never seen it. Stiff sidewalls work great on cars that make enough power to overpower regular thin-walled drag slicks. Stick shift cars especially. The wander at the big end of the track is a characteristic that happens with drag slicks. Again-a compromise. If you can't drive through the "wander" then you'll have to compromise some consistency. A rear spoiler helps dramatically with the wander on our Mavericks and Comets. I'm only running 1/8 mile now but the wing really makes a difference, and doesn't slow it down any. Some may not like the "look", but it works. The big tire cars can really get to moving around on the sidewalls. Not a huge issue with 8-9" slicks; but I feel it sometimes in mine (32 x 14), especially if the wind is blowing just right. Even then, I've learned what feels "normal" and what doesn't. That said, there are radial ply slicks out now, too. Jury is out on those. The stock and super stock guys love them. Some of the high end bracket cars love them. Locally, I haven't heard any great feedback. Thus far, I've heard from fellow racers that they don't last as long, your gearing "changes" because they don't grow as much, but for a while they're pretty consistent. This tells me that the old school bias-ply slick is still the best option, for now...until the radial slicks get improved.
WOW what a great topic! Well said groberts101 you and I see eye to eye on this, old rule of thumb is for every .10 you pick up in your 60's you gain another on the big end so no doubt about you being correct on the stall, no way is the 2,800 enough. As always just my .02 Terry
