M/T Drag radials and skinnys for a d/d?

[bradleyem]

So, my car NEEDS tires. The rears were getting pretty bald, and then when winter hit I had to rotate them to the front so that I had tires with some tread on them for traction

Now, Late Model Restoration has a sweet wheel/tire package with Race Star wheels fats and skinnies with M/T drag radials. My plan is to put blizzaks on my stock rims for winter and run the drag radials in the summer. Anyone ever run these tires on a D/D? My only concern would be heavy rain, but since my current tires have the same or less tread than the drag radials, I don't think it would be bad. Of course I realize that the D/Rs are wider, and will hydroplane easier......thoughts?

 

[ct07gt]

Your car will handle terrible if you put skinnies on the front, braking would also be awful. If you are going to have a set of stock wheels, get some all seasons for daily use. Switch over to the DR's and skinnies whenever you want to use them. Do you drag race your car on a regular basis?

 

[Mustanglvr2006]

I ran Centerline Convo Pros Fatties and 4" skinnies on my 92 as a DD for YEARS, I did not run drag radials out back tho, but as far as practicality it was fine, I could still hit an on ramp doing 100mph (and I don't mean a straight on ramp, the on ramps that are pretty much a big circle) the car would def push a bit but those 4" Convo Pro skinnies were some stout wheels, could take just about anything you threw at them.

As far as running Drag Radials out back for a true DD car (I personally never ran drag radials, so all I know is from what I've read and from what friends who had them said) they are absolutely horrible in the rain, I mean like driving on ice horrible, I cant say from experience if this is true, just from what I've been told and read.

If you get a lot of rain where you live in the summer, you may want to really think about the risks and the benefits, which outweighs which? You live in Columbus Ohio (I'm not familiar with that area) are the roads nice and straight for the most part, any mountains, windy roads you HAVE to drive daily?

I remember once driving my 92 5.0 in Fla. on the Turnpike (road is straight as an arrow) one day in a massive rainstorm (had my friend in the car with me who had a 93 5.0 with drag radials on his car) the rear tires on my car were pretty fat, like 265/50/15's and were completely bald, I could NOT drive faster than 35mph, every time I would try to give it some gas the rear would just come out from under me, my friend said to me this is exactly how my car drives in the rain with the Drag Radials, major PITA in the rain.

Just thought I'd pass that story along to you.

ct07gt is correct about the braking, I forgot to mention that, skinnies will def affect the braking in a negative way, I mean you'll be able to stop just fine under normal driving conditions, but if you ever need to slam on the brakes and stop quickly, you're in trouble.

 

[bradleyem]

Thanks for the responses guys...


Yes,I plan on going to the track as much as possible with this car. I live about 30 minutes from National Trail, so that is where I go. I have only had this car to a couple of test n tunes, but I want to try to run some events and at the least go to all of the test & tune and grudge match events that I can.

You have a good point about braking....this car stops WAY better than my old fox (or any of the vehicles that I've had in the past), but skinnies would certainly affect that. Also the available sizes of race wheels/tires is prohibitive to big brake upgrades as well

As far as the terrain/weather is concerned....one thing about Ohio is that it's FLAT and the roads are straight....at least in Central Ohio where I live....VERY boring driving....lol I grew up in upstate NY where there were lots of mountains and no shortage of fun twisties. The weather here is run of the mill as well. It never goes according to the forecast of course, but it very seldom goes to extremes either. We get the occasional downpour, but not very often. The other thing is that I have other vehicles to drive if the weather is bad (unless I get caught in a suprize storm or something).

Another thing for me to consider is that I will be running 4.30 gears and an upgraded traction lok. This will make cornering in slippery conditions that much more likely to kick the rear end out......

I'll see if anyone else has any to add, and also look at other options. I was origionally going to go with Anthrecite Bullits with Nitto 555s, but I have heard people complain about how they hook up recently. I just don't want to have to buy 2 more sets of tires and rims, and have 2 sets stacked in my garage all of the time. And I don't have a way to take tires to the track and lock them up.....so trying to find the best compromise.....

 

[Mustanglvr2006]

bradleyem, do you have the link handy to the wheels and tires (Late Model Restoration has a sweet wheel/tire package with Race Star wheels fats and skinnies with M/T drag radials.) you spoke of, I'd like to take a look at them.

Thanks in advance

 

[bradleyem]

bradleyem, do you have the link handy to the wheels and tires (Late Model Restoration has a sweet wheel/tire package with Race Star wheels fats and skinnies with M/T drag radials.) you spoke of, I'd like to take a look at them.

Thanks in advance

They actually have 4 different packages depending on which wheel/tire size you want. They range in price from $1249 to $1599. But they include EVERYTHING needed to install INCLUDING sway bar relocation brackets. And they qualify for $14.99 shipping.

The packages are at the bottom of THIS PAGE

 

[Mustanglvr2006]

This would be a sweet setup

Thanks for the link bradleyem!!

 

[05blues]

Well, I have MT Radials for the track only.. I load them up and change them at the track (since I drive there ~110mi one-way.) The reason I do that is because the treadwear on those tires is extremely low, so if you're expecting to DD them and run them at the track, you're not going to get very much use out of them. I've had maybe 6-7 track days with maybe an average of 7-8 runs each day and am getting pretty low on tread. They're not cheap, so I would just save them for the track if I were you.. however it is a pain in the ass to change them back and forth each time.