Drag Radials: Nite And Day Difference?

[90lxwhite]

Here's my experience with drag radials... I make 368rwhp/363rwtq through a high strung n/a 306, so I don't have the tq off the hit like you do.
On the street I could not go to the floor in 1st gear without breaking traction, really had to roll into it easy to stay hooked up and never did get to the rug without tire spin. In second if I rolled the throttle down nice and smooth it would stay hooked up, but, if I stuck the throttle in the carpet it would break loose at about 4500rpm. If I shifted hard into 3rd it would spin the tires hard/long enough to require steering correction, if I I rolled into 3rd for a split second then went to the floor it would stay hooked up. I could hit 4th full on and it would only spin a tiny bit then hook up.
So that's on the street. Much better than regular radials, but not what most make dr's out to be.
At the track, with a T5. I forget my race weight, but, it's something like 3340.
Drag radials were a pain in the butt. I either spun, or bogged if just trying to dump the clutch at various rpm. When the tires spun they did not recover well at all. You need to get fully out of the throttle then get back into it. The bogs as you can imagine were violent (radials do not absorb shock all that well, more in a bit) and when it spun forward motion was slow. It took a real fancy hold rpms while slipping the clutch and rolling the throttle down tap dance that was hard to duplicate and easy to miss. Poor consistency and wasted runs were plenty. My 60' were all over the board, anything from a low 1.8's to 2.1's
So, if this is going to be a track set of tires only...
I ditched the dr's at the track and went back to a bias ply "cheater slick".
Instant success. The bias ply absorbs the shock of the clutch dump making the launches much quicker and less violent at the same time. Even on a poor starting line, when the bias tie would spin, it would still move the car out hard and the tire will recover all on it's own, just stay in the gas and let them gather themselves up. My 60's went from previously stated to low/mid 1.6's. Simply dump the clutch and go.

DR's certainly can be very effective at the track, but it takes a well set up chassis, convertor or slipper clutch (not good on the street) to make them work. For the guys that have the time to test, test and test some more and the finances to make adjustments (springs, shocks, convertors, clutches) to dial it all in, DR's can work really well.
I'm over all that. When I go to the track, I want to air down, heat them up and let it rip.
So, my opinion is leave DR's for street duty and the guys racing competitive classes, for the weekend warrior with a stick car, go bias, either cheater or full slick depending on if you want to drive your car to the track or swap wheels at the track.

When you finally did hook what kind of trap speeds were you seeing?

 

[cleanLX]

RangerJoe and I are on the same tire, MT ET Street R... RangerJoe has been in the 1.5's 60' consistently... stick shift car.
For a cheap factory wheel, take a look at TooLow91... turbine wheels, they are actually fairly light as far as cheap factory wheel goes... I ran them for a long time myself. I still have them, if you were local, you could have them, You want to pay boxing/shipping they are yours, but, I'm guessing you can find a set locally cheaper. I've moved on to classic Welds... not the lightest wheel out there but was what my budget would allow.

Oh... Ranger and Toolow... awesome launch pictures!

Trap speeds... 114mph in 2280d/a, and ~3350lbs race weight... granny shifting. There is likely an 11 second time slip and 116mph in it with decent air and driver modification.

 

[cleanLX]

drive on the street... the ET Street R bias is fine on the street at ~26psi. I drive 13miles to the track (Wildhorse Pass) and back... and back in the day used to drive 50miles each way to Speedworld before they closed the doors... on the original Et Street bias.

 

[2000xp8]

My opinion is get another set of rear wheels that match your current wheels and put a decent street drag radial on them that you can get some mileage out of.

You know why? Because you are going to like it enough to drive around on them more often, then it will become all the time. I ran nitto drag radials (the original ones) on the street when it was even a daily driver. If you aren't hard on them you can get close to 10,000 miles. I like the BFG's better, but you lose a few thousand miles of use.

The reality is that you don't drive a race car and you don't need every last tenth.

Your springs will be fine. Are you going to go wheels up? Of course not, but who cares, you just need more traction, you don't need to dead hook.

For street car or a daily driver you need to find a healthy mix of handling, straight line performance and reliability.

 

[90lxwhite]

My opinion is get another set of rear wheels that match your current wheels and put a decent street drag radial on them that you can get some mileage out of.

You know why? Because you are going to like it enough to drive around on them more often, then it will become all the time. I ran nitto drag radials (the original ones) on the street when it was even a daily driver. If you aren't hard on them you can get close to 10,000 miles. I like the BFG's better, but you lose a few thousand miles of use.

The reality is that you don't drive a race car and you don't need every last tenth.

Your springs will be fine. Are you going to go wheels up? Of course not, but who cares, you just need more traction, you don't need to dead hook.

For street car or a daily driver you need to find a healthy mix of handling, straight line performance and reliability.

How do the drag radials do as far as cornering goes? Mileage isn't all that big of an issue. I don't think I put 2k miles on the car last year.

 

[General karthief]

I think it's a drag radial? Probably sucks cornering.

 

[2000xp8]

There have been guys that ran nitto drag radials on all four corners for road racing.
I run a bfg 275 35 18 drag radial and they stick extremely well in the corners.

2000 miles a year? Forget spare wheels, just buy a good set of drag radials and run them year around on your current rims. I haven't bought a regular rear tire for my car in 20 years.

Just buy a set that is a street tire for the track, not a track tire for the street. I'm a little out of the loop on which ones are which, I just always run bfg's.

 

[Gear grabber]

RangerJoe and I are on the same tire, MT ET Street R... RangerJoe has been in the 1.5's 60' consistently... stick shift car.
For a cheap factory wheel, take a look at TooLow91... turbine wheels, they are actually fairly light as far as cheap factory wheel goes... I ran them for a long time myself. I still have them, if you were local, you could have them, You want to pay boxing/shipping they are yours, but, I'm guessing you can find a set locally cheaper. I've moved on to classic Welds... not the lightest wheel out there but was what my budget would allow.

Oh... Ranger and Toolow... awesome launch pictures!

Trap speeds... 114mph in 2280d/a, and ~3350lbs race weight... granny shifting. There is likely an 11 second time slip and 116mph in it with decent air and driver modification.

Let me send you some air....right now the D/A here is -2537 !!

 

[TOOLOW91]

I'm just looking for a set to put on when I go to the track. I was originally thinking radial so I could put them on a the house, it's only like 10 miles. However, I'm starting to lean towards a slick I think. What would be my cheapest wheel option? Do I want 15" or 16"? Looks aren't all that much of a concern, I'll paint them black if I have to.

15 , if it's a spare set of wheel a bias ply will definitely work better for your application no doubt . I am just fond of radials and I have about a 15-20 mile ride each way to the track

 

[RangerJoe]

The first radials I tried were a 245 series 555R on 16" pony wheels. I went from 8.8x's on street tires to an 8.4x on my first outing. That was going from 2.0x 60fts to 1.8x 60 ft.

I then went to an ET street radial and whittled it down to an 8.23, but still a best of a 1.83 60ft. HCI changes netted the same 60fts, but a 7.84 ET.

I then went to the ET Streets Bias Ply and times stayed the same as above. Got serious with my suspension plotting and testing and now cut regular 1.5x 60fts and have been in the 7.4x.

Joe

 

[90lxwhite]

The first radials I tried were a 245 series 555R on 16" pony wheels. I went from 8.8x's on street tires to an 8.4x on my first outing. That was going from 2.0x 60fts to 1.8x 60 ft.

I then went to an ET street radial and whittled it down to an 8.23, but still a best of a 1.83 60ft. HCI changes netted the same 60fts, but a 7.84 ET.

I then went to the ET Streets Bias Ply and times stayed the same as above. Got serious with my suspension plotting and testing and now cut regular 1.5x 60fts and have been in the 7.4x.

Joe

I'm gonna start shopping around to see what I can find. The best deal will probaby be the determining factor in which way I go though.
So one more time, if I used a "cheater slick" will I have to have a drive shaft loop? I know you're supposed to have one w "slicks" and or if you run a 13.9 (that right?), but what about an 8 something with cheaters?

 

[Rjaaaaaa]

I have a slightly modified 306 ci - 88 gt that would just blow the tires off even from a roll through 1st and 2nd with a 4;10 rear and 245 45 17 tires. I found these low profile tire just to hard of a compound. I know this varies with manufactures.
I bought some used centerline wheels and the rears were 15 x 10 with M/T ET 26 x 11 WOW you talk about a difference. These things hook, I was only running 12# of air when I first tried them, at 4g they launched hard and just squirmed a little in second. I bumped the air up to 26# and then I could break them loose but still felt good, these things hooked so good I was worried that I might break something. If the tires aren't spinning there is a lot of force on the whole car and now it just a matter of what is the weakest link. that bothered me. I pulled them off and put on some B F Goodrich firehawks 265 60 15 and they do a very good job, I don't want a race car but I want it to run well.
The wheels I bought had 195 60 15 on 4" rims up from and the car handled pretty good with the M/T, I wouldn't want to get caught in the rain though.
I really like the ride improvement with the 15" 60 series tires.