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