Fox How is it driving on skinnies?

James V

5 Year Member
Feb 26, 2017
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Connecticut
I'm thinking about buying a set of weld draglites. I'm definitely getting the rears, they're 15x8 with 275 MT tires. I'm not sure about the skinnies, I hear mixed reviews on driving with them. I dont plan on daily driving it, just a weekend cruiser. How's highway driving with skinnies? Also if I decide to not buy the skinnies can I mix wheels and use the welds in the rear with regular wheels in front?
 
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Big issue is reduced contact patch in the front can reduce turning and braking performance.

A panic stop situation on skinnies might cost you your car.

It can be done, as I’m sure many people have without issue
 
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Other than what was mentioned above, they really aren't that bad to drive on.
The cornering isn't bad, you just dont go diving into corners like you would with a wide front tire. I've never had an issue with braking and driving on the highway was a non-issue. They really feel like a set or normal tires on the front, you just have to be aware of them and their limitations.

I avoid rain like it's the plague. I don't want to know how they do in the rain.

I did have to do an emergency maneuver once when a guy was fully in my lane around a blind corner. I was able to do what I needed to do without any issues, though I was fully aware of them.
 
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It’s not the skinny front tire in the rain that’s usually the problem..as mentioned before,..it’s the contact patch vs tread depth.
Ive driven many cars with big/littles daily in the past. It’s always that big assed tire in the back with less than 1/8” tread depth, and hardly any tread pattern that’ll help that car find the ditch in the rain way before those skinny front tires ever will.
 
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I've never driven with a big/littles set-up but I believe the op is from CT. where the roads a like the surface of the moon.
I would guess a thin aluminum rim would be more easily damaged by our crappy roads.
 
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For a car you don’t daily a set of skinnies are fine. It’s really not bad at all.
I agree with mike about the bigger issue coming with the rear tires. Dot drag radials and bias ply tires are a handful if there’s any moisture on the roads.
 
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It might be helpful to have a brake proportioning valve for the wide and skinny set up. I would like one for my pony wheel disc/drum set up now, and the difference in a panic stop could be a shock.

I would also be careful which skinny’s I bought for up front with those roads. I have bent steel rims and threw off the alinement on slush hidden potholes. Few lightweight racing wheels are going to take that kind of abuse.
 
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So I ended up buying the set today. I like the look of them a lot. Worse case I sell the skinnies if I dont like them. My final question is, does anyone know what size lug nuts I'll need? I dont want to buy the wrong size.
 
The only car I ever owned and drove with skinny front tires was my 87 with a 460. The combination of that extra weight and manual converted 4 cylinder brakes made those tires very scary on the street. The front would push through corners and the front tires would lock up during aggressive braking. Never would've driven in the slightest moist road conditions. I can remember waiting for the dew to dry in the morning before driving. That car was a complete death trap....and wasn't that fast either.

Those were 3.5 inch skinnies. I'd never do that again. Cheaper ( than crashing ) to buy a wider set for the front and enough room for the skinnies in the trunk.
 
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Ran em back in the day. Had 1 tire go flat (think i hit a pothole on highway) And was in the rain counting grams of weed (in bags) or something looking down and came up on a car hit the brakes and slid into it. like 3mph. The grams went flying everywhere and i was like fck. Course my car was not fast either, but it looked badass. lol.

1. So braking is a lot less powerful
2. Potential to go flat
3. Turning at a high rate of speed feels dangerous like the wheel might fold in half. lol. Ya, pretty much lose turning fast/playing road racer in corners imo.

But damn, it looks cool.
 
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Ran em back in the day. Had 1 tire go flat (think i hit a pothole on highway) And was in the rain counting grams of weed (in bags) or something looking down and came up on a car hit the brakes and slid into it. like 3mph. The grams went flying everywhere and i was like fck. Course my car was not fast either, but it looked badass. lol.

1. So braking is a lot less powerful
2. Potential to go flat
3. Turning at a high rate of speed feels dangerous like the wheel might fold in half. lol. Ya, pretty much lose turning fast/playing road racer in corners imo.

But damn, it looks cool.
Best response ever lol
 
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Yeah I ran skinnies on my old 84 for a while. For a street car, it's not worth the hassle. For anything that you're not trying to get every single hundredth of ET out of, they "might" be worth a hundredth or two. On my 84, it was a 351c with a couple JY turbos, ran 6.20's 1/8. I bought the car that way and sold it that way. At the strip one of the little turd front tires went down because of some glass on the return road so I ran home real quick and grabbed the 10 holes with 225/50/15's and put those on. I saw no difference in MPH indicating that there was very little difference in drag. Saw a little difference in ET, because of the additional weight AND they were smaller diameter than the 26" DS-2's. After that deal, I didn't see any benefit in skinnies unless it was a total drag car looking for ET and/or MPH. The taller the tires are the better the ET (slightly)-assuming they don't weight a ton, which is why you see a lot of class racers running 28"+ front tires. Weight is the biggest ET/MPH difference compared to regular street tires. DOT radials are pretty heavy compared to a set of lightweight 3.5" wide wheels and typical drag racing only narrow front tires. On my Maverick, the old school Weld Pro-Star 15x3.5 with the tires, each tire/wheel assembly weighs about 11 1/2 lbs going off of memory (I am too lazy to go dig out the spec book that I have). I don't think the OE 17x8 cobra RIM is that light on the Mustang, not even counting what the tires weigh.
 
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Ran em back in the day. Had 1 tire go flat (think i hit a pothole on highway) And was in the rain counting grams of weed (in bags) or something looking down and came up on a car hit the brakes and slid into it. like 3mph. The grams went flying everywhere and i was like fck. Course my car was not fast either, but it looked badass. lol.

1. So braking is a lot less powerful
2. Potential to go flat
3. Turning at a high rate of speed feels dangerous like the wheel might fold in half. lol. Ya, pretty much lose turning fast/playing road racer in corners imo.

But damn, it looks cool.

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