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First Season

using street tires.. Firestones Firehawks acquired from prior owner

they have stiff sidewalls and rim guard....

they provide for very little collapse when releasing tire pressure...

if the release is substantial ...most of the contact patch will be on the inner and outter portion of the tires....not sure how severe.. but enough to provide for a decrease in traction imo...

compound is not as sticky as the prior set as well.. OE Potenzas to be exact.. of which i set my best time on .... first day.. third rookie run....

hard compound i would attribute to extending tire wear..

i knew this after the swap but yet i decided to keep beatin a dead horse

tried various launches to no avail...mostly first and second gear slides....

time to chalk it up and use it as leasoned learned and purchase drag specific tires....possibly a burnout prior will add more grip

havin loads of fun and found a respect for a sport i use to dismiss....

treceb

cool. i also have firehawks, but i dont put down as much hp as you.

was looking for you after your 2(?) run.

even with tire slippage you did catch up to the other racer.

look for a side street and practice launching is all i can suggest.

9BASE3

Heating up street tires won't help... At least thats what I hear...

vosko

i heat street tires. it makes a noticable difference. i got a 1.92 60FT in my TII on street tires that were warmed up

FCmaniac

its good to burnout some with street tires but it really doesnt do much... Even with drag radials, a short burnout is recommended. I've seen so many people go through the water box and then do a ridiculous smoky burnout on street tires which actually can reduce your traction

1988RedT2

Hey, cool thread. I've been running the old Dunlop SP Sports on my TII at the strip, but I feel like they spin too easily in first, and sometimes second. I feel like they are hard as rocks, maybe just old? I had a blowout last week and put two new Yokohama A550V's on the front, and I want to do something about the rears to improve my 60-foot time (2.3 sec. is best so far) What should I consider? Also, 16-inch drag tires don't seem to easy to come by. Should I change rims? Will a smaller overall diameter on the rear tires improve my ET?



All replies greatly appreciated.

FCmaniac

A smaller rim and tire combo will improve your acceleration and ET because you are changing the gearing of your car. Also, it should be less weight which lowers the rotating mass, again improving acceleration. If you are running street tires or even drag radials, try playing with your tire pressure some, keeping the front pressure higher than normal and the rears 3-5 psi lower than normal. During launch, you want max weight transfer to the back and since tires are part of your suspension, you would raise pressure in front to stiffen it, and lower in back. Slicks are totally different as you are lowering pressure to allow for max contact patch and sidewall wrinkle. When you launch at the tree, try to feel the wheelspin with your throttle and clutch and learn to control it accordingly.... you know you will have wheelspin on street tires, the trick is just to learn to control it so you are accelerating while the tires are trying to hook rather than sitting there spinning.



Hope this makes sense....