Heading to the drags next week, tyres and pressure?

[betts]

Im heading to the stip on monday, the ute has 235x40x18 tyres on the rear, and traction is usually ok if I stall it up before i take off. Ive got a set of stock 15's, am I better to put them on and drop the pressure a bit? And any other tips would be great,
Merry Christmas All!!

[jet-6]

Street tyres really suck on the strip, get some slicks, secondhand even is better than none

[betts]

spending cash isnt really an option at the moment, especially after christmas, cheers for the input though

[greenfoam]

Take both sets. Traction on rubber is a strange thing. A tyre that grips well on the street might be like trying to race on snow at the strip then another one might give you perfect traction, you just never know till you try them so take both pairs just incase one is a failure

[Blown V6 Hatch]

I have to agree with jet-6 on this, going out on street tyres is a waist of time...I went 14.2 on street tyres (wheelspinning all through 1st & 2nd gears) then went 13.4 on slicks in my car. I was a bit disappointed with the 14.2, but then when i bolted the slicks on i picked up 8/10ths of a second it makes you a lot happier, you have found the cars full potential....Most street tyres are like driving on an ice skating rink at the drags!

[betts]

would dropping the pressure on the 18's help with traction at all, or is it just going to make the rear end feel sloppy?

edit: Ill buy the paper today and see if there are any slicks for sale, maybe i could pick some up cheap.

[betts]

just looked in the quokka, and found a set of Mickey Tompson Streets on 15" pursuit rims for $300. Is that a decent deal?

[eurekamad94]

yeah thats preeeety good jump on it mate

[Blown V6 Hatch]

Thats a pretty good price mate....All depends on how used they are though. They will hook up a treat, streets ahead of road tyres. If the're MT ET streets, you can legally drive to and from the track on them.

[betts]

awesome, ill see if i can get him down to $250, will let you know how i go

[betts]

Called him up, but couldn't really see the justice in buying a set of slicks when I dont really know how often I'll be dragging the ute. And they were at least an hours drive away. Ill probalby just put the stockies on and drop the pressure to around 15 psi and see how that goes

[betts]

I called him up, but in the end I couldn't justify spending that much money on a pair of slicks when I don't know how often I'll be going to the drags. I figure I'll just put some stockies on and drop the pressure to around 15psi and see how that goes

[wrx884]

Drop pressures in ur 18s, do a burn out and get the tyres hot u'll start seeing bubbles in ur tyre walls. The 18s wont have the grip like the 15s would simply coz theres not enough flex in the tyre wall 2 help dig into the strip. but it also depends on wat brand tyres ur running? if they r a soft or hard compound tyre?

[Blown V6 Hatch]

Ok, here is a couple of tips for using street tyres to get the best out of them:

1) Do a very little or no burnout. The hotter road tyres get the slipperier they get, where as racing tyres are the exact opposite. I was getting much better traction doing no burnout at all and just driving straight to the start line.

2)Drop the pressure to about 20-25psi and see how you go, if you feel it could be better then drop it a couple of psi more, but don't go too low as you will have no way to pump them back if it gets too slippery. (i would just drop it to about 22psi and leave it at that).

3) Just try to ease it off the line on your first run, to get the feel for it....It a real catch 22 on street tyres, you can't just nail it off the line which really hurts your ET, but if do just nail it it's going to hurt ET anyway due to wheelspin. So, just take it easy till you feel how much traction is available and go from there.

Having said all that, i would never even contemplate going to the drags on street tyres. I did it once and that was enough....

[betts]

Drop pressures in ur 18s, do a burn out and get the tyres hot u'll start seeing bubbles in ur tyre walls. The 18s wont have the grip like the 15s would simply coz theres not enough flex in the tyre wall 2 help dig into the strip. but it also depends on wat brand tyres ur running? if they r a soft or hard compound tyre?

I'm really not sure whether they're a soft or a hard compound, but what you said about the 18's makes sense to me. The tyres I have on the stockies are just budget tyres, with about half tread left. I guess it will just be trial and error, its a bit different for everyone right? I won't be using the 18's though, cheers for your input

[betts]

Ok, here is a couple of tips for using street tyres to get the best out of them:

1) Do a very little or no burnout. The hotter road tyres get the slipperier they get, where as racing tyres are the exact opposite. I was getting much better traction doing no burnout at all and just driving straight to the start line.

2)Drop the pressure to about 20-25psi and see how you go, if you feel it could be better then drop it a couple of psi more, but don't go too low as you will have no way to pump them back if it gets too slippery. (i would just drop it to about 22psi and leave it at that).

3) Just try to ease it off the line on your first run, to get the feel for it....It a real catch 22 on street tyres, you can't just nail it off the line which really hurts your ET, but if do just nail it it's going to hurt ET anyway due to wheelspin. So, just take it easy till you feel how much traction is available and go from there.

Having said all that, i would never even contemplate going to the drags on street tyres. I did it once and that was enough....

Righto, some good tips there, ill probably bring a small 12v tyre pump with me aswell, just so that I can play with the tyre pressure a bit. Cheers mate, I guess I'll know on monday whether I'm going to need to purchase a set of slicks or not.

[con7502003]

nothing wrong running street tyres let them down. like blown said dont over cook them ive only used street tyres in my drag cacing career of three meets in 2 months, i started at 9.3 down now to 8.8pb on same tyres. 24 psi works for me on old 15s harder than a cats head.i found if the track gets really grippy at the stage where big hp cars start breaking shit if you only got medium power you could actually go slow as the grip pulls ya down.so some slip is good.

[betts]

Cheers for the post, since I asked this question I have had many runs down the quarter to determine what works best on my ute.

[simmyz1]

Cheers for the post, since I asked this question I have had many runs down the quarter to determine what works best on my ute.

hey bloke, what times did you run?, i have a simmilar 355 i was gunna take to the strip but just gotta sort some trans issues first. what did you find works the best with tyres?

[betts]

The first time I went down I had a stock engine. Ran a 14.7 with my 18's. Then I switched the rears to stockies and ran a best of 14.5. If I had changed the front to stockies as well then I probably could have ran close to a 14.3, just because of the rotating weight reduction.

With the stroker every time I have gone down I have just used stockies on all corners, and managed a best of 13.5, but I really have to baby it until it changes to second otherwise I will just wheelspin 3/4 of the way up the track. If I just gave it full throttle from the start then my times were around the 14.5 mark. With slicks on the back I think a high 12 would be achievable. With the stockies I was letting tyre pressure down to around 21psi. Hope this all helps.