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Slicks vs. DOT Slicks vs. Street Tires.


_shay
09-30-2004, 03:37 PM
I'm sure this has been asked before...but let's go through it atleast once more....

How much is your quarter mile time going to be affected by say, going from street tires to DOT approved slicks? Or from street tires to pure slicks? How many tenths do you think that might shave of, on average?

I'm not sure if there is any sort've standard way of telling. I've heard that you may run has much as 5 tenths of a second faster with slicks than on street tires. But who knows. Anyone have experience testing the actual difference at the track?

JekylandHyde
10-01-2004, 06:04 AM
Tires are only going to help if you can use the traction. That being said, the amount of gain is going to depend on how much moretraction you can use.

If you have an 18 second car that does not hav enough power to spin street tires ... putting on better tires isn't going to help :)

Assuming the car has some respectable power and could use the traction, I would expect an increase of .2-.3 on drag radials and .3-.5 on slicks.

Again, this is going to be really dependant on the power/traction needs of the car.

chevytrucks92
10-01-2004, 04:19 PM
I agree with JekylandHyde. The size of the tire also will make a difference. If you get too big of a slick, then you're going to loose time rather then gain (or any kind of tire for that matter).

Our race car usually picks up about a tenth in 330 ft. on new slicks (we change them every 2-3 years).

_shay
10-03-2004, 08:46 PM
I definitely need the traction. Right now I have 205/35-17 drag radials on my SRT-4 and I'm going to upgrade to slicks for next season. The only reason I went with the 205/35-17's is because I wanted to buy the stock rims and someone on SRTForums was selling those drag radials already mounted on the stock rims.

I really should just buy some 15" rims and slicks but I still want to appear stock.

225 is as wide as I can go. So I think I'm going to go 225/40-17 or 225/50-17.

95dxcivic
10-07-2004, 01:29 PM
I definitely need the traction. Right now I have 205/35-17 drag radials on my SRT-4 and I'm going to upgrade to slicks for next season. The only reason I went with the 205/35-17's is because I wanted to buy the stock rims and someone on SRTForums was selling those drag radials already mounted on the stock rims.

I really should just buy some 15" rims and slicks but I still want to appear stock.

225 is as wide as I can go. So I think I'm going to go 225/40-17 or 225/50-17.

Ill take those 205/35-17 tires. I tought those were rare.

_shay
10-07-2004, 01:58 PM
Ill take those 205/35-17 tires. I tought those were rare.

If you want them without the rims, we can work something out. They've got about 1000+ miles on them and 10 quarter mile trips on them. They're sticky, just not sticky enough for the power I'll be putting down next season.

They are BF Goodrich tires, the KDW drag radials, they look very similar to the stock tires on my car. Not sure the exact name of them. I'd have to go look.

My mistake though, the stock tires are 50 series and I remembered that there was a difference of 10. So yeah, 40 serie, not.

95dxcivic
10-07-2004, 04:54 PM
If you want them without the rims, we can work something out. They've got about 1000+ miles on them and 10 quarter mile trips on them. They're sticky, just not sticky enough for the power I'll be putting down next season.

They are BF Goodrich tires, the KDW drag radials, they look very similar to the stock tires on my car. Not sure the exact name of them. I'd have to go look.

My mistake though, the stock tires are 50 series and I remembered that there was a difference of 10. So yeah, 40 serie, not.
Are they 35's because if they arent then I dont want them. And yes, I only want the tires. I'll take them if they are 40's as well.

_shay
10-07-2004, 05:31 PM
Are they 35's because if they arent then I dont want them. And yes, I only want the tires. I'll take them if they are 40's as well.

They're 40 series. I'm not sure when I'm going to get new ones, probably as soon as the car goes into storage for winter. I'll get a hold of you then.

Shannon

95dxcivic
10-07-2004, 07:14 PM
Alright, thanks. How much do you want for them.

_shay
10-07-2004, 07:20 PM
Cheap. They shouldn't cost a ton to sent either since they won't have rims.

95dxcivic
10-07-2004, 07:24 PM
Can I get a price because I dont have a job and all I get is $50 from my dad weekly. Please.

_shay
10-07-2004, 07:52 PM
I'd have to find out how much it will cost to ship them. I'll get back to you sometime this weekend.

AWP9521
10-12-2004, 07:41 PM
Our race car usually picks up about a tenth in 330 ft. on new slicks (we change them every 2-3 years).

2-3 years? DANG! I had to replace mine every season!

chevytrucks92
10-12-2004, 09:22 PM
Well, ours is in desperate need of replacing now!

The car still runs consistant however, just slower then its potential.

We had alot of engine trouble this season (and last season as well), so I think that's why its been so long since we replaced them. Used to he'd (my uncle) woudl get new slicks every 1-1/2 to 2 years. So really, I should have said about every 2 years, but I think they've been on the car now for about 2 and a half years.

AWP9521
10-13-2004, 08:17 PM
Engine problems will do that to ya! :(

chevytrucks92
10-13-2004, 09:44 PM
Yeah. Had to replace bearings in two different engines. Had one block to crack. Just a bad deal! Its doing good now though (knock on wood).

86MonteSS
10-19-2004, 04:35 PM
a smaller than stock tire ,slick will pick you up at the track giving you more take off but less top end which you dont really need in the 1/4

lowsonoma1999
10-25-2004, 07:02 PM
A little off topic

Yeah. Had to replace bearings in two different engines. Had one block to crack. Just a bad deal! Its doing good now though (knock on wood).

You've had better luck then we've had the past 2 years. '69 Camaro, 496ci bb, powerglide.

2003: 1) transmission didn't shift, broke top off 1 valve, had both heads rebuilt. 2) oil pickup screen fell off during a pass, ate up some bearings and the crank 3) shop that rebuilt the heads put the wrong rockers on, couple of the rockers were hitting the valve spring retainers, eventually breaking a couple valves, leading to holes in 2 pistons, and had to sleeve two cylinders ( this is the first time we haven't built the motor ourselves, and all this happens, I guess if you want it done right, do it yourself) 4) 2 torque converters (cut open one and the fins of the converter were pretty much all melted together) 5) when one of the converters went, contaminated the transmission enough to warranty a rebuild

2004: 1) Eagle H beam rod broke into pieces and went through both sides of the oil pan, also destroying the crank, cracking the block, bending another rod, and destroying 1 head pics here -> http://www.agbulletracing.com/uhoh.htm Last time we let that guy touch our motors. Have a different engine builder now. 2) 4 torque converters in all this season. (while running super gas, kept breaking the sprague in the converter, of course Coan didn't tell us that the spragues used in their converters were inferior and not really made to run super gas. put a solid sprague in from ATI, all problems fixed now. 3) 1 torque converter contaminated the trans enough to warranty another rebuild 4) 1st time trial running super gas at US Nationals, with new tires, axle stripped out the spool in the rear end. Discovered that the company that rebuilt our rearend 2 years ago put the axles in backwards, and the drivers side I think, was only in the spool about a 1/2" How it lasted 2 years, I don't know. But the new tires that were put on for US Nats was just too much for it and it stripped it out. 5) Water pump went out 6) Been fighting bogging problems at the line when going up on stall for 2 years now. Was referred to a guy at US Nats to talk to. I can't remember his name right now, but discovered that the carb that we thought was a 1050cfm, was actually a 1150. Too big for our motor. $1100 later, we have a Holley 1050, built by this guy in Kansas. Half of the super gas cars out there run his carbs, highly recommend him if I could remember his name. 7) Lastly, 1 alternator
Probably all in all about $12k spent this year in repairs, plus a lot of time. So, now a new engine with no problems, a torque converter that will actually handle the power we are putting out, new rearend, new tires. My dad got 2nd place at the Fall Classic last weekend at IRP in Super Street. Anyways, go to www.agbulletracing.com for pics, videos, etc. . .from our race team.

JJ

chevytrucks92
10-25-2004, 10:01 PM
That sucks man, lol. We haven't had it that bad the past two years, but we have had it pretty rough!

Last season we had troulbe with 2 different set of heads, and both of them were due to the shop that did them. We let the same person do both set of heads (1 set of allum. Dart II, 2.05, 1.60 valves, and 1 set of cast iron Dart II, 2.08, 1.60 valves) and the guy put non-roller springs in both of them. Of course we had trouble with sticking valves, luckily, no pistons were damaged.

Ok, took them both sets to a new shop, and the guy done hte heads, done a great job and we had no trouble the rest of the season (al though this problem lasted nearly half that season, it started out as bent push rods, then rocker arms coming off).

This year, we have had terrible luck with our engines (built by the same shop that done the heads, and like you, thsi was the first time anyone put together an engine for us). Ok, the first one must have had a bad set of bearings (not the shop's fault, just faulty products) because the engine was going down before what actually happened to finish it off, lol. I mean every week, it would start out in the low 4.30s (330 ft.) and wind up in the low 4.40s by the end of the night. So it was getting ready to seize up. Ok, in the finals one night, the oil filter came unscrewed, and allowed nearly 4.5 quarts of oil to come out (we only had a 5 quart pan at the time). The engine lost its oil pressure during the week when we were loading it back up (after finding the problem, changing oil, and going wiht anothe rfilter).

2nd engine (the guy made the first one up for us, BTW, all of these engines are/were 406 SBCs). The guy built it, no charge, but failed to tell us tha the internally balanced it (like you normally do a 355) so we put our 400 balancer and flywheel on the engine (had it way way way out of balance) and it spun every main bearing in it, and cracked the block in the lifter valley (we didnt know it had done htis however at the time). The guy replaced it again, no charge (he is really good about backing his stuff), had to replace all bearings and a crank (forged steel, so a pretty big price).

Now, 2nd engine still, on its 2nd overall, took it to the track, immediatly had water in the oil. Engine ran fine however (low to mid 4.30s). Found an intake leak (not tightned all the way on the back drivers side), thoguht we had cured the problem. Next weekend, still had water in the oil, so we assumed it was jus tleft over. Change oil and filter during the week, go back to the track the next weekend, and after one run, the oil is back to milky white, and the car had developped a miss. Take it back to the shop, he discovers the cracked block. So he offers us a deal. He gives us a complete short block of another 406 (flat top engine, freshly overhauled, had previously been ran in some kind of dirt track car, i thikn a limited late model, but may have been a modified) and sold us a set of cast iron Dart Pro 1 heads, that had the chambers filled in smooth (to make up for hte flat top pistons). I think those costed us around $2k, and that is hte engine that is currently in the car (runs low 4.40s when the track is right, with new slicks it woudl be in the mid 4.30s probably, which is about a tenth slower then the other engine-which we now have back on a stand-)

so finally, we have a good engine, that doesn't have any leaks, any knocks, holds good oil pressure (idles on 80 pound, revs to about 95) and has been run problem free (knock on wood!) for the past 3 months, lol.

Its really discouraging when you go over to the track, and only get to run one or two time trials, and then have to load the car up, due to a miss, lost oil pressure, or water in the oil!

chevytrucks92
10-25-2004, 10:17 PM
Those are cool videos by the way. I dont think my car woudl be taht fast (pretty sure it wouldn't, it may do 10.20s, but not 9.20s), lol, but it brings the wheels up (especially the left one) as high as your car does, and by just watching the vids, thats about how it looks going down the track from inside, lol.

I doubt it could go the 1/4 mile, its cranking 6000 rpms in 330 ft. (406 SBC, powerglyde, .513 gear), and the last time at a 1/8th (i wasn't driving it then) it turned 7k at the lights.

What are your 60, 330, and 1/8th times if you don't care to give?

The car I drive would probably do low 6.70s or high 6.60s in the 1/8th (I've never driven in an 1/8th, and the last time when car went through an 1/8th it had a 355 engine-a very strong 355-, and ran 6.71 @ 101 mph)

Zgringo
11-21-2004, 08:46 AM
On my street legal car I get 8-10,000 miles without much hard draging, but never over 1 year use.
On my Pro Import 18-20 runs on GoodYear drag slicks, about 6 months

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