Drag Radials
 

We are going to put a radial slick on our car for the first time. Any suggestions on tire pressure to start with? we run about 14.5 with the regular good year 28x9 slick on a 8 in wheel.. will be going to the 30x9 goodyear radial still on an 8 in wheel.

this is an 88' mustang around 3100ish pounds 60's in the low 1.60 range @ 6000 DA as of now but we changed the rear gear from 4.88 to 5.13 as well. so I don't know what the 60's will be with the 28x9 until next weekend then we'll run the slick after we have a baseline with the old tire..

thanks guys
Brad

Re: Drag Radials
 

typically 5 psi higher than your typical bias slick pressure is a good starting point and you'll go higher from there.

That said, if this car didn't work before, it will be worse with radials.

Re: Drag Radials
 

Car works great 60's within .010 all day just trying some new stuff.

What kind of burnout should I do with the radials? Bigger smaller or the same as with the bais slick?

Re: Drag Radials
 

I would put them on 10" wheels. I used to run 9"X30" Hoosiers when I was bracket racing mine. Mine hooked better with more air on the 10" than on 8" wheels. Fastest passes it made on those were with 23 to 25 psi. They were well over a tenth quicker than same size bias tires, A-B-A (back-to-back-to back) same night.

Re: Drag Radials
 

bias or radial, many do too long a burnout. Tires need to be cleaned, not heated or worse boiled.

My burnouts are no more than 4 seconds.

Been running radials for the past 14 seasons and ain't ever seen a tenth no mind quicker with my BBC cars.

Re: Drag Radials
 

18-22 lbs should work, you should see .08-.12 quicker et in a low hp car. Radials don't grow, you should see around the same finish line rpm or slightly less than the 28" bias tire. The car will feel different with the radials, more like a street tire. They're great until they spin, then your done for the day. If your bracket racing on a marginal track stick with the bias tires.

Re: Drag Radials
 

Ed,

we debated between the 8 and the 10 inch wheel the 8 just seems like it is going to be easier to make fit and we are only going in the mid to low 12's so we wanted a smaller footprint on the ground.. if we made the power you did no question we would have gone with the 10 inch tire. This is all new to us... only ever ran a bias slick so 20 23 25 all seems like wayyy to much air.. haha heck the 14.5 we have in the bias tire is way more than we usually run.

1320.. were only looking for .05.. any more than that is icing on the cake.. but we've heard from several.... lets estimate on the low side and say 25 people with multiple combos and all have told us we could see up to a full .15 faster... maybe youre doing something wrong.. just saying

Brad

Re: Drag Radials
 

Absolutely agree............I just chuckle when you see a door car do a "John Force" type burn out. A waste of time and money.

Re: Drag Radials
 

radials were worth .7 on my mustang. 22-25lbs worked great with hardly any burnout. see smoke, roll out!

Re: Drag Radials
 

What width wheel did you run bob? And what size tire were you going from before the radial? 28 or 30?

Brad

Re: Drag Radials
 

Just something to think about.....I have radials for the Dart....but I now run it on Bias...for a couple of reasons..first of all, I don't "need" the ET (avoid heads up races) and secondly, the Dart gets scary at the big end with the radials and bias front tires. I had heard that before and said BS.....but, when I switched to bias slicks, the car went straight, but a few hundreths slower. On our stocker, we use 9X30 radials with bias fronts and have zero problems. I really can't explain it...you would think that a narrower radial on the stocker would be squirlier (spell check says that isnt a word....lol) than a wide radial on a super stocker.
My conclusion is that a 9 inch radial on a 10 inch rim is optimum for the tire size. (Radial). A 10 inch rim is also the best for a 10.5 X 30 radial. When you get to radials that are 13.5 or 14 wide, you have to use a 14 inch wheel. Anything narrower will cause you to reduce tire pressure to get it to hook......but my experience has been the using this wide tire on a 12 inch wheel is that you will "burn out" the center of the tire.

Hope this helps.

Re: Drag Radials
 

It's a safe bet I've made more passes on radial slicks than anyone who has or will post here on this subject. I've also been 1.28 60 foot on 30 x 10.5 radial slicks with my former 3880 lb. ride and 1.17 60 foot on 32 x 13.5 radial slicks with my current 3144 lb. ride, both footbrake launched, both legal stock and super stock cars respectively sans engine and both with more power under the hood than the majority of stock and super stock cars. The only thing maybe I'm doing wrong is offering 1st hand advice based on 14 seasons and thousands of passes made on radial slicks, to you.

Re: Drag Radials
 

Full of yourself....yet again.

Re: Drag Radials
 

What part of the TRUTH and the FACTS don't you like?

Re: Drag Radials
 

Some of us have only been doing this 50 years, and have been quicker that that in 60' on 9" radials foot braking. But what the heck do we know? Guess since we don't cut & paste that same screed into every other post......

Re: Drag Radials
 

Ed's problem is that he was recently banned from yet another forum....this one intended for kids who race. So now, this is his only playground. Best thing to do is just ignore him and hope he goes away. WE all know he is full of it.

Re: Drag Radials
 

1. I was not banned from another forum

2. I've been posting here for 6 years, you on the other hand registered 4 months ago with an agenda, having 3 total posts here to date in the past 8 weeks of which 2 are in response to my replies.

3. if you only had the balls to say to my face what you type on a message board hiding behind a screen name!

WE all know people like you, nobodies with opinions that have nothing and done nothing!!

Re: Drag Radials
 

Don't have a picture of it to post, but this morning Todd Patterson just went 1.270 in 60' at Vegas, foot braking on 9" tires in the 2012 COPO Camaro Stocker I'm helping tune that he is driving for Husky Liners.

Re: Drag Radials
 

quick 60 foot for sure but one would hope that a ~ 3200 lb. purpose built, hand built, $100,000 stocker, whose prototype was designed/engineered by MPR, a car that is nearer to $125,000 going down the track, powered by a purpose built EFI 427 SBC designed specifically for this car, for stock/super and which is the result of 50+ years of R &D and that makes more power than any factory BBC, would be able to achieve that 60 foot.

Not so impressive when you consider that my former ride, a production passenger car designed/engineered prior to 1968, built on an assembly line in early '68, that accumulated over 100,000 street miles before being restified over 2 years starting in late '85 that upon completion, sat under a cover for 4 years before being transformed into a weekend street/strip car with bolt on parts that 6 years ago 60 footed 1.28 off the footbrake while weighing 3880 lbs. and still retaining it's full factory interior including the factory console and staple shifter along with power steering, power brakes, tilt wheel as well it's ALL steel body and bumpers.

BTW, my Chevelle 60 footed/ET the same on 9" radials as it did 10.5".

Re: Drag Radials
 

Now here's a guy with an ego of enormous proportions! I'm surprised you never "hit it big" on Pinks!

Re: Drag Radials
 

Again, what part of the TRUTH and the FACTS don't you like?:p

Re: Drag Radials
 

Always good for a laugh. LOL

Re: Drag Radials
 

We start at 20 on our DOT drag radials and go up from there based on track conditions. If you can slip into the 22ish range as stated earlier you'll be better off. Keep bumping it up until it spins and then come back down. From my experience they don't need much of a burn-out. Ours are Hoosier 28" x 11" x 16" on a 3200lb. C5 that runs mid 11s with a 1.53 60'. I've never noticed any "dancing" on the top end (only 113mph) with bias ply front tires but I've heard that before. We really like the Hoosiers and have used them on other cars before. Even though they say DOT it's pretty much a slick with two very thin narrow grooves.

Scott

Re: Drag Radials
 

Son of a B.........Now that you mentioned it, it was 50 years ago, this year, that I raced in my first NHRA race at Flightland north of Omaha. I guess that if I haven't had enough sense to stop by now, I might as well do it for the rest of my life....LOL

Oh, but we didn't have radials then, as you know, we used 7 inch cheaters that we usually had to put on jack stands and file them down.....I still have the scars... And I am sure that my 56 Chevy went faster than a 1.27 60 ft.....but we just didn't have any short times then..LOL

Re: Drag Radials
 

even though this thread's title is "drag radials" the op is not asking about DOT tires, rather radial slicks.

Re: Drag Radials
 

These guys are funny....

here's what I can say and know for truth

78 Volare 318 auto at 3375 lbs on same day same track went from 12.68 w/ 15 lbs in bias ply to Hoosier Radial at 20 lbs and picked up 7 and 1/2 hundredths. went 12.605 .
Air ,wind,driver BS all same.

Hope this goes to your original question.

Re: Drag Radials
 

truthfull info for sure scott and typical results with low HP/low torque light weight cars.

Re: Drag Radials
 

Which is exactly what kind of car we are about to put these on.. mr 1320 I dont know you from adam but I do know that I have posted some pretty specific info on what my car is/has/does.. you may have 3 million runs with radials but when im talking about a 9" tire in a lighter weight(3100lbs) car with very little power.. Hence the 1.60 short times... I dont know why you feel yhe need to tell me about your 1.28 60ft in your huge tire car with a big block weighing more than my car.. whether you think its stock or super stock legal except the motor is irrelavent.. it doesnt even help the slightest.. then we have guys coming on here giving relavent info and I have to weed through all your **** to find my answers cause you think we all race to the first damn cone... I appriciate you trying to be helpful but for future posts id rather you left your opinions out of my threads.. thanks

Brad

Re: Drag Radials
 

not all, only the stock/super stock racers that have and are winning multiple national and divisonal events as well world championships!:p

Re: Drag Radials
 

Jump on in to Class Racing....the water is fine.

Re: Drag Radials
 

I think, mainly, people don't like that you're a cocky asshole.

Re: Drag Radials
 

What Andrew Said !!!!!!!! :cool::cool::cool:

Re: Drag Radials
 

hey 1320racer don't forget about my PM, thanks

Re: Drag Radials
 

I dont know how many national, divisional, or world championships you've won..but the only thing a fast 60 ft is gonna get you is a nice class trophy and 30 points when you load up after round one cause you were racing to the first cone.. I runner upd at the firebird national last year dialing index in all but the last 2 rounds... my bro driving the same car again runner upd at the firebird national this year.. have you looked at the qualifying sheet and compared it to the winners of the events lately.. unless the winner drives a new underfactered factory bullet they usually aren't collecting the win with the fastest bullet or 60 ft at the track.. but keep wishing that will get you a world championship... oh wait you cant even show up and race with us I forgot..

Re: Drag Radials
 

Like Rodney Dangerfield, just gets no respect . LOL

Re: Drag Radials
 

I am sure it will be disputed,but if you have never run radial tires,I think you will find that your reaction times will improve over the bias tires.

Re: Drag Radials
 

Yeppers, that too.

Re: Drag Radials
 

I know that it probably hurt a little for your brother to lose in the finals to Zack Torres....As I am sure you know, Zack's dad is a close friend of mine and he his fighting for his life with cancer. That win probably added weeks if not months to Toby's life.....PS...it has been a year since diagnosed and Toby is still going....Fist's Up Cancer

Re: Drag Radials
 

It always hurts to get so close.. especially after I had runner upd the year before... but there is no way I could have been happier for Zach and the whole Torres family.. they had like 100 people there rooting him on that day and it was just an amazing story. To be in the other lane was an honor and we wish Toby nothing but the best! Definently a horrible situation but what a way to ease the pain for that family a little bit. I just hope Zack isn't in the other lane again this year its gotta be our turn haha.

Brad

Re: Drag Radials
 

An awesome comment, Brad...you are a class act...thank you..