What are the best street tires for hooking up?

[phiebert]

I need to get new rear tires for my '94 RT/10. I've got Nitrous and I've roasted the original Pilot Sports as well as a pair of Drag Radials and a few others.

I'm looking for an all around decent street tire but one that gives reasonable traction so on the odd occasion where I have to destroy a sticker laden, lawn mower powered, 6 cylinders short of a load Honda, I don't just sit on the line for too long.

I was hoping someone was making the 345's that are going to be on the 2003 Viper but I couldn't find anyone. What would you recommend and what is a good price for what you recommend? Thanks.

 

[Venom Lover]

Hmmm, interesting. I guess Michelin is not in full-scale production of the SRT-10 345's yet. In any case, they are runflats, so the jury is still out on how good they will hook up (at least as far as I'm concerned). Besides which, the 345's will be for 19" rims, so that won't do you any good without custom wheels.

You say you've tried drag radials? Which ones? They weren't much better than the Pilots?

Personally, I throw on the ET streets if I'm lookin' for straight-line action! I haven't heard anyone ranting and raving about any street tires or DR's hooking up significantly better than any others. But ET streets is another story! (About $200 each, but of course you need custom rims again....)

I went through this a year and a half ago, and I concluded it wasn't worth messing around with anything other than ET streets. Either go with stock Michelins or ET streets. There's nothing in between that buys you much.

I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[genXgts]

Hey Mike, Ryan again, that's 2 posts to you in a day, glad to see someone is active on the board!!!!
Just to clarify for me, when running your stickies on the street you have to run narrower front 17" stock GTS rims to allow a "good" seal on the bead, I'm a correct here?
If things get serious you blip home, jack it up, swap em, and off you go with the stickies?
Does this look "hokey" with 2" less width on the rim in the back or is it still an agressive look?
Or do they offer the ET streets in a width that'll bead up to stock rear rims?
Thanks,
Ryan

 

[FastMatt]

I am running 345/35R18 sports, thy are taller (27.4" vs 26.1") than the 335/30R18's but hook up much better, I like them, thy fit on my stock ACR wheels, but I bet would work a little better on a 13.5" wheel vs the stock 13"

 

[phiebert]

Matt, who makes that tire and do you know whether they make them in 17 inch? I couldn't find any 345/35's for my wheel size.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

No other drag racers have any comments here? Welch? Levin? Purner the wheel king? I'm looking for a Saturday night "strictly drags" tire setup.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Prashant:
better get some heavy-duty halfshafts before you really start diging in

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Have you known anyone to break the shafts with ETs?

Venom Lover, are you running stock H-shafts?

 

[Venom Lover]

Prashant,
Amen to what you say about ET streets. And good, I'm glad you mentioned the half shafts! One additional caveat on the ET streets is to get some Unitrax or other after-market half shafts.

Chuck,
I am currently running Unitrax half shafts (the "regular" duty ones rated up to 700 hp). I've probably made 50 quarter mile passes on them with ET streets since I got them. I snapped a set of after-market half shafts on steet tires at Carlsbad 2 summers ago!!! However, the half shafts in question were found to have the wrong U-joints, and the vendor (bless his heart) refunded my money and helped cover the damage that was done. If you've ever snapped a half shaft, all I can say is it is a major case of coitus interruptus. Pay the $800 or whatever it is for some heavy duty half shafts to avoid the misery....

One more sales pitch in favor of ET streets: wouldn't it be nice on every pass to be able to do a nice smokey burnout, rev to 4 grand and dump the clutch? Guaranteed to hook every time, unless someone leaves oil at the starting line, it's raining, or your track doesn't believe in VHT. And a similar improvement in traction is available on the street!

 

[phiebert]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Venom Lover:
Guys, my philosophy is this: at least for those of us with 17" rims, there doesn't seem to be a DR that offers a substantial traction gain over Michelin radials. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Venom, I'd have to say that the set up I used for the strip(cheapest for the very occasional racer like me) isn't bad. It's not the safest (mix of tires) but it works alright. I "Stretched" a pair of 315 BF Goodrich Drag Radials onto my stock wheels and left the stock fronts alone. The BFG Drag Radials aren't bad for hooking up, probably somewhere between the ET Streets and stock Pilot Sports. However, they **** big time around corners. They are so soft walled its like rolling around on balloons. I would head out onto the winding roads around my place and cringe because I would fishtail all over the place. So I ended up going with a track racing tire (basically a harder rubber slick) when I felt like taking 100 mph corners and the Drag Radials only for the drag strip. Now I'm just trying to find something inbetween that isn't bad at both but isn't great at either. That may just be the original street tires?

 

[Skip White]

Hi Matt tell us more about the oversize tires. The height increase has to result in major over gearing but but a 3.55 diff. would take care of that and more i supose. how did it affect the ride? and what did it do for the look? I'm sure the traction is a little better with the higher profile. Did you change tire size in the front? Seems to me that a litle taller tire would fill the wheel well in the rear and look good. Are they to wide ,because nothing looks worse than a tire thats to wide for the rim its on,I mean like when the tire bead is sucked way in.Oh and how much were they? Sure hope to hear from Ya

 

[genXgts]

Thanks Mike answered my Q, I think traction seems to be overlooked by alot of casual racers that don't hesitate to drop thousands into exhaust work and then shorten your rear tire life by a season and no difference in acceleration times!

The look of a stocker is long gone with the Purner set up, sweet as they are, although I guess a Viper is not known to be a sleeper reagrdless!
Pat, when you stretched the 315 Drag radials onto stock 17" rims, you did mean the rear rims, correct?
They line up nice on fronts I believe with no beading issues?
til next time,
Ryan

 

[phiebert]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by genXgts:
Pat, when you stretched the 315 Drag radials onto stock 17" rims, you did mean the rear rims, correct?
They line up nice on fronts I believe with no beading issues?
til next time,
Ryan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, on the rears. It took a little pressure to 'pop' them on but I didn't have any problems with them staying inflated. The fact that they were too narrow for the wheel though may have had something to do with their terrible handling in the corners. I didn't really care though, just wanted them for the first 60 feet anyway!

By the way, I still haven't seen too many suggestions for which rear tires are good for street traction. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing a list of all the tires you can get for the Viper 17 inch rear wheels.

 

[Venom Lover]

Patrick,
Looks like your situation may be a little different. I live in LA suburbia, where we don't have 100 mph corners. Well, ok, some lady a month ago thought we did a block away and crashed into a building after taking out a telephone pole. Though I don't think she was on slicks and skinnies....

But anyway, I think the compromise you are looking for is called: Michelin MXX3. Actually, I'm unclear on whether MXX3's or Pilot Sports hook up better in a straight line. MXX3's have a much lower tread wear rating (140 vs. 220 if I recall correctly), but Pilot Sports have lower void ratio and softer sidewalls (hence worse cornering capability -- notice skidpad ratings for the GTS going from ~1.01 with the '96-'97 down to the .97 range these days). But for straight line, are the Pilot Sports better? I think they may have a slight edge. Anyway, what kind of 60' times were you getting on the 315 DRs?

Ryan,
Uh, yeah, I'm not exactly operating in stealth mode to begin with, rolling up with the Borla exhaust note and the white racing stripes. So, ***, Purner slicks and skinnies to round out the picture!

For sure power mods cease making sense after a while if the power cannot be delivered to the ground. At least that is my perspective. BTW, good luck as you get closer to Viper ownership. Let me know if I can help in any way.

 

[Venom Lover]

Ryan,
Now if I actually knew something, maybe my contribution would be worthwhile!

Let me try to clarify: when I'm going drag racing or want straight-line action on the street, I jack the car up and put on Purner's slick and skinny setup. They are 26x11.5-16 Mickey Thompson ET streets in back and Firestone Deluxe Champion 5/5.25-16's on the front. Those are on Purner's custom rims. There are no ET streets that I know of for the stock 17" rims, and you need the skinnies on the front to keep your handling from going to hell (and to get your trap speeds up!). So, it's one or the other: MXX3's all the way around on stock rims, or slicks and skinnies on Purner's rims. Did that answer your question?

FastMatt,
Cool! What kind of short times do you get on the 345's vs. the stock Michelins? You're lucky you started with the 18" rims (and I do love those ACR wheels!), but in Patrick's case, he's looking at new wheels to get your setup. So, I'm just suggesting, if he has to buy new wheels anyway, why not Purner's 16" setup -- cheaper and he can run ET streets.

Guys, my philosophy is this: at least for those of us with 17" rims, there doesn't seem to be a DR that offers a substantial traction gain over Michelin radials. Again, this is not from my personal experience trying different DR's, but from what I heard others saying on this board when I was looking for something stickier, so I am open to hearing results from others. So, we're looking at custom rims to get any real gain. So, why not go for the best traction possible: namely ET streets? Purner's setup is stylish enough, and if you've ever looked at other wheels like HRE, Kinesis, etc., you'll realize that his prices are very good. Now, other than canyon cruises or road racing, I do not need to corner like Michael Andretti, so what do I care if I have skinnies on the front and soft sidewalls on the rear? No, I can't do 1.0 g on the skid pad, but I've never come close to needing any more cornering capability (and I've driven 1 1/2 hrs from my house to the Carlsbad drag strip on the ET streets and skinnies). No problem! So, if you don't want to spend the $2500 for Purners slick/skinny setup, don't waste your money on anything else, just stick with Michelins.

Also, in terms of "the look", I think ET streets and skinnies have a certain "don't f*** with me" kind of look, assuming your opponent knows what he's looking at. If not, he may think it looks weird and you're a dork, but he'll get over that pretty quick when you put 5 car lengths on him instantly off the line.

Oh, one final note. My best short time at Carlsbad (admittedly a slippery track) on MXX3's is 1.9, whereas my best short time at the same track on ET streets is 1.6. As you know, that translates into about half a second of ET at the 1/4. (Pretty much 12.0 on Michelins and 11.5 on ET streets.) If anyone finds DRs or any other tire that buy you three tenths in short time and half a second of ET, I'm all ears!

<FONT COLOR="#ff0000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Venom Lover on 01-06-2002 at 12:52 PM</font>

 

[Prashant]

best tires for "hooking up" :
ET STREETS............Period......end of story
many of our local guys drive around on these things everyday. they are not pretty and you better get some heavy-duty halfshafts before you really start diging in

 

[racewheel]

been away from computer (out at the speedway for the rolex test), kumho just released a 335 35 17 (170 each at tire rack right now) while not a drag radial, it has a much softer sidewall constuction than the old victoracer v700's, should be comparable to 315 drag radials (still no match for the et streets though) but something to consider if trying to reuse some older factory 17's.

 

[phiebert]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Venom Lover:
Patrick,
, what kind of 60' times were you getting on the 315 DRs?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't have my slips around here but I think I didn't get much better than 1.9. I'd have to check though. The track I was on didn't use VHT either.

 

[FastMatt]

skipwhite

the 345's are sports just like the stock tires

I like the look of the 345's, I am running 295/35R18's up FR so yes my FT is a bit taller too.

I dont have any track times on them, the Track is closed here itll march

I am going to be going with 3.33 gears (on order now) that sould give me a little MORE gear than I had with 3.07's and the stock tires..

and no thy are not too wide, I wish thy made like a 375/30R18...