Drag Radials?

[SoFloSHO]

A lot of folks at the track suggest I run drag slicks. I hardly ever spin off the launch and if I do its for maybe a split second. My 60 ft time is usually in the 1.8 range. I'm not against the idea, but would they shave off some 60 ft time?

 

[SM105K]

A lot of folks at the track suggest I run drag slicks. I hardly ever spin off the launch and if I do its for maybe a split second. My 60 ft time is usually in the 1.8 range. I'm not against the idea, but would they shave off some 60 ft time?

What tires, how is the track prep, do you have stock torque mounts?

 

[SoFloSHO]

What tires, how is the track prep, do you have stock torque mounts?

Goodrich G-forces that were on when I bought it, surprisingly still in good condition. The prep is good but not perfect, cant complain about it. Stock torque mounts.

 

[SM105K]

Have you played with tire pressure? Do you go around the water box? What RPM are you launching at?

Personally I run the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06's. My SHO has gone 1.77 to the sixty foot with stock tq mounts and stock flower wheels. I ran 26 psi in the front, and 40 psi in the rears. Didn't have much slip and my car was making 391 hp/470 tq at the time.

Since then, I have lighter and wider wheels (same tires), AD Gen2 Torque Mounts (these have made a huge difference on the street), and more power. I haven't been to the track since the upgrades however. If prep is good, I would think another .10 would be reasonable putting me into the high 1.60's with street tires.

I would look into torque mounts and play with tire pressures first before buying a set of radials. Without a shadow of a doubt the TQ mounts are the best thing you can do for the launch of your SHO and for the 1-2 and 2-3 shift.

I would advise against slicks, because being AWD is it almost impossible to get them warm, unless you have the ability to turn off your RDU with an interrupter switch. Also I think if you could the slick hot, it would bog the car IMHO.

 

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

I agree with above

 

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

Good summer tires are the ticket, slicks not work. Cheater slicks just on my front bogged my car. Mounts sticky summer tires low pressure and good air with good track prep...

 

[SoFloSHO]

I was thinking the same think about slicks. The idea didn't really make much sense to me. I haven't messed with tire pressure yet but will def have too next time. Thanks for the info.

 

[bpd1151]

Problem with our platform, of particular note being the AWD......

Just no real ability to warm up slicks. As a result, those that have used them in the past, found it self defeating and to *NOT* prove beneficial.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[yaycandy]

Have you played with tire pressure? Do you go around the water box? What RPM are you launching at?

Personally I run the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06's. My SHO has gone 1.77 to the sixty foot with stock tq mounts and stock flower wheels. I ran 26 psi in the front, and 40 psi in the rears. Didn't have much slip and my car was making 391 hp/470 tq at the time.

Since then, I have lighter and wider wheels (same tires), AD Gen2 Torque Mounts (these have made a huge difference on the street), and more power. I haven't been to the track since the upgrades however. If prep is good, I would think another .10 would be reasonable putting me into the high 1.60's with street tires.

I would look into torque mounts and play with tire pressures first before buying a set of radials. Without a shadow of a doubt the TQ mounts are the best thing you can do for the launch of your SHO and for the 1-2 and 2-3 shift.

I would advise against slicks, because being AWD is it almost impossible to get them warm, unless you have the ability to turn off your RDU with an interrupter switch. Also I think if you could the slick hot, it would bog the car IMHO.

DWS06’s are all seasons. Would a better summer only performance tire get better results?

 

[SM105K]

DWS06’s are all seasons. Would a better summer only performance tire get better results?

Not from my experience. I love the Conti's. They do everything I want them to all the time.

 

[Jordan_R]

Everything on adjusting tire pressure mentioned about. I run a radial drag pack on my car and have gotten my best 60 foot times, but only after adjusting everything further. My best 60ft with my all seasons on the car was a 1.74 or so and best with the radials is a 1.67. So improvement with radials is there all things equal in the amount of effort you put into maximizing your traction before hand, but being in the 1.8s I am sure you can get into the 1.7s before buying a devoted tire for the car.

 

[802SHO]

I run the Conti Extreme DW tires and my best ever is a 1.72. I haven't quite mastered my launch but I don't think much can be improved with a 300 series tire. A tire upgrade at this point seems to make sense.

 

[PaulTAutoX]

Here's what I posted in another thread a while back:

<A few years back one of the mags, maybe Grassroots Motorsports did a comparo on basic "good" street tire
vs. autocross-grade Summer top level street tire
vs. drag radials.
As I recall there were a couple of tenths acceleration advantage as you stepped up each level in that order. But they couldn't test multiple brands of each type of course.

The DWS06 being an all-season has less rubber on the road, higher void %, than a Summer tire, all else being equal, and the rubber won't be quite as soft/grippy WHEN WARM. (If you're racing at 40 degrees F the DWS06 will totally out-grip a Summer type, and you're not even supposed to drive on the latter when it's freezing. I had a set of the previous-gen DWS.) So if you don't need all-season, I think a PS4S though not cheap is going to have more grip and per Tire Rack the Conti ECS is very close, again a Summer tire. If you need all-season, I really liked the handling of the previous version of Michelin A/S3+, and per Tire Rack they have a little more performance than the DWS06.

If you can stand higher harshness, the full on Bridgestone RE71R is stickier than any of those on curvy tracks. Unsure about drag traction but its braking is also better, and that's just acceleration reversed right? Tire Rack test, the RE71R stopped a BMW in 78 ft from 50 MPH which is ~1g average, higher than even a Gen 4 accelerates.

All that said, I don't have drag experience nor a Gen 4 and don't know if the sidewall issues mentioned have that much impact.>

Update - a 1.8 second 60 ft is a little over 1 g, a 1.6 second is 1.46 g, so I was off there, but in any case RE-71R's will out-grip DWS06's, which will stop the BMW in 88 ft rather than 77 (new test). So if you are just going for the drags, and are OK with a tire that has to be changed in winter, the RE-71R is grippier, but the sidewall won't bend as much as tires not optimized for track day. And it will be noticeably harsher in daily driving than the DWS06.

 

[yaycandy]

Here's what I posted in another thread a while back:

<A few years back one of the mags, maybe Grassroots Motorsports did a comparo on basic "good" street tire
vs. autocross-grade Summer top level street tire
vs. drag radials.
As I recall there were a couple of tenths acceleration advantage as you stepped up each level in that order. But they couldn't test multiple brands of each type of course.

The DWS06 being an all-season has less rubber on the road, higher void %, than a Summer tire, all else being equal, and the rubber won't be quite as soft/grippy WHEN WARM. (If you're racing at 40 degrees F the DWS06 will totally out-grip a Summer type, and you're not even supposed to drive on the latter when it's freezing. I had a set of the previous-gen DWS.) So if you don't need all-season, I think a PS4S though not cheap is going to have more grip and per Tire Rack the Conti ECS is very close, again a Summer tire. If you need all-season, I really liked the handling of the previous version of Michelin A/S3+, and per Tire Rack they have a little more performance than the DWS06.

If you can stand higher harshness, the full on Bridgestone RE71R is stickier than any of those on curvy tracks. Unsure about drag traction but its braking is also better, and that's just acceleration reversed right? Tire Rack test, the RE71R stopped a BMW in 78 ft from 50 MPH which is ~1g average, higher than even a Gen 4 accelerates.

All that said, I don't have drag experience nor a Gen 4 and don't know if the sidewall issues mentioned have that much impact.>

Update - a 1.8 second 60 ft is a little over 1 g, a 1.6 second is 1.46 g, so I was off there, but in any case RE-71R's will out-grip DWS06's, which will stop the BMW in 88 ft rather than 77 (new test). So if you are just going for the drags, and are OK with a tire that has to be changed in winter, the RE-71R is grippier, but the sidewall won't bend as much as tires not optimized for track day. And it will be noticeably harsher in daily driving than the DWS06.

Yea i always have summer and winter tires. I have all seasons on now, just wondering what strictly summer tire works best for people on here. So far the firehawks all seasons definitely out grip the tigerpaws. Goodyear is crap, even ask Nascar and other racers lol but i have conti extreme summer contacts on my other cars and even their extreme winter contacts and ive always loved them. They are also the soles on my boots . And i didnt fall yet

 

[SoFloSHO]

Here's what I posted in another thread a while back:

<A few years back one of the mags, maybe Grassroots Motorsports did a comparo on basic "good" street tire
vs. autocross-grade Summer top level street tire
vs. drag radials.
As I recall there were a couple of tenths acceleration advantage as you stepped up each level in that order. But they couldn't test multiple brands of each type of course.

The DWS06 being an all-season has less rubber on the road, higher void %, than a Summer tire, all else being equal, and the rubber won't be quite as soft/grippy WHEN WARM. (If you're racing at 40 degrees F the DWS06 will totally out-grip a Summer type, and you're not even supposed to drive on the latter when it's freezing. I had a set of the previous-gen DWS.) So if you don't need all-season, I think a PS4S though not cheap is going to have more grip and per Tire Rack the Conti ECS is very close, again a Summer tire. If you need all-season, I really liked the handling of the previous version of Michelin A/S3+, and per Tire Rack they have a little more performance than the DWS06.

If you can stand higher harshness, the full on Bridgestone RE71R is stickier than any of those on curvy tracks. Unsure about drag traction but its braking is also better, and that's just acceleration reversed right? Tire Rack test, the RE71R stopped a BMW in 78 ft from 50 MPH which is ~1g average, higher than even a Gen 4 accelerates.

All that said, I don't have drag experience nor a Gen 4 and don't know if the sidewall issues mentioned have that much impact.>

Update - a 1.8 second 60 ft is a little over 1 g, a 1.6 second is 1.46 g, so I was off there, but in any case RE-71R's will out-grip DWS06's, which will stop the BMW in 88 ft rather than 77 (new test). So if you are just going for the drags, and are OK with a tire that has to be changed in winter, the RE-71R is grippier, but the sidewall won't bend as much as tires not optimized for track day. And it will be noticeably harsher in daily driving than the DWS06.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm in south FL so I could prob run a summer tire year round while getting better performance than my current all seasons.