drag radial opinions please

i have the mickey tompsons....even with the blower and lots a torque...i was hooking really good....so thats my vote...ill be getting another set when these are gone...ad i got mine used lol

 

Stay away from the BFG's. I had those 1st, went to the 555R Nitto's next, much better, and can be street driven, but some say loses their sticky to fast. I will try the NT05R Nitto's next, maybe in a 20".

The M/T's, Hoosier and M&H's all have good choices.

The Hoosier's you have listed are not drag radials. They are for autocross.

 

Depends on what size.

The only ones I have seen have success with these on a strip are Jeeps who have em on all 4 wheels...with 315's on the back.

if you want a DR...go with the real deal.

 

They're the best street tire (no snow) you can buy for our cars.
Best for the road track before you get to R compound tires.
Best for the strip before you get to real DR's (but they're not going to compare to real DRs).

I'll be getting my second set towards the end of this month.
They start out with 7/32" of tread (instead of normal 10/32").
They are exceptionally quiet on the street and hiway. Just a hint of singing at about 50mph or so.
Extremely comfortable ride while maintaining exceptional response (no mush when you yank the wheel).
They run a way lower tire pressure than you'd expect.
The couple of times it rained while I still had tread on them they did surprisingly well.
Be prepared to replace at 15K (10K or 12K if you're hard on them).

 

His sig says (if i am reading correctly) manitoba canada...he may need snow haha

 

oh... well... now would not be the time to buy them for street use. And if you're only going to buy 2 for the strip you probably should just get real live DRs... On the other hand, you're risking your half shafts with DRs and not so much with these

 

They have NT-05R's also.

 

I don't think the NT555s are all that well liked? but I don't have much experience with DRs. All the performance mods are in the sig. 13.268 with a 2.024 60'. lol, I can't launch squat :sorry: (the really sad part is that I dialed a 13.27:cry

 

I was one of the 1st with the NT-05's all around, actually before SpringFest 2009. They worked vey well on the street. I'm running the 255 and 275's 20's.
Very impressed with them. Only got to use them for about 450 miles before my fire.

 

I've good about 4K on my NT-05's, they are just about done, but, I LOVE all the Track Days & Canyon (Carving) Cruse's with them.

My $ .02 try, the " R's "

 

If you dont want to break a halfshaft, dont bother with any of these, just stay with a street tire...and even then your not 100% guaranteed that you wont break one.

the NT05's are a good tire (i run them on my car) but I cant hook for crap on them (although i am putting over 500rwhp down) at a track and I can break them loose without even trying on the street as well.

If your going with an 18 or 17" tire and running a low PSI, your going to be putting your halfs at risk (see how many guys were pushed off the track at Atco...and many of them had forged half-shafts...but big HP #'s as well).

Now you may be able to get a number of runs out of your car on 18" NT05's or even the "true" drag radials, but eventually, there is a decent probability that its going to catch up with you and you are going to snap something...even with close to stock HP #'s.

 

I found with the Nitto 555R 20"'ers (Drag Radials) that I could smoke the tires and hold 'em smoking in 3rd practically all the way down the track...until I dropped the tire pressure below 18 or 19 PSIG. Then all I needed was a small burnout and no more tire spin at all...ZERO.

 

I'm thinking about this... Why would a smaller diameter wheel put more stress on the half shafts? Just speculating...

The torque is coming from the driveshaft side so it shouldn't make a difference what's bolted to the hubs. And traction is traction. The half shaft is trying to move the car and that hasn't changed.

With enough torque you're going to break traction or the half shaft depending on the adhesion of your tire to the track. That's just at the contact patch and wouldn't measurably be effected by wheel size right? (in fact, you'd expect a larger diameter tire to have a slightly larger footprint).

It would be the opposite for rotating weight. I'd expect a larger wheel to put more stress on the half shaft. at least until the point you broke traction where they'd be the same (although I can't imagine that being a huge factor).

Only thing that comes to mind is if the smaller wheels are a lot more prone to wheel hop. Would that be it?
A smaller wheel would give you more torque *to the ground* but the torque applied to the half shaft would be the same?
Changing your rear end ratio or trans (in front of the half shafts would effect the torque applied them but on the outside it should only be a matter of how much traction at the contact patch right?