When are the sidewalls done?

I talked with a record holding drag radial racer and he said that he can tell with his data logger. When he starts seeing the driveshaft rpm getting higher on the top end it's time to let them go. he told me this while I was looking at a set that still had the nipples. I think he said they lasted about three events.

ORSCA events are a great place to find used drag radials if you have a car that doesn't make 2,500-3,000hp.

jones wrote:I talked with a record holding drag radial racer and he said that he can tell with his data logger. When he starts seeing the driveshaft rpm getting higher on the top end it's time to let them go. he told me this while I was looking at a set that still had the nipples. I think he said they lasted about three events.

ORSCA events are a great place to find used drag radials if you have a car that doesn't make 2,500-3,000hp.

I wish our guys would let us run radials. I would love to put a set on to see how they feel. I really don't like the big end on the little slicks at all and our car goes straight as an arrow.

On the ole Maverick that I had we could go about 250-300 passes on a set but that was only running 11.30's. It was a leaf spring low horsepower 302 on 28x10.5 MT's. The sixty foot fell of but it would still be consistant as hell on every pass at each race but not race to race.

I have never tried bias ply's and from what I here everyone talk about, they tend to move the car around on the top end.
Can you not run the Mickey Thompson "Drag" radial? It looks just like the regular slicks except it is a radial design. Only differeance is it has "radial" molded into the tire. I hear that a flap wheel on a grinder will remove it pretty easy!

jones wrote:I have never tried bias ply's and from what I here everyone talk about, they tend to move the car around on the top end.
Can you not run the Mickey Thompson "Drag" radial? It looks just like the regular slicks except it is a radial design. Only differeance is it has "radial" molded into the tire. I hear that a flap wheel on a grinder will remove it pretty easy!

If they made a 29.5x10.5 or a 30x10.5 I would. I've tried to let us run the 295/55 or 295/65 tires but they think they are too big. I have had the 295/55's on my wheels and they are basically the same as the 28x10.5 slicks. I run a 12 inch wide wheel so they think my tires are too big anyway because they "look" bigger than the same tires on their wheels.

I get around 230 passes on a set of 17x32's and have won a race on cords, but all are different. How much air you run will make a difference in the side wall breaking down. The lower you run typically it will break down sooner. With a glide I just haze them now hell I may get 300 this year

You guys that only put 30 passes on 14-32's, save the rest for me.I put another 150 passes on them.

BIGDOG466 wrote:I get around 230 passes on a set of 17x32's and have won a race on cords, but all are different. How much air you run will make a difference in the side wall breaking down. The lower you run typically it will break down sooner. With a glide I just haze them now hell I may get 300 this year

This holds true for me also, except the cord part. I ran 8 1/2 cold in 14X32 and 16X32 on the Mustang and sometime down to 7 3/4. If tires feel "squirrly" at mid track and top end, there is not enough air in them or the tire is not big enough to start with.