I was looking into dedicated tires and rims for the drag strip and was wondering if anyone runs slicks in the rear and stock tires in the front? I have heard not to mix tires but was wondering with higher pressure if it was safe or should I run drag radials. I have a 2011 5.0 manual with 3.31 gears, tune and BMR lower control arms.

 

Drag radials + manual tranny = broken parts. You need to run a slick.

 

Why is that? You'd think slicks will get more traction therfore being hard on the drive train.

 

If something is gonna break with DRs, them expect the same parts to break with slicks . . . if not more. Get some DRs, and have some fun!!

 

Yeah, the slicks are going to do more damage--if any damage is done--to your drive train. DR's will spin more than slicks.

If you're getting dedicated rims, then I assume you're going to eventually want to make this more than just a once-a-month thing. If so, look at wheels made specifically for drag racing, including skinnies up front. Those and drag slicks are going to run you a good bit more than DR's so I'd save for them. In the mean time, find some good DR's that will fit under your car, mount them on some inexpensive, reputable one-piece wheels and run the stock tires/wheels up front to learn and have some fun.

 

Not on a manual. The wrinkle effect of a slick is far more forgiving.
Wrong. A slick will be more forgiving.
Wrong. See above.


It sounds like some of you guys don't have any experience in drag racing.

 

Drag slicks are more forgiving and better suited for a manual. How much sway is there on the big end with slicks in the back and radials in the front?

 

I have plenty of experience. The wrinkling of the slick only goes so far. Once it's wrinkled, the force is transferred to the drive train. It's not rocket science. The only way the drive train is spared from excessive force is if the tire spins on the track. Slicks, properly warmed up, do not do this. There's a reason the shop I go to has had to replace more rear ends and linkages on 5.0's and 5.8's due to people running slicks at the drag strip with stock equipment than anything else.

 

Like I said, you have little to no experience here.

 

I do, raced a few times in a regional UMTR series and made quite a few passes on DRs. And with mostly stock setups, I've seen things break that shouldn't and things break that should with DRs and slicks. I guess my point was if something is going to break . . . it's going to break. The delta isn't that far between DRs and slicks.

 

That "spinning" is what is is going to break your drive train as it hops over all the rubber on the track. There's nothing more scary than when you start spinning and you feel the rear end of the car bouncing around. Slicks have no way near the same amount of wheel hop when they spin.

And spinning is not a "reason" that DR's will supposedly cause less damage. A radial on a well prepped track is likely to dead hook as easily as a slick. So if dead hooking is the criteria you are using to determine whether a radial or a slick is more likely to cause an issue, then again, there is no difference because a radial can and will dead hook the same as a slick on a well-prepped track.

The difference is the amount of wrinkle which absorbs some of the energy and doesn't transfer it straight back up into the rear end. Think about. Running in cheap flat shoes is more likely to cause damage to knees than air Jordan's are. Some of the downward force of the energy from your body is transferred into the shock absorbing components of the shoe. A cheap shoe that can't transfer that energy will just return it right back up into your body.

It's the same as with a soft tire vs. a hard tire.

 

Wheel spin is easier on the drive train than hooking right up in a DR or slick.

As for calling someone out publicly stating they have no experience, that isn't cool either.

Arrogant to assume you know enough about someone from a post or two to pass judgement on someone.

Any who. Build enough HP and when a car hooks up crap breaks.

 

Except, wheel spin won't occur on a decently prepped track whether you have DR's or Slicks. But also, wheel spin isn't the issue. Yes wheel spin alone is much less stressful, but with wheel spin pretty much always comes wheel hop from bouncing on the rubber left on the track and the patches of green track surface and prep.

 

I have never experienced wheel hop in any of my cars from excessive spin.

Before you say anything about experience. I used to race a Thunderbird SC that had an IRS in the rear and that car probably had hundreds of passes on it. The suspension on that car was set up well and never gave wheel hop and I used to spin those tires like crazy (and I ran both DR's and slicks on that car). Prepped track or not if I didn't launch that car properly those tires spun like crazy. There was one pass the tires **** near spun the entire length of the track. I stayed in it just to see what would happen. Again no wheel hop.

Any who. Just saying wheel hop and tire spin aren't always hand in hand. Not saying it doesn't happen. Again just saying not all the time. Lots of variables.

 

then you've been lucky enough to race only on tracks that have been scraped really well and have never been torn up by street cars. I have probably close to a thousand passes with all types of DR's and slicks. I race on multiple tracks and some are far worse than others. But almost always wheel hop comes with spin. Unless it's a completely green track that doesn't have rubber on it yet, you WILL bounce around. Wheel hop is not something you "control". You are very much at the mercy of the track and what the other cars have done to the track. That's why I stopped running DR's. I run both bracket races and T-N-T's. On race days, traction was never an issue with DR's. But I could never run on a track that had many street cars running down it with DR's without experiencing spin and wheel hop. And I could never run on mediocre prepped tracks without experiencing the same. Especially tracks that didn't scrape and drag on a weekly basis. Those are the worst tracks for experiencing wheel hop.

 

But regardless, if you using the only criteria that "dead hooking" is what causes breakage, then it's not a valid argument against slicks because you can dead hook just as easily on a well prepped track with DR's as you can with slicks.