Hi all,

Have a question for you bracket racers. Would my R/T's be quicker with a 24" front tire vs a 26". Would the smaller tire roll out quicker? I'm thinking I could shave some time off my reaction times with the proper tire. My current front wheel/tire combo is a 15x8 with a 26" tall tire (it wasn't planned properly, I know). I can react to the tree at .530-.560. Not the best but good enough to go a few rounds. I have a buyer for the wheels I have now. I would like some advice on a better combo. I'm thinking a 15x3.5 or 15x4 wheel would be best up front. My rear tire is going to be a 28x12.5-15 Mickey E/T street. Advice on the front tire would be helpful. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Thanks
Aaron

I know of one guy that will change his front tires,go shorter when his reaction times are lacking, then he usually ends up redlighting before its all over. I'd think you are better off trying to stage the same exact way everytime(depth) and go from there.

Robert, thanks for the reply smile.gif ! I do try and stage the same every run. I'll be putting a different set of wheels on my elco, and want to do it right the 2nd time. So I'm considering every angle I can think of. My old rears never had the proper back spacing (I just sold them a half hour ago).

I'm concerned with the front tire diameter and it's effects on roll out. Anyone have any thoughts or experience on the subject?

Thanks again
Aaron

You're right, it quickens your RT, but will reduce your ET and increase your short time slightly; since with the larger tire, your car essentially gets that small "head start" between a shallow stage and un-breaking the beam.

You could experiment at the lights; try staging deeper, since that simulates the effect of a smaller tire.

There's a clue in the numbers you posted though.... .530 - .560 ..... take out the .500 that doesn't couint, an dyou end up with .030 - .060 ..... the uncertainty, or inconsistency, in your RT is almost greater than your best RT itself. I'd be inclined to agree that working on the factors that affect your RT, in order to keep it more consistent, would be a better idea before trying to "tune" your start with tire size. You can't tune something that's inconsistent; it has to do the same thing every time, otherwise, you just end up chasing your tail.

I stage deep because my personal and car RT is soo bad. But how deep is deep? It's a crapshoot to stage the same each time. Just more passes. Go to Irwindale on Thursday afternoons (get there early I mean) get in a bunch of short passes, just for the tree practice. Seat time is the key. Just because I don't do it well doesn't mean I don't know how to get there!

Aaron, are you really going to use a 12.5" tire? A 9" should be enough. You don't need anything bigger than enough. Any extra width will slow you down.

What you ideally want to do is pick a place on the tree that you can consistently react to and a method you can consistently stage at.

Then you make the car react so that you get the light you want. Changing how you react or reacting to a different point on the tree is more difficult.

That is the benefit of a delay box. You react on a given bulb and tailer the box for the RT you want. If you don't have a box you make the car do the same and tire height is one method.

in a slightly related topic. How do I get the car to react quicker? I started leaving in the second bulb beacuse the RT was so bad. It take like a whole second for my Blazer to roll out.

a 12.5 ET street is a 10.5" tread width tire.

Smaller Front tires will make for Quicker R/T's if you are shallow staging, tire size does not effect deep stagers.

A smaller front tire, thus lowering the front end will also put more of the weight on the front of the car (tilting the car forward changes the bias), and could possible make for a more inconsistantly hooking car, if you're borderline.

Thanks guys for your particpation on this thread. Looking through a catalog I see some different sizes listed. I'm considering a 28 or 26 inch tall tire. My rears are going to be a 28 inch so I'm leaning towards the 26 to keep the consistency as posted be Motor Martyr. Anyone???

Pat, the guy who I bought the tire from confirmed what Brian (Motor Martyr) said above. graemlins/waving.gif