HI all, I went to the track last night with my 66 and could not get a launc at all on my BFG radial TAs. They simply boiled. I have a 4 speed and 350 with about 360hp and tried many launch ideas, all to no avail. I am looking to find what tire would be my best option for traction but not really looking for a full drag slick as I also run the car on the street on sunny days.

b.f. goodrich drag radials, work awesome at the track or on the street.

Make sure you drive around the water box. With a treaded tire you will have some moisture between the treads and totally inconsistent launches.

How much pressure are you running? Too low of pressure will cause tire wadding (the tire rolling up onto itself) and minimize the contact patch. Too high of pressure and you minimize the contact patch creating a lack of friction. I'd probably start around 24psi.

If you can explain a little more about the symptoms of your traction loss that would be helpful. Wheel hop, straight up tire spin or unloading after the initial hit. Knowing the traction aids and suspension components may explain this away as a suspension issue as opposed to tires. Forinstance if you're using a front sway bar, lose it while your at the track.

With the amount of horsepower you're pushing, I think it's important to make sure everything else is in line before you start switching them out. You'll certainly go faster with a set of Hoosier quick times or the like, but more than likely you'll find much more traction lying elsewhere.

I didn't have much luck with BFG DRs. They would sometimes hook and then not. I could have lived with the 2+ second 60' times but they were very inconsistent (2.25 one pass and 1.96 the next, same pressure and burn out). I did find that broiling them up really well in the water box helped a bit. Going to a real slick netted almost .4 of a second 60' improvement. If you want a DOT tire, Micky's are very popular where I race. Hoosier QTP's work pretty well, too. T/A's just don't hook at all. I doubt there is much that can be done to make them do so.

I did go around the water box. I ran 24lbs of pressure. No wheel hop, just spun as soon as I dumped the clutch. Tried to launch at 3000 and not push gas but then it bogged when I would push the pedal at 3 grand after the launch then it would still break loose as soon as I did push the pedal. No front sway bar. 3.08 gears with posi and only mod was to box my lower control arms to stop the wheel hop. (thats all it took to stop the wheel hop too!!)
Thaks to all of you for your advice! any help is appreciated

The softer compounds of Mickey Thompsons ETs or Hoosiers Quick Times should help. If you can borrow a set of slicks, for a run or two that would probably answer some more questions.

The only other thing I would recommend is a pair of adjustable upper trailing arms so you can adjust your pinion angle to around -4 degrees. Measure the crank shaft angle (let's say -2) then adjust the pinion (in this case -2). Don't measure the drive shaft angle.

With the 3.08 gears you are asking a lot of a set of street tires. Final drive line ratio puts you mid-30mph on launch. The bog on launch suggests your engine would like a lot more gear to get it into it's power band. Without knowing all the particulars, 3.73 or higher gears gets you into the high 20mph range and gives your tires an opportunity to stick.

I hope this helps.

John

Thanks for the help! jonpop I understand most of what you are telling me so thanks. I am not tryng to be superfast. I would just like to hit into the 13s eventually as I find out what I need to do. Traction is terrible though so thought I would start there.

You're welcome. With some work on getting your car to hook, you should be able to get into the 13s. Good luck and keep us posted.

John

With the old motor I had my best 60ft with BFG drag radials @1.64, 1.66 with slicks, I ran 18psi in them and loved them, cept they didnt last long on the street and track both. I want to try a set of drag radials with the new combo to see if they compare with the 30x9x15 Hoosier radial slicks that I'm running now. I don't think so.