89TPI350

I have a 1989 formula 350 and I really like the weld racing draglite wheels but have only seen them on mustangs. Has anybody seen them on a thirdgen firebird?, I cant find any pics!. Also, will a 4.50 in., or a 4.75in. bolt pattern fit on my car? I have no clue

GarageToys

iTrader: (6)

They look good on thirdgens. You need a 5x4.75 bolt pattern, but the Welds are double-drilled, so they'll have both patterns anyway.

89TPI350

okay cool I made up my mind. Im going to get the draglite because they are super light and I love the muscle car look that they give. Its also very cool how they have both patterns. thankyou

jrsfast84

I have weld draglites on my 84' but i'm going to be changing to the Pro stars, they look better on a white car, what color is your car. JR1.

89TPI350

the car is white primer as we speak but its going to be red as soon as it warms up and its out of storage. I also have a ram air 2 hood, and a 4th gen spoiler sitting in my basement, along with new formula 350 decals. Hopefully everything will go together and look how I think its going to.

Larry Dunlap

Ive got the Prostars. I think both the Draglites and Prostars look great, depends on what look you are going for. If you are going for a big rimmed cruiser then they don't look good. Besides that, to my knowledge they don't come any bigger than 16". I actually went with the 15" due to the increased choices in tires, like ET streets, drag radials, and skinnies for the front. I had to use spacers on the rears as the rims hit the brake caliper, but that was only a few bucks and the fit perfect.

Im going to try and attach a pic of my car. As you should be able to see, Im going for more of a muscle or drag car look and function

89TPI350

wow that is a really nice looking car man. That is the exact look I'm going for with mine. I cant believe how much better the firebird/ camaro look than the mustangs with those rims too. I am going with the 15x8 all the way around with some bf goodrich white letter tires, and trying to get the muscle car look.

Larry Dunlap

Yeah, I actually went with 15x6 on the front so I could put the skinnies on. I was thinking about some MT front runners or that type, but they don't last very long and I do drive the car on the street. These are the VW tires, I forget the size, I could find out if you want. They are plenty skinny and will last like 30,000 or 40,000 miles and only cost like $50 apiece.

Ive got 15 x 8 on the back with the Nitto drag radials. The last ones I had were like 25.x" diameter and I decided to go to the next diameter up. They were actually a lot bigger than I expected, almost 27" and they really look A LOT bigger. I went to some 3.73 gears at the same time so it worked out good.

the tires you are talking about will look good and be more practical for street driving. If you race at the strip you might consider getting a set of ET streets and mount them on some cheap rims and change them at the track so you can hook up. My car is not a daily driver so the Drag Radial work out ok for all the time.

Camaros and Firebirds look way better than Mustangs IN EVERY WAY.

1989GTABlown632

Heres a pic of my car on the left. I have the weld draglite XP series 15x8/w 295/50/R15 on the back and up front 15x6/w 225/50/R15s. This style really sets of a third gen if you like that dragrace look. The right pic is of a member here, hope he doesnt mind me posting it, its such an awsome car. Also you can get this rim in 15", 16", 17" and 18" versions. Crager makes the same rim but with a diffrent center cap if you like cragers and theres have a beedlock. Oh and Larry those pro stars look sweet nice job

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Like it's been said time and again either drag lites or pro stars look exellent on da birdies I run drag lites 15x5 up front and 15x10 oout back. I had one race I wanted to attend but noted plug was low on the slicks so took the pro starts off a buddies malibu and mounted them all the way around on mine, still amazes me what rims do to a car and the pro starts looked killer too, but sincei own drag lites I'm partial LOL!!

The "VW" tires are a 165 series tire and are very short 24"-which will lead to red lights on a car not set up for a short tire and racing. They work fine for a long lasting drag tire, but IMO it's almost too skinney for a street driven car with the weight of a small block sitting on them, but that's just my opinion.

Buy a set of Weld chrome inserts to plug the holes for the other offset drilled holes, this really cleans them up well. I bought a set of Mr gasket chrome plated plastic plugs since they were so cheap, but after awhile they pop out during frequent tire dismountings as associated with drag racing/road racing, but well worth the extra money as opposed to factory shipped red plugs. The draglites are'nt as bad as the pro stars, but there is a chunk of aluminum in the center of the bolt holes to add ridgidity, sometimes getting the shouldered lugs to start without the inserts installed can be a PITA since the aluminum spacer tends to hang down and interfere when threading lugs in.

Couple pics so you know what to expect:

Larry Dunlap

You are right about the VW tires being short. I do drag race and run in the low 13s and haven't noticed a problem with redlighting, but they dont fill up the wheel well and it doesnt look as good as it could. I thought about lowering the front, but I already at about minimum ground clearance with my 3" catback exaust from the SLP headers. I think I will try the front runners to get a better look. I hardly drive the car so the VW tires are practially new. Maybe I can sell them and get some larger skinnies.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Tire size will come into play depending on amount of pwr and car set-up. On our truck for example we ran the same sized front runners as I do on my car. We switched headers and the new headers were fender dumps and took alot of room away, so in order to turn the steering wheel past 1/4 turn we had to drop down to the VW 165 series tire and I've been redlighting ever since with no way to tune it out. I've gone as low as 5psi in the slicks trying to wad'em up for a longer delay before truck moves but to no avail. At the point now I'm seriously considering putting a box in it so I'm done fighting red lights

BT283

iTrader: (3)

i have never seen anyone have a problem with redlighting with skinneys, most of my friends have 15x4 or 3.5s on the fronts of thier cars, and i just got a set for my camaro, in prostars

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Skinney tires are not the problem, tire height is. The taller the tire the longer the roll out (distance it takes to break the beams and determines your reaction time) A short tire will break the beams a few hundredth of a second faster than a taller tire will. So it does'nt matter if the tire is 1" wide or 20" wide since width has no effect on roll out....only height does.

On slower cars it helps to have a shorter front tire, or pump them upwards of 50-60psi to lessen sidewall buldge for a shorter roll out. opposite goes with slowing down R/T, if your on the verge of red lighting, you can deflate the front tires as low as 20 psi to fatten the contact area and give a percieved taller tire since actual contact patch on ground is larger (since tire is "flatter") and takes longer to break the beams. This will not work on all cars since pwr/weight/set-up all come into play and often on bigger hp cars the next "easy" place to slow down R/T's is to deflate the rear slicks so they wrap up more before actually propelling the car forward. We've gone as low as 5psi in the truck slicks and in the car anything over 10 psi I'm red.

I used to be able to fine tune R/T throughout the day for consistant low .50?-.51? with just adding/subtracting 1psi of front tire pressure, then once the car started jerking the tires out of the beam front psi now does nothing and I have to either turn staging rpm up/down to fine tune coupled with rear tire psi.

Fine tuning R/T in a no box car that is light on weight and big on pwr is esspecially trickey since it wants to sheeot and get on the hit so now your left with low staging rpms and/or pulling back timing to drop power hoping to stay green but this is a double edged sword since often the car is set-up to leave this way, and now that your taking away power you open up another can of worms since the car is now dealing with another set of problems with lack of power to shock the tires and chasis into functioning properly.

Long winded, hope it makes things clearer and gives some insight for future reference, but in a nutshell-width means nothing for cutting lights...only heigth.

Will also add in light of info I provided, when guys go to an actual points race they see cars and think to themselves, "boy that thing sounds mean but sure is'nt very fast". Make no mistake, 90% of the cars and good racers have more in them for fast et's, but bracket style racing is not designed for all out passes so many-including myself-actually "detune" the car so it works consistantly. I've had a few people say, "why is you car only running 11.20's, I thought it was faster?" Simple 2 part answer-air in the summer slows you down and makes less power as opposed to ideal fall air we all like to run in for fast slips, AND I have timing pulled back along with running very lean (for consistency since if air changes it does'nt effect the pwer output of the engine as much) so the cars can and often will go faster, but good racers could care less about speed since shoe polish racing is won on consistant ET's and this is THE biggest reason so many cant grasp the consept of brackets and hate it since they cant understand why they lost after running the fastest pass ever and the opponent was standing on the brake pedal It's all about setting up the car so it does the same thing pass after pass after pass and like mine for example-if I have it set up to run ballz out, I would never be close to a green light start.

BT283

iTrader: (3)

Nice!

Larry Dunlap

Very informative on fine tuning RT like that. I had a vague idea about those concepts but I never realized it was that complicated and precise.

Awesome car by the way. How much HP do you figure you are putting to the ground. Im running low 13s on a stock motor with boltons and a TH350.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

LOL, sorry it was long winded but I get's to typing and trying to convey what's in my head to my fingers and it just happens LOL!! and it was'nt unitl I "stepped up" in the class ranks and bigger motor that all of this started to make sense and there was a learning curve involved, luckily i have some great racing buddies that really expediated the learning curve and then it was just trial and error for my application-but the principals are universal. The cars will run what they run if tuned right so I personally always tune for the tree since that is where alot of races are won/loss-since the implication of the new LED lights, R/T's have become soo tight amoung racers you have to tune/practice to make that advantage yours as much as possible. So with what I already stated above, how and where you actually stage will also play a HUGE factor into all of this.

If your racing brackets-PRAY your racing one of these guys that just drives into the beams until the stage light lights up. They have no idea where at on the starting line they are and their R/T 98% of the time will either be really really bad or red-once in awhile they'll get lucky, but the odds are in your favor. If you've done all of the above to your car and still having problems going red-you need to shallow stage (only way to stage IMO) by tripping the pre stage bulbs and then ever so slowly (without autostarting) bumping 1/2"-1" at a time until the stage lights just click on. You need to do this EVERY pass so you have the same consistant starting spot. This is why you notice racers bumping in the way they do...all about consistency. Another thing I do and alot of guys laugh at me until I trailer them, is I check all 4 tires prior to making my pass. If it's sunny outside I dont check anything until last minute-you'd be suprised how quickly the track/staging lane temp and direct sunlight will add air pressure to your tires. I've picked up as much as 2 psi sitting in the lanes on summer days.

If your waay slow on the lights, then you need to deep stage so your further in-this is putting your further away from the beams which will make them trip faster thus giving you a quicker R/T. go ahead and drive in until the stage light is lit, then start bumping in until you just shut off the pre stage lights. Alot of the stock low hp cars I've driven, deep staging is the only way I can cut a consistant low 5 lights without having to shallow stage and leave on the second yellow.

Your car will typically run what it runs, it's tuning the car so you get a good leave on a tight green is where the homework plus trial and error come in along with LOTS and LOTS of practice.

No idea what my car is making for hp. I stopped at a chasis dyno last fall and the numbers are obviously tainted since it said 593ftlb/tq @ 2900rpm and 404hp @ 6100. From a few other buddies with engine dynoed mills and "similar" set-ups I would guess this engine in the 525hp range and 550-575tq area, so subtract roughly 30% of that for pwr to the ground as a rough guesstimate.

F-Bobby

anyone happen to have a pic of a black formula or trans am with the draglites from a side view?

FirebirdDude88

iTrader: (3)

dude that is one SEXY car. i have a red on red 88 firebird v6 5 speed and im goin for that exact same look. i have a 350 v8 im going to drop in it. but what size rear wheels and what size tires are you running?