Im gonna be running on 255 rear tyres/tires and gonna be producing alittle over 400hp has anyone got any experience of what traction im likely to get? What sorta modifications give big improvements, Im not on a budget as such but gotta keep it reasonably sensable. Im looking at trying to keep the width to 255 as this is a widest tyre/tire i can fit on the rims i have, the reason for this is im trying to keep it looking as stock as possible. again any experiences from people running this sorta hp and tyre/tire width would be much appreciated

is this going to be mainly dry weather car?
good 255 tires are becoming hard to find, so you might have to stick with 245.
G-Force T/A KDW is an excellent tire and the KD is better but I am not sure if they make a KD in 16"'
My buddy runs the 245 KDW on his 98 Camaro with 550RWHP LS1 with a 4800 stall.

Its is planning on being a dry wheather only car, but might be caught out by the rain, so needs to be at least able to crawl home if the heavens open.
I hadnt even thought that 255s would be hard to find, the rim is a 15' as well if that helps

how well does does your mates camero get ts power down, is it a matter of being gently gently, then giving it the beans.

oh and btw nice car, ive seen your videos before looks like a really nice handling car

How wide is your 15" wheel?

What type of driving are you doing? Are you a street/strip type driver or an autocrosser? Your suspension choices will depend on your driving style. Lower control arms, torque arm, and a ta relocation bracket would be good choices for either type driving. Give me a call if you can and we can figure out whats best for your situation. Here is a link to our site.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/

I believ they are 7 inch maybe 7 1/2. The wheel is the 15 ich tubrocast you may be more famular with it than I am.

The type of driving is abit tricky.
I live in the UK, but in a city that the road network is a grid so there is areas where there are 1/4-1/2 mile straight roads with a roundabout followed by another straight bit. so It would need to be quick on the strip/ street .... I also live within 45mins of Santa Pod drag strip so it'll be going there when its done as well
but this is the UK and we cant have a nice straight roads everywhere, the countryside has twisty bendy roads that snake all over the place. The majority of my driving wont be done on this type of road but I dont want the car to absoutly rubbish on these roads.
so Im probably after something inbetween the two driving styles with a bias toward the strip/street style

At the moment im open minded and have only brought an engine and sub frames everything has yet to be decided.

Hello
I noticed that you are interested in some aftermarket suspension parts. And I just wanted to suggest to you that UMI Performances has a wide variety of parts to choose from either a DD or a full our race car. Below is a link to show you what all we have too offer!

http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...aa00fbp9qgf9t4

Thanks
Brad

I thought you meant 255 wide 16" tires, which are harder to find.
I am not too familiar with 15" performance street tires.

Those KDW tires stick really well on his camaro.
It's a heads/cam car with a 150shot of Nitrous.

We had the 275/40/17 version on my friends 82 Trans Am with a 400hp LT1 and 6 speed and it stuck really well. Works great in the rain as well.

My brother had the 315/35/17 KD on his car, 96 Trans Am 330hp LT1 with 3600 stall, and it hooked great. KD is mainly a dry weather tire, the W in the KDW is for Wet traction.

So from what it sound 255's should do the job, i'll prob let some pressure out of them to gain abit of surface area, and have a play nearer the time.
appreicate the help.

thanks Brad for the link...

Just make sure to have a strong rear end in there, neighbor kid had similar.
Lots of power and decent hook with a shift kit. Could roast em at will but mix decent hook into that too and it hard on stock parts. He ate several stock rears.

Why mine is still a V6, I don't have $600-$1200 to dump into a decent rear end that can take decent power and hook. Other wise Id drop the 350 n built trans out of my wagon in it but I get air under the left front on a 1-2 shift in a 4000+lb wagon, I know it would rip the guts out of the stock rearend quick. And the 12bolt in the wagon won't fit being a 4link setup.


Decent hook will find them weak links.
If ya spend money to make it hook well, save some extra pennies as it will find a weak point in something quick.

Thanks, at the moment the plan is to change everything on the power train, as you said it will find the next weakest point( the car is only as good as it weakest componet.

The lauch is very important and something i not know alot about how to get it right.
I think I will have to have modified/new/different lower control arms plus a very decent rear end.

Gumby you mentioned about air under the front wheel on your wagon, you got any idea on how stable the front would be with 400hp?

Well its sort of easier for me to get grip to get lift like that because its so F'in heavy n long. Giving it a good weight ratio and transfer. Which is good as spining your tires gets you no where fast, but is fun though at times.

Do all ya said but get some weight in the rear end, they are light as is.
[heavier can be faster if you get good grip.]

Lighten the front end only, heavy up the rear as needed.
THen again more weight, more traction, more wear on parts.

hahaha, gumby, talking about putting weight in the back when you've got that beautiful notchback weighing how much less than the original glass? less weight is good, there are other things to fix a light rear end, like low gearing and better tires. adding weight always seemed like a band-aid for traction problems whenever I've seen it. that's not what this thread is all about though.
mkknight-have you ever heard about welding square tubing in your stock LCA's? it can help in a straight line from what I hear.

I had 255.15's street tires on my camaro and if I floored it from a dead stop it just smoked them so I put drag radials on it and then it started wheel hoping pretty bad. i bought some relocation brackets and that solved the problem, If your not planing on driving it a whole lot I would just go ahead and by some drag radials.

3tons less but its still just a v6

that is a lot of hp for a camaro and your tires are way to small for that hp.
i an running 275/60 15 on the rear and 255/60 on the front.
you have way to much hp for such small tires.
and im pushing it with 275's.

Why I suggested adding weight if he plans to try n hook all that off the line.

that might help but he really needs more rubber on the road than a 7 inch rim can provide. and the size of the rim is marked on it - 4 mkknight.
he needs a 2nd set of rims for the strip and probably a new rear end because when he really starts using that hp from the line - he will need the rear end to be able to turn 12+ inches of rubber on the road. he needs some 10 inch wide for the rear - for the strip - and maybe some very small fronts - for weight.
that much hp should almost lift the front end - and he does not need that - or lots of burn out at the start - looks good but you lose precious seconds in a race that only takes 10 seconds.
no way to get around it - he will need a set of drag rims and not worry about how they look.
and he needs to pull the seats out - there are lots of things he can do to get weight reduction that will be an easy re-install in just under an hour. if he wants to go nuts he call pull all the inside plastic too - that will add 2 hours to the project, and not be worth it.
but for the street rear - i still suggest 275/60 15. or he can go really nuts with 295/60 15 but they will bulge. 255 is as big as he should go for the front.
but its his car and what makes him happy is the right thing to do.

Yea he needs to tub that B n add some 15in wide meats if he wants to stand it on end

- you got it right.
need more than one set of rims and tires.

I havent heard of this and know nothing on the subject, would you fill in the missin gaps?

Thanks for the input from everyone some far btw

I have/am still considering a second set of tyres because it a large amount of hp to have, everything else relies on the tires meeting the road perfectly.

Im not to bothered about getting the front in the air as impressive as it is, Im out for something thats dam quick but still a "normal car"
The seats will be remaining in the car because its not a track day car, if I wanted absoute perforamce a third gen is not where I would start, it would have to be a space frame or something like that, however I love the third gen for what it is, a powerful sleek car which was unlucky enough not to get the power it deserves stock.

I think theres truth in what everyone is saying
Yes weight over the back wheels is important, it basically static downforce, obviously the more weight the more force is required and it would restrict top speed, again top speed isnt a huge issue as im unlikly ever to get to it on the road, as long as i come no where near topping it out down a 1/4 mile im happy.
chevyracingrox: low gearing is a better "enginerined" solution which im interested in exploring

Its proberly worth filling you guys in that the engine im throwing in the car is the LT5, so its got a decent pick up and revs like a bastard
anyone have any knowledge or experience with automatic boxes and how well they pick up when you floor it?

tony_cogliandro have you got a picture of the rear of your car sitting on those 275s

like i said I want it to look pretty standard but that doesnt mean its fixed and nothing can be changed.
It is a road going car and thats where its gonna spend most its it life so I understand for peak performane every gram (g) or pound (lb) must be removed but im going for something that inbetween

Ryan

ok, look at the bottom of your lower control arm(s) and notice how it has a gap between the sides. you can shove a length of tubing into that gap and weld it in to make a stiffer control arm.

just go onto my profile and there is a few of them - but it looks better now. remember that i am running 15/7 inch rims. where did i get the idea you were running 16" rims? senior moment

and you can just call me tony.

im going to look up your strip and see if i have been in that area. ok yes i have been there, well that area, not the strip.

and remember if you want to look up info on tires - use search and DONT spell it with a y - here its tires not tyres. and if you want to look up colors - there is no u in it. although both are acceptable spellings.

tony

I have done the boxing of the LCAs n the panhard bar and can tell ya I felt the most imporvement from welding the interior.

Gut the car inside and reweld all the body seams. The cheesy spot welds they use 4-5 in apart are scary. As you know they only used enough to be "safe" to their specs; and probably wanted to use twice as many but cost cutting said no.

There is a vally on the inside where the sides meet the floor pan by the door sill, dig out all the sealer goop and weld that whole sucker full length.

The front n rear STB I have look neat but it was all that welding on the inside that made it stiff and not feel like a wet noodle on the rough n tumble city streets n RR tracks around here.

Have yet to do sub frame connectors but will some day.

I'm planning on welding the interior seams too. definitely going to give me more piece of mind. what do you think of welding the seam on the strut towers? you should build your own sfc's, it's much cheaper. its not even that hard.

I welded everything.

Though was scary later when I did my FP and realized I was welding in places where right behind that pannel an in away was my gas lines.

yea, good thing I'm taking my fuel tank out too. the seam right behind the back seat is the one that should really help. did you get the one on the firewall too then?

Snap guys, Im welding the all the seems up as well

can I ask what type of welding did you use? and how longer job was it?

Im going with subframes as well i found out after id brought them that its best to weld to car up, so i gotta finish the rest of the tear down then prep and do the welds then add all the sub frames.

Fuel and welding not a good idea lmao! CahBOOM!

Tony thanks for the head up on the spelling, easy to forget that small details are different and can end up making a foll of yourself quite quickly lol

Tony thoses latest pictures you took are those 275#s they dfont look as wide as i thought

I just used my 110 mig, plenty strong enough.
Could get fancy n tig it all but........
Wouldn't even try stick.

The left front shock on my wagon is only held on by welds from said welder and it holds just fine.

Should say if your watching your weight tig would be best as with the over lap of the panels, you won't need to add metal. Just melt n move.

But it only took a few lbs of wire to do it in mig. Plus I had rust holes to fix. Just took an afternoon. A wire wheel on an angle grinder was mucho handy.

I also spray my welds with muric acid and just like welding smoke, don't breath it. Don't do like idiots on TV and do all said things with nothing on.

Good eye protection always, good ear protection when any power tool is on.
And don't be breathing that junk. Looking like a tough guy now isn't worth the end effects years later. Folks look at me funny when I put on my ear protection the most, for even just a quick cut with a circular saw, but I’m not gonna be deaf by 50.

Yer I'll prob just go with MIG, for the ske of a few lbs it just easier to do it that way.

Yer PPE (personal protective equipement is very important when i did a smalll stint as a fabercator it all the other noise in the workshop and dust face mask is very imporant and welding mask with auto tint are a godsened.

Ryan