Before you purchase a set of M/T ET street radials, and you will be installing them on a stick shifted car, PLEASE READ! Now, this is coming right from the manufacturer!

 

Thats good to know! Thanks.

 

i know plenty of manual cars using those tires with GREAT success. and my ET street bias plys needed a somewhat longer burnout to "heat up" and stick

 

ops

 

I posted this because there are a lot of guys having trouble with them, with a stick. I had great results with BFG DRs, in the past. I wonder why M/T's VP would say that they are not well suited for sticks. Obviously, there must have been many complaints to the company, for them to say that. The tires were never advertised "does not work well with stick shifts".

I'm sure there are alot of guys running them with success. I have not seen any though. One buddy of mine has a new set that he plans on running on his big block, stick shifted, Charger. Hopefully he will have better luck, than all the others I had seen.

 

I have a pair and have had zero luck with them.

1.9X 60' with the Mickey Radials
1.4X 60' with Mickey ET Drags.

 

I never really thought about it but it makes sense. Stick shift cars launching is brutal on the sidewall of the tires where as automatics are softer and do not need as much sidewall flex.

 

that makes alot of sensce,

 

dont get me wrong, i know the et drags or et streets with the wrinkle sidewall is the best you can do...but i dont understand why the m/t drag radials cant hook well on mild stick cars while some auto cars are leaving off of trans brakes and big stalls pushing a ton more power. just what i have seen. i know lots of guys doing 1.6-1.7's 60's on drag radials

 

i love the M/T radial. much better than any other tire for drivability too. doesnt wander and hug the low spots in the road like other bias plys. even the BFG didnt ride as good. i can tell you they get NOISY when they are wore out. you can hear when its time to replace them from all the road noise.

they kinda shitty when brand new, but after a few miles of roughing them up on the street, they work great!
ive cut a 1.49 60 on them with basic suspension upgrades.

 

I think he's talking about the new ET Street radials, not the original ET Streets. My experience will back that up. I have tried BFG Drag Radials and Nitto Drag Radials on my car, and only the ET Streets will hook up. The radials just spin. But Allen (1989TransAmGTA) has lots of success with his ET Street radials and an automatic.

 

im a little lost.....what is the difference if its stick or auto, a worked auto will launch and hit as hard as a stick car dumping the clutch(as long as it isnt slipping)........ive owned both and only difference is in the quarter mile in a pretty radical car the auto is usually a little quicker, my stang i use to have till i got smart and baught a camaro ran a best of 9.12 with the 5 speed in, got sick of replacing clutches all the time and put an auto in and it ran a best of 8.96 and averaged 9.0's. what does it have to do with the tires?

 

When I get home, I'll enlarge that article so I can read it, but I too had already heard this from users.

- No matter how good of auto trans, even with a t-brake, an auto does not hit as hard as a stick. The converter does not transfer 1:1 like a clutch. If an auto trans was faster, then why does pro-stock still run 5-speeds?
An auto is more consistent(technically....), and easier to launch, but it takes more hp to pull, and a converter never makes 1:1 unless it has a lock-up clutch. Even mega high-dollar race tc's never see a true "lock-up" like a clutch.

My car has cut a best of 1.66, with consistent 1.66-1.60 60ft's on 315/35/17 nitto dr's and a 5-speed. It can be had, but it takes the right combination and the proper suspension tuning. - I'm going for 1.4X's with the new chassis, still on 17's, although I'm sure it will atleast take bfg's. Hoosier has their new 335/35/17 dr out, I'm hoping mickey will do a 315 or larger soon......

 

Because that's the rules.

A 2600-lb car would be faster than a 3200 lb car too. So why don't they lighten them? Because that's the rule. A 600-inch motor is faster (or could be anyway) than a 500-inch one. So why do they all run 500" in NHRA? Because that's the rule.

They do that in that particular class so that it's about the driver, as much as possible, and not as much about the car.

Kind of like when people try to say that they're going to take their 400 and put a 327 crank in it like the NASCAR guys do; after all, if they do it, it must be fastest, right? No.... they do it because THE RULES put them under a 358" limit, not because a 358" motor is faster than a 400" one.

Same deal here. The auto will whip the stick car's butt, every time, and twice in the bracket classes. A stick might put more power to the ground, but it gives up in other ways; most notably, CONSISTENCY, which of course rules in bracket racing. And as described, an auto will NEVER hit the tires as hard as a stick, and therefore it's easier to run one all-out and not spin, which is why they can go faster. Not saying they all DO go faster, or all the time; only, that it's easier to hook up, and therefore easier to CONSISTENTLY go faster. Going faster every now and then isn't worth much when you have to do it pass after pass in order to win. You can't just lay down one big ET out of X number of tries and just sit back and wait for somebody to top it. Well, not most of the time, at least.... there are those special exhibition-type (non-points) events for that.

 

Its not an arguement of what trans can hit the tires harder, but, why in the world would a major race tire manufacturer, come up with a "LAME" excuse, as to why their tires do not work. I know just about every auto equipped car that uses them will hook, and hook great. But then you have the stick guys, saying they can not. Now, I understand that from some of the post on here, some stick guys have had success with them. Would you not at least think alot of the sportsman racers, who run stick shifted combos, must have got together, and took a complaint, with the company? What I am trying to say is, if they do indeed work with an auto, then why not a stick? A 60 ft time, is a 60ft time, weather its produced by a stick car, or an automatic car. I would expect to hear a comment from the VP that would go along the lines of, "try some different tire pressures, or a different launch RPM". But to come out and say, the tires dont work with sticks? Alot of complaints must have reached M/Ts tech dept, mostly from stick users. I dunno, I suppose they had to refund some money, or something, to come out and say, the tires are more suited for auto cars. $300.00 is alot of money to lay down on a pair of race tires, that the manufacturer says, will not work with sticks!

How would you feel if you purchased a set, for your stick car, and several months later, the VP says, they are not suited for your car?

 

they dont run "5 speeds" at all. there are forward gears, sure, but its not even close to the same proximity as being a "stick shift" transmission.
sure its gotta clutch, but a total different ball game.

 

To get back to the point at hand (sorry...), I think you can look at the application, and kind of move out from there.

They're designed as STREET tires; which means they have to be hard enough to last at least a few thousand miles, in addition to their drag racing function. Their answer would most likely be something along the lines of, they're as soft as they dare, under the circumstances; and since about 80% of all cars using them are going to be auto cars, and about 80% of the rest don't know how to drive anyway, then auto cars are the design criterion. They ended up not being soft enough for either of the stick cars (I exaggerate a little) that might use them. Big whoop, in their eyes. Those other 2 guys can go buy some other kind of tire.

Tough to swallow if you're a stick owner, maybe; but there's more to mass-producing a product for a mass market, than might be obvious to those who don't fit in the "mass".

 

Great point, sofaking, But, if you were the vice prez, of M/T, what would be your excuse for making such a statement?

 

i completely disagree with everything you stated.
they were NEVER intended to be driven. M/T never said..... "we need to make these last a few thousand miles since they are street tires."
NO.
they built a tire to hook, and get it down the track as fast as possible.
its got a few grooves in it and DOT put a stamp on it. same with the bias ply ET Street tire, most of the sizes have the same compound as an ET drag, but its got a line or two dug in it so DOT says its legal.
they never meant for you to drive them on the street, it just makes them legal for most racing classes that require a "street" tire.

 

First time using the ET street radials, I pulled a 1.78 off idle. They hook awesome!!

 

I realize that 5-speeds are a rule in pro stock, but if you keep the power on the ground, a stick IS faster. If you make the same hp as everyone else, but transfer more to the wheels, you will be faster, IF you keep it hooked(and if you can shift it clutchless). Pro stockers would not benefit from an auto trans. They need the motor to stay within a tight rpm band, so they need the 5 gears to be able to maintain their power band. No auto has that capability. Not that it couldn't be built, but then they would still have to make up for the loss of pulling it.
and how's that? A liberty is still a manual 5-speed. Still has a mainshaft, a cluster shaft, gears and sliders that engage the gears. Just because they run a verti-gate shifter doesn't disqualify it. I can get a verti-gate for a muncie. FYI I have played with one. It's still a 5-speed.
- thats all from me about the trans aspec of this thread, I'm too far off topic -
I've seen 1.82's on regular fulda 245/50 street tires.....Not trying to down you in anyway, just stating that a 1.78 isn' that great.
- I too agree that what M/T is saying seems to me a load of crap. Seems more like a corporate excuse to say, "....sorry they don't work for you, but we have your money and we don't really care..." Tires either work or they don't. Never before have we had auto trans race tires and stick trans race tires, we've just had race tires.....

 

this post is HILARIOUS.
what the **** does prostock and drag radials have in common with this thread?
absolutely nothing.
the way the sidewall is engineered, it makes sense the tire is best suited for constant load, not clutch type shifting.
i got a buddy with a 67 camaro that will hook in the dirt on a set of 275/40/17 M/T radials. its not all the tire, its suspension too, driver skill, etc.
anyway.
whats for dinner? since we are so off topic.

 

I agree, and if someone wants to research the tires before they buy them, they can read the origional post.