I've got control arm lowering brackets (home made), boxed control arms with poly bushing, a good working posi, and 245 Eagle GS-C Z rated tires on my firebird, but it seems to have less and less traction every day. I just raced my friend in his GT the other day and it was rediculous. we raced from 1st gear...and the tires went up in flames all through 1st, 2nd, and nearly all of 3rd till they finally hooked, that is just INSANE. It was cool at first but now its annoying I THOUGHT i had good tires until I tuned the engine up and the car got a whole lot faster. Should I get better tires or more suspension work? I dont really want to buy slicks because I drive this car 3-4 times a week to school and slicks don't last long for daily driving.
Chris

Oh and yes, my other car is even worse but thats different cuz that car is more for fun than serious racing

------------------
Nice car: 1988 Formula 355, mildly ported/polished Vortec heads, RPM intake, Comp Cams Extreme 268 cam, 650 Holley double pumper, 5-speed/3.73 Richmond gears, and N02 on the way
Old 1/4mile: 13.5@105mph

Evil Car: 78 Pontiac Grand Prix, 500inch caddy motor, edlebrock intake,HP Holley 750 DP race prepped carb, B@M TH350 tranny, 16inch Iroc-Z rims, blacked out chrome, soon to run 10's...

There's no replacement for displacement!

 

Z rated tires are speed tires not off the line accelleration traction tires. They're designed not to heat up and get sticky. Get some slicks.

------------------
Follow my racing progress on Stephen's racing page
and check out the race car

87 IROC-Z Pro ET Bracket Race Car
383 stroker (carbed) with double hump cast iron heads and pump gas
461 Big Block installed and ready for the 2001 racing season

Best results before the 383 blew up
Best ET on a time slip: 11.857 altitude corrected to 11.163
Best MPH on a time slip: 117.87 altitude corrected to 126.10
Altitude corrected rear wheel HP based on power to weight ratio: 476.5
Best 60 foot: 1.662

Racing at 3500 feet elevation but most race days it's over 5000 feet density altitude!
Member of the Calgary Drag Racing Association

87 IROC bracket car, 91 454SS daily driver, 95 Homebuilt Harley

 

Those are some of the most traction-challenged tires on the market. Definitely try some different tires.

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

I had firestone firehawks and they were Z-Rated. I kept with firestone firehawks but got a different kind. These have similarity's (no tire smoke) to z-rated, but they hook up a heck of alot better. I can hammer it from stop and i don't spin, but i hook up rather hard, neck snapping to say the least. All i did was goto a tire shop (one with a good rep.) and told them my problem, although i had bold tires from the previous owner anyway. The guy helped me out a great deal.

------------------
89 IROC-Z 350 TPI

-Flowmaster Catback
-Performance Resource Chip
-700R4 (Rebuilt) Too much done to actually list
-K&N Airfilters
-Ported Plenum
-2.77 Gears (not much to brag about but eh, its there)
-MSD 8.5 mm plug wires
-Problems every other day with the car (probably not a mod, but to me it sure makes a difference)

 

just change the tires to slicks before you race and you'll be ok


------------------
89 firebird formula


356 10.5:1compression
comp cams xe262 cam
performer rpm intake
#1405 edlebrock 600
434 casting completely redone with bronze guides and 202/160 valves 64cc chambers. decked .0005 thousandths
msd 6al
h.e.i. proform 50,000 volt vac. advance ditributor
700r-4 with 3.08 first gear and 3.23 posi 7 5/8 rear end.
b trans shift kit(will kill shifts...suck dong!!)
shorty heddman hedders with custom 3" pipe y-pipe back(no damn cat!) with 40 series flowmaster!

future mods: 406 roller REALLY REALLY REALLY RADICAL!!!!!

 

Tires are the key!!!!

You can make all the suspension mods you want but the final factor is the tire. The tire is most important and all those other chassis mods are just to help the tire.

If you want a good compromise use BFG drag radials on the rear. For daily driving keep the air pressure p and you will get good tire life, and they still hook good. When you know you're going to race drop the air pressure and they will hook even better.

If you don't mind a little less wet weather traction & a little more wear use MT ET streets.

------------------

Tracy /AKA IROCKZ4me
'86 IROC-Z Camaro
"Cogito ergo zoom"

• 355 cid
• AFR heads
• Arizona Speed & Marine hydraulic roller cam w/ AFR hydra-rev kit
• modified SLP runners
• TRW forged pistons/ceramic coated
• fully balanced
• Edelbrock headers/ceramic coated
• SLP cat-back
• Paxton supercharger
• Nitrous Express nitrous oxide

My IROC-Z
EFI Performance Club on Yahoo
Club IROC-Z


[This message has been edited by IROCKZ4me (edited March 06, 2001).]

 

I'm with IROKZ4me, drag radials may be the way to go. But they won't last as long as normal tires. BFGs are good but they wear out fast. I've heard a lot of good stuff about Nitto drag radials, although I've never had any experience with them. They're supposed to get sticky only when you heat 'em up real good, like do a hairy burnout before you race. Other than that they're like normal tires, and even do pretty good in the rain. They're supposed to last 10-12K miles.