IM THINKING ABOUT BUYING 18 " RIMS CAN I GET AN EXTRA PAIR OF REAR RIMS TO MOUNT DRAG RADIALS ON SO THEY MATCH

 

https://www.nittotire.com/competitio...cHo0-wZrUTzOak

 

15" wheels

 

If you can 15’s money better spent.

else just run drag radials on 18’s all the time as your normal tire

 

Maybe I read too fast but this does not seem like a complicated matter.

 

im wondering if the difference in the size of the sidewall will make a difference on how well the car launches

 

Yes

 

can someone explain the differences . pros an cons of using both

 

the drag radials . how good are they in turns . lets say i wanna run them all the time . will they be good on the turns . i drive alot of back roads

 

All I've had are low profile drag radials with a stiff autocross style suspension. Those feel fine cruising, but if you take a corner too fast it is like driving on a half flat tire. Rain is really sketchy. It's really a track tire with a DOT stamp (not a street tire that can be used at the track) so the sidewall cuts real easy. Not a good idea unless you're on smooth, clean roads. The tires overheat real fast so you can't drive high speed (if you're that kind of nut), only good for a quick sprint and hit the brakes (like a 1/4 mile track).

My experience is the drag radial works good at first but street driving ruins the tire. The rubber dries out and is never the same again. I get about 500 fun miles from a tire before that happens. Then the tire spins and that causes the rubber to feather and ball up and traction goes to ****. I can flip the tires and clean them up with a real quick burnout, but it only fixes things for a few days. My tires are destroyed by 1K miles. I've tried 3 brands now (Nitto, Mickey Thompson, M&H).

So.... I think the key is to not spin on the street and the tire lasts a whole lot longer. A drag radial is a "dead hook" tire and doesn't like to spin. That's an easy affair with an auto trans, but not so easy with a manual trans. The tendencies of a manual trans to spin the tires really accelerates the tread wear problems I described earlier.

 

Just to add to that, I spend about half the summer with good traction and half the summer with bad traction. I've grown tired of the latter. I think next year I'm hanging up the drag radials and installing a 100 tread wear performance tire. I'll have better traction than I do now (end of summer) and I'll be able to corner again! I don't know, maybe I'll come back to the garage crying for my drag radials, but there's no way to know unless I just try stuff.

 

I am constantly swapping my wheels every few weeks depending on what events I am using the car for. I have Nitto 555 street tires on my fancy 18" Boze Forged wheels for car shows and autocross events. Then i have Mickey Thompson ET Street SS drag radials on my old 16" iroc z wheels for drag racing events. They do get balled up from street driving. I drive to and from the track with them , and I put about 35 psi in them for street driving because I carry hundreds of pounds of tools, spare parts, and gear to/from the track with me. I probably should lower them for street traveling, but at the track I run 19-20 psi and they hook.

For my usual 18" wheels that currently have the nitto 555 on them, I think i want to go with a sticker tire with better treadwear when i am due for new tires. the nittos are 5 years old and a 300 treadwear. My possible choices are the BFG Rival S, Toyo R888, or the newly released Falken Azenis rt660.

 

thats prolly the way im gonna go . just have a set for street . one for drag an one for road course

 

whats a good 15 " drag radial .