M.T's will hook the best imo but for street driving I would use BFG's

they hook pretty good and have a half decent life as well

 

my vote goes to M.T.

 

Just my opinion but 18 inch rims and tires with such a small sidewall (35's), will not hook up well regardless of the tire compound. I guess a 18in drag radial will be better than a non drag radial 18 inch tire but neither will provide much traction compared to tires with larger sidewalls. If straight line traction is really your concern, you will need a tire with a larger sidewall.

 

^ +1.....and dont go nitto 555's..they suck...i've used them and got more traction with k-mart specials...but he's totally right if you're looking for traction you need to loose the flashy 18" rims...15/16 wheels with an 50/60 sidewall would hook great with drag radials..i just removed my m/t et streets on my 15" draglites (winter tires on now), and those hooked awesome...BFG isnt too bad...but between bfg and m/t is hooiser who makes rlly nice tires...

 

I figured as much. I wanted a bigger wheel to keep rigid during cornering. But I know it has to suffer in a straight line because it;s so thin. I will get drag set up and street set up...

 

18s and DRs? Blah.. thats a waste... as said above, they'll never hook as good as 17in DR, or 16... 15 and so on. Its not so much the "lack" of sidewall, its the sidewall stiffness, and ability to flex and compress. Most all 18in tires have fairly stiff sidewalls.. this includes all the DRs that are offered for that size wheel. The biggest wheel ive ever run a DR on, was a 17 (275/40/17 MT) And man, that was a bad ass tire! If your solemly looking for straight line performance, got with a 15" wheel, or even a 16", depending on your brake setup and clearance.

I would have to say that for the smaller wheels, the MT's take the cake. BFG's are surprisingly sticky for the 17" wheels, and offer good life provided you keep close check on tire pressure. I havent used nittos, but i know they work.. but dont offer AS much life as the BFG's with typical public road, and highway driving. I say MT's for max performance.

 

The biggest wheel ive ever run a DR on, was a 17 (275/40/17 MT) And man, that was a bad ass tire!

I wasnt kidding when i said the 17in MT DRs were badass, im glad merk posted that pic. Reminds of my car with the same tires! Nice car merk.

 

You can't have traction and long tire life. Pick one or the other. Nittos have a long life but don't hook any better than a regular radial. BFG and M/T hook good but have a short life expectancy. Don't waste your money on a drag radial bigger than a 15 inch or 16 inch. There is no sidewall on a 17+ inch tire so your tire ability is going to be limited.

 

The 275/40/17 mt is amazing . My capri has gone 1.46 60`s with them consitantly at a 3450 race weight (street car).

 

The 275/40/17 mt is amazing . My capri has gone 1.46 60`s with them consitantly at a 3450 race weight (street car).

Beautiful car man!!!

 

nice car man could ya please give us a little info about what it has in it.im curious!

 

bad ass, whats in the thing?

 

There is alot more left in it lol . Its a pump gas freindly 408w procomp heads , super victor , 750 holley(way to damn small but all i had ) ed curtis cam , bbk 5 speed headers lol , one of our merkl race shop full rollerized c-6 with transbrake, 3.89 gears . The only difference in that pic from how i drive it to work is i have a helmet on , rear tire pressure is dropped to 14 psi , and i do a front shock adjustment. Car has gone 10.87 @124 mph on 91 octane and 17" radials at 5000ft desinty altitude . Want to know more just ask . There a lil info on it

 

Huh, looks like 17's with no sidewalls work after all...

 

Give it a try and see what happens. A good working suspension and a heavier car will help.

 

Oh, and just so ya guys know.. ive had LOTS of time to test multiple different tires in all types of sizes, and brands. Its kind of nice when you work for Discount Tire Co.

 

an 18 inch drag radial is about pointless, and so is a 17 inch unless you really have a good working suspension. IMO like my good buddy Darrell said, I wouldnt waste the money unless your putting them on a 15 inch rim, giving them plenty of sidewall. on a side note, Ive also found out that Auto Cars like DRs alot more than Stick cars do. Drag Radials have a stiffer sidewall, making it harder for the tire to hook the "shock" of a stick shift launch, where as an Auto is a bit easier on them. I personally would get a set of 15 inch rims for weekend or track use, throw a set of 26x11.5-15 ET Street slicks on them if its a 5 spd car, or DR if its a auto!

$ .02

 

17in DR is pointless without a good suspension? Really? I used a 17in MT DR with the STOCK suspension in my 84 GT with basic bolt ons and a little bit of nitrous.. and ran 12.10s with a 1.66 60ft, with a 5spd @ 3100ft. Im sure i could have gone faster at sea level, with the same combo.. and the same tires. Im not sure i understand why 17in DRs are pointless....

 

I have the nitto 555 they suck I plan on switching to the M.T.s

 

what did i say...Nitto's suck....

Hoosiers are great too..better than bfg

 

thats cool. my 89 GT with a stock motor spun my 17s through 3rd and chirped in 4th.

 

To say my car goes this fast with a 17 inch drag radial or my old car did, etc is not an accurate comparison with anything. I can say 225/55-16 Gatorbacks work good because I went 13.40s with them with a low 1.7 60 foot back in the early 90s but that is a grey statement. They worked good for the size and composition. Sure a 17 inch drag radial is going to be better than a street radial but don't expect huge gains and don't buy Nittos.

 

To say my car goes this fast with a 17 inch drag radial or my old car did, etc is not an accurate comparison with anything. I can say 225/55-16 Gatorbacks work good because I went 13.40s with them with a low 1.7 60 foot back in the early 90s but that is a grey statement. They worked good for the size and composition. Sure a 17 inch drag radial is going to be better than a street radial but don't expect huge gains and don't buy Nittos.

Not an accurate comparison with anything? Im confused. Im pretty sure the original idea of this thread was to give opinion and comparison to different DRs measured in different sizes. I was actually just trying to point out, that a 17in DR, specifically from Mickey Tompson.. is an awesome tire, and the fact that they work, irregardless of modified suspension or lack of. For a true comparison, and validation of my claim, i used my older 84 GT as an example. In retrospect, a good DR is ALOT better than a regular/common street radial, not just better. And i would expect big gains in ET/MPH and overall performance from a DR.. sure they dont offer quite as much performance as a real slick, but they are light years ahead of any street radial.

Dont expect huge gains? If i was running 13.0s on a street radial, and did nothing to the entire car except switch to a good drag radial.. and dropped my ETs down to 12.50s.. or possibly even better... you would say thats not considered a big gain? For such a simple change.. thats a big gain in my book.

 

I just found some time slips from the national open running in the super street index (was shutting car down at the 1000 ft mark) and got one 60 in the 1.43 when i really leaned on it to get it to leave hard to cut a light on the protree in super street. Thanks for the complements guys . The car is heavy but i have taken alot of weight out of it i would hate to see what it owuld have weighed lol .
The m/t are an amazing tire . next year i`m going to lean on the tune up an maybe spray it a bit and hit a high 9 once and never do it again (not legal for 9`s)

 

yes it does i was kinda shocked at first and made me more impressed with the set up considering the motor was built on a budget . Only have about about 1200 bucks in the heads and thats it

 

I only wish it was that easy that i weighed that much . But everything adds up alot lol i`m not going to lie shes a fat pig lol:sorry

 

:lol

 

I'm amazed that you gained a half a second with a 17" drag radial. I've never seen anyone locally do good with them, including myself. I was so frustrated with the 275/40-17 BFGs that I put a street tire back on because I didn't feel the tenth an a half I gained was worth the money that the tires cost especially when I knew what a slick or 275/50 drag radial would do for me.

My point with the 60 foot and ET was you could have a car that runs 10.80s on a slick with 1.46 60 foot but maybe runs 12.10s with a 1.66 60 foot when you put 275/40-15 drag radial on it. That is a big difference and I wouldn't call that working. That is typically what I see around here with 17" drag radials. That was the point I was trying to make. Which maybe your car wouldn't have that big of a gap in ET, this is just what I've seen locally with 17" drag radials.

 

I'm amazed that you gained a half a second with a 17" drag radial. I've never seen anyone locally do good with them, including myself. I was so frustrated with the 275/40-17 BFGs that I put a street tire back on because I didn't feel the tenth an a half I gained was worth the money that the tires cost especially when I knew what a slick or 275/50 drag radial would do for me.

My point with the 60 foot and ET was you could have a car that runs 10.80s on a slick with 1.46 60 foot but maybe runs 12.10s with a 1.66 60 foot when you put 275/40-15 drag radial on it. That is a big difference and I wouldn't call that working. That is typically what I see around here with 17" drag radials. That was the point I was trying to make. Which maybe your car wouldn't have that big of a gap in ET, this is just what I've seen locally with 17" drag radials.

I can see it like that. And i guess i wasnt looking at it from a full slick stand point either. 10s on a slick, and 12s on a DR is a big jump.. and i didnt look at it that way. I apologize for that. The best DR ive ever used.. in any size, was the MT. Ive seen as much as 7/10ths gain, just switching to the MT DRs over a street radial. And for comparison, i tested ALOT of tire and wheel combinations, including different sizes and brands. Ive owned a few mustangs in the past few years, and for the past few years, i was fortunate enough to work for Discount Tire. So, i was able to test alot of different tires, and used my cars as test beds.. it was cool, because tires for me were cheap.. even full race slicks.

I tested a 275/50/15 MT DR on my 84 GT, and was able to muster my way down to 11.97-.99 with 1.60 60fts. I was interested to see how well the 17s worked, being the same tire, just having a different sidewall. I was only about a 10th slower (12.10s) with about 6/100ths slower on the 60ft, using the same launch technique, and tire pressure as with the 15s. Im sure my driving skills had something to do it, in either direction (im not the best driver in the world) But thats not bad, considering the 17 has very little sidewall compared to the 15. The 17 was still hooking hard enough to yank the driver side front up on a nitrous assisted pass. Ive also tested the BFGs... they're sticky sometimes, and if the track is prepped well enough, they work semi okay. I was expecting them to be completely like a street tire, and 80% of the time, they were. They're inconsistant, and i could have told you that from the beginning to save you the money, lol. Nittos are junk compared to MT, most of us know that. This is just for comparison purposes.. not to start any arguments Just sharing my experience.

 

Just joking, making sure I was not getting your test tires. Mine were via mail order, they were new and still had the big sticker on them and the randomly placed colored dots and lines from the factory on them.

 

Just joking, making sure I was not getting your test tires. Mine were via mail order, they were new and still had the big sticker on them and the randomly placed colored dots and lines from the factory on them.

Oh! LOL Funny you mention that, i left most of my tires that i used for my personal enjoyment laying around.. and somehow, they ended up getting sold without my knowledge first hand. But they were advertised as used, so i didnt complain. I got the money eventually. Good to hear you did business with us.

 

I found this yesterday: Low 9 second passes on 17 inch rims - Corral Forums

 

He's got that car working real good. Do you happen to know what it 60 foots? 9.16@158 flying. With that mph, that car has an 8 second ET in it.

 

Yep. Brians car has been featured in MM&FF just recently. I forgot he ran 9s on 17in DRs. Sick car.

 

i want me one a them