How do i get a radial slick to hook on a marginal track ??

[James Perrone]

Mickey Thompson they will help

[Rusty Davenport]

Originally Posted by James Perrone

Mickey Thompson they will help

Not trying to steal the thread but more than one person told me the M/T radials might get 30 passes at best-----I bought a set------not sure its going to make thirty with ten to go-----anyone else comment on M/T lifespan ????

[racerAL]

Well if I'm only going to get 50-60 passes out of the radials, I'll switch back to a bias ply slick. I have a new set Goodyear 4457's that I tried early this year and they were even more touchy than the Hoosiers. I think I'll try to sell them and get a set of bias ply's. I was hoping to get more input from the racers that use these slicks.... Surely every track you guys race on isn't prepped to perfection. Thanks countrypuppy and Jim Perrone for ur input. Im going to add weight in the trunk and take some timing out of it and hopefully I can get it to not spin. I've wasted 3 points races messing with this issue. I'll have me a set of bias ply's on it as soon as I sell the Goodyears.

[Robert Simpson]

Add some weight, take out some initial timing. take some hit out of the converter, if you foot brake come up on the converter some. I have lowered tire pressure a little. But, if you do heavy burn outs, stop... In the real heat just barely see any smoke let them go. The tires are good, but you are right, in some conditions they are not as forgiving as a bias. Your car might not stand up as high as it usually does but it will help it hook and you can work on that set up and have the other for killer air. I hope this helps some.

Robert

[racerAL]

Originally Posted by Robert Simpson

Add some weight, take out some initial timing. take some hit out of the converter, if you foot brake come up on the converter some. I have lowered tire pressure a little. But, if you do heavy burn outs, stop... In the real heat just barely see any smoke let them go. The tires are good, but you are right, in some conditions they are not as forgiving as a bias. Your car might not stand up as high as it usually does but it will help it hook and you can work on that set up and have the other for killer air. I hope this helps some.

Robert

Thanks for the help Robert..it's highly possible I'm doing to hard of a burn out. I'm loading up now to go to my local track test and tune. I'm taking out some timing and added 100 of weigh, hopefully it helps.

[Mike Pearson]

I run a wider tire than you do also taller. Nothing can fix a bad track. The radials are much faster on my car than the bias. What are the other guys experiencing at the bad tracks. similar to you or not. If the other racers are not having a big problem than you might need some suspension adjustments on your car. I run Hoosier and get more passes than I did with the Mickeys.

[racerAL]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

I run a wider tire than you do also taller. Nothing can fix a bad track. The radials are much faster on my car than the bias. What are the other guys experiencing at the bad tracks. similar to you or not. If the other racers are not having a big problem than you might need some suspension adjustments on your car. I run Hoosier and get more passes than I did with the Mickeys.

I'm pretty much the only(sorta fast...lol) small tire car that races at my local track. All my buddies have back halved cars or tube chassis cars and they are having no issues at all. When my car hooks I 60ft as well as most of my buddies back halved cars. But when it's hot my car goes to crap and they don't have any issue.

[1320racer]

Originally Posted by racerAL

I switched to the 30x9 Hoosier radial slick last spring. I had no issues with getting the slicks to hook. I ran at 4 different tracks and at all of them traction was no issue with my 60 ft avg in the 1.44 - 1.46 range, and the car was lifting the front end nicely. Fast forward to this summer and i have had a lot of issues with the car spinning at the starting line. A few weeks ago at Norwalk for the no box race the car was good with no issues, but when i go to my home track (which is marginal at best), I can only get the car to hook before the heat gets in the track. Last Saturday my first two time runs were without issue, but as soon as the sun gets higher in the sky and has had a chance to build heat in the track(119 degrees) the car spins on the hit. My question is what if anything can i do to make these radial slicks work on a "hot" marginal track ? I have lowered launch rpm and soften the rear shocks as much as possible.

Originally Posted by racerAL

58 passes going into last weekend.

Originally Posted by racerAL

if I'm only going to get 50-60 passes out of the radials, I'll switch back to a bias ply slick. Im going to add weight in the trunk and take some timing out of it and hopefully I can get it to not spin.

Originally Posted by racerAL

it's highly possible I'm doing to hard of a burn out. I'm taking out some timing and added 100 of weigh, hopefully it helps.

Originally Posted by racerAL

I've been at 21psi..but I haven't tried anything different in the heat. I was pretty sure I didn't want to go lower and was afraid to go much higher. I'll try 22psi tonight at test and tune.

Originally Posted by racerAL

Rear suspension is ladder bar and Strange adjustable socks and coil over springs. , on a well prepped track my car 60ft in the low 1.40's. Car weighs 3555 race ready and has less than 550 hp. I run 4.56 gear and a 9 inch Dynamic converter.

Originally Posted by racerAL

The bias-ply M/T worked out pretty good. The car was a bit slower than the radials (when they hooked) but all in all I think they are gonna work out pretty well. I started with 14.5 lbs and in the video of the car it seem to be wadding them so I up the pressure to 16lbs and it spun a tad ( lost. 07 in the 60ft.) so I took them back down to 14.5 and it was consistently 1.48-1.49 with a very soft set up and low rpm launch( compared to what I was running with the radials when they were hooking).

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

Nothing can fix a bad track.

this^^^

Radial slicks requires a car that works and a starting line that is prepped! Track prep on test/tune days at most tracks along with "marginal at best" prep on race day won't cut it!

If you chose to race on junk tracks or it's your only option, stay with bias slicks.

You also went the wrong way with your shocks and while I'm an advocate of running a good double adjustable shocks, they are not a deal breaker at your power level IF you put the time into setting up the chassis/suspension.

Years ago, a friend out of Va that raced a Chevelle similar to mine with the same power running on Hoosier 30 x 9 radial slicks had 200 lbs. bolted in his trunk to get it to hook consistantly.

That said, I've been running radial slicks for 17 years, the first 9 were Hoosier 30/10.5 on my footbrake launched 3880 lb. Chevelle with 59% of it's weigh on the nose. Shocks were single adjustable Koni gas shocks and this car 60 footed a best of 1.28 on these tires with no weight in the trunk ever and I put 75-100 passes on each pair, aired to 21 lbs. before pulling them off and putting them on a 3100 lb. Camaro with less power that got another 75 passes out of them.



For the last 8 years, I've been running Hoosier 32/13.5 radial on my footbrake launched 3144 lb. Firebird, with a 4 link and DA Afco shocks and this car has 60 footed a best of 1.17 on these tires and I put 150 passes on each pair before swapping them out.

[1320racer]

..

[racerAL]

Thanks for your input Ed I appreciate it. But you have me a bit confused on what you said about my shock setting. I'll admit that I'm new to the whole adjustable shock deal and I'm learning as I go. My understanding was that if I wanted to soften the hit on the slick I should soften the shock. Is this incorrect? I had the shocks set to the tightest setting with the radials and a much higher launch rpm at Norwalk a few weeks ago and the car worked great. Then without changing anything I took the car to my local track and the car spun badly at the hit. Doing what I thought was correct I softened the shocks and took out 800 rpm from the launch and it was better but still spun. What am I missing? Am I going about it totally wrong?