drag radial for 18s??

[mitsuspeed]

im looking at a set of 18x7.5 rims and am pricing tires. the program at discounttiredirect.com says i could use 215/40-18 or 225/40-18 tires with them. #1, anyone no where i can get drag radials this size? #2, how long would drag radials last in a daily driving situation? (no long commuting, only 10 min to work) Idealy i would like to run normal radials in the back with drags upfront, but im woried about wet traction and changing tires once a month. i was thinking about just getting drags for the stock wheels and changing at the track, but theres alot more streetracing around here lately then track action and i want to always be prepped. what do u guys think

 

[larryd]

FYI.. i had drag radials on my Celica when I locked my breaks up and slid off the road into a lake totalling the car.. drag radials dont handle near as well as stock radials.. also on 18s, it kinda defeats the purpose

 

[Redsand187]

Drag radials are super soft, and don't last that long at all. They are not ment for the street, even if they are DOT approved, they are ment for 90% track use. A true drag radial will last you at the most 1000 miles on the street, but 500 miles is more likely. I don't know if you can find narrow 18" drag radials anyways. Most of the cars that would sport 18"s and drag radials would be a supra, RX7, camaro... so you probably would only be able to find a 275-335 (around 10-12"s wide) tire. Now you may wanna get something like a NT555, but I've heard that those don't even last that long, like 5-10000 miles, so you pretty much have summer tires, and winter tires, every summer you have to buy new summer tires though The Kumho Ecsta Supra's are pretty much the recommended tire, since they are cheap, last longer then a week, good in the rain, and have pretty good overall traction. Now you say you want to be ready for the steet races, why not get a smaller wheel, like 17 (since your a 1g, they look damn good) Then get a tire like the kumho, and you have a decent sidewall so you can get some better traction, you have less weight, better ride, and won't lose any handling power. Or get a LSD

 

[larryd]

if your thinking about the Kuhmo Ecsta Supras. I suggest also looking into the Falken Azenis.. I have the Kuhmos now and the Falkens will be my next tires..

 

[mitsuspeed]

hhmmm... yeah, i think u guys are right. i saw 17"s on a 1st gen the other day and it looked good. i was considering the 18"s figuring i could make up traction wise with the tires, but since those kuhmos or the falken will give eve better preformance and last alot longer, its worth the compromise

 

[xleRateGSX]

Width of the tire is what counts. Listen to Larry, he had to learn first hand and that sucks!

 

[gst_spyder]

Drag radials on 18's hahaha your car would wheel hop from one light to the next and at the track you'd be hopping 4th!

Mario

 

[gst_spyder]

larryd wrote:

if your thinking about the Kuhmo Ecsta Supras. I suggest also looking into the Falken Azenis.. I have the Kuhmos now and the Falkens will be my next tires..

Larry from what i've heard the Falkens suck, they are too hard and have no grip.

Mario

 

[sdees2002]

Originally posted by larryd
if your thinking about the Kuhmo Ecsta Supras. I suggest also looking into the Falken Azenis.. I have the Kuhmos now and the Falkens will be my next tires..

I read a poll on street tires with the hardest sidewall a while ago. The Falken Azenis was one of the top 3. Having a hard sidewall is great for cornering but terrible for forward grip. I wouldn't recommend that tire for a person who does a little bit of stop light drag, or doesn't have another set of wheels/tires to swap to at the drag strip. The Kumho's have a softer sidewall (for better acceleration), are inexpensive, corner well, good wet traction, and have a 300 Treadwear rating (320 for the H rated ones)

 

[larryd]

wierd. everyone i talked to love the Azenis..hell even SCC wrote up in their article saying they werent far off the ability of the BFG drag radials, they gained 3 tenths with drag radials

 

[gst_spyder]

Yeah but what size tires did SCC use, for instance a Civic Si 205/55/15 Azenis has a decent sidewall which might be good for drag runs but say a 225/45/17 tire like you prob have would not do half as well cause of the low pro sidewall. All i'm saying is if your looking for traction in your WWD with 17's and up stay away from autocross tires.

Mario

 

[KenTSIII]

The treadwaear rating is a direct reflection of how sticky the tire is... the kumhos have a 280 wear rating & the azenis have a 200 wear rating. That means that the azenis are much stickier... but will wear much quicker. I had the kumhos & was very impressed w/ them for about the 1st 1500 miles. After that they got really hard really quick & very very greasy when trying to launch. Everyone that I have talked to has absolutely loved the Azenis tires.. so those are my next choice.

 

[jacob_voss5]

these guys are right. Personally I think you should go with the Nitto 555, but i am going with the 555R because it has reinforced side walls but I won't get many miles out of em.

 

[larryd]

FYI.. i had nitto 555s on my Celica and I couldnt hook up to save my life.. I heard that from alot of people, the nitto's are more of a street tire then the BFG's

 

[venom2097]

If your looking for 1/4mile wheel/tire combo I would stick with the factory setting and lower the tire pressure to ~20-25. Doing this my car ran a best of 15.3(stock fwd in CO so ~14.3 @sea leavel) After switching to my konig 18x7.5 my best time was 15.8.
There was a huge difference in cornering ability though.
So maybe the weight difference of the wheels caused this?
But I do love my kumhos they lasted ~25,000+ of hard miles and they are cheep($100-125). But you do have to break them in right or the will get hard after a 1000 miles or so.

 

[TOPSECRET]

Whoever told somebody that azenis sucks doesn't know jack. I had both kuhmo's and azenis on my zx2 s/r and the kuhmo's were the best tire I 've ever had in the rain. If you want rain tires (I don't) buy kuhmo's. The azenis grip almost as good as a drag radial in a staight line and far exceed them in cornering. It seemed like the hotter the got the more the gripped. The only thing that kinda sucks is the 200 treadwear. They'll still last 20k or so if you keep them rotated and don't abuse them every 2 seconds. Still for the money (they're cheap) the azenis are the best tire available on the market without a doubt. They hook staight line and cornering. I recently made the mistake of thinking more money more grip (I got falken fk-451's) not the case as soon as these wear out azenis will be back on my car.

 

[JET]

I want to hear more about how you break in a tire. How does this work? I want to hear your theory behind it.

 

[GSTspeedracer]

I have yet to see a DR for an 18" rim!

I have Nitto Extreme NT555 ZR now and their not bad when it's hot outside on 18", for all around performance. I had Falken's GRB's befor and like them a lot on 16".

Falken has a newer tire out like a DR ( can't remember name ).

My next will be SO3 or most probably be YOK's AVS Sports !!!!

Most tires we normally chose from are considered Ultra High Performance but these next ones that I'll chose will be MAX Performance. I hopefully it'll be a wise choice.

 

[DMS-WhiteGSX]

Originally posted by larryd
FYI.. i had drag radials on my Celica when I locked my breaks up and slid off the road into a lake totalling the car.. drag radials dont handle near as well as stock radials.. also on 18s, it kinda defeats the purpose

That happened to my brother, he had been at the track a day earlier, and didn't switch his tires back on his civic, since we got home so late, and it started raining, and he went around a corner, and 555rs dont really channel water out, and he slid into a guardrail then flipped.. totalling his honda... sucks. now he has a civic hatch with an sir2 motor.. awaiting his turbo kit.. it should be resonably quick.. he also has 6 si wheels, two of with have drag radials, four have all season tires, and then he has a set of 17s with have ecsta supras(i think).. he wont make the same mistake again though. he never has his drag radials on his car anymore

Your other post also said something about your 555rs not hooking up great.. We've ran them on a mid12 second gsr and they hooked up fine, just had to get heated up a little bit.. They actually hooked up in my brothers car too..

But there are torque arguments here too.. so.. who knows.. I have awd, thats all that matters to me in this department ya know..

All I know is he is going to be ordering a set of drag slicks soon.. So he'll have traction.

 

[venom2097]

Originally posted by JET
I want to hear more about how you break in a tire. How does this work? I want to hear your theory behind it.

http://www.discounttire.com/dtc/brochure/info/heatCycling.jsp
also the life rating of 200 vs 250 or whatever only matters if it is the same company.
ie. a nitto with a life of 180 vs a kumho with a 250, the nitto might last longer.