Slick tyres or road tyres ?

[900ss]

Just a quick question for drag racing use only ...

Other then out n out drag slicks, would slicks meant for track use be better then road tyres ?
ie the next best thing ?

[Graham]

The thing with circuit slicks is they are comparatively hard, they need a lot of warming to get soft, more than a burnout will achieve. So unless you can find slicks for a single seater race car, soft road tyres will be better

[900ss]

Cheers, am using 17" toyo 888 on the rear atm
So no point me fitting a 15" rim with a race slick then ?
Just stick to the 888's then ?

[Graham]

from racing i can categorically state that in the first few laps of a circuit race a car on 888's has way more grip, by lap5 thers not a lot in it, by 10 the slicks have a massive advantage

[GavinR]

Like Graham says, racing slicks are hard but if you can find some hillclimb slicks they are a lot softer than 888's so should work well on a drag strip

[900ss]

Cheers
How is the heat range stated on them so I know what to look for, soft - hard etc ?

[Graham]

different manufacturers use different codes, some letters some numbers, dunlop change them periodically so only they know what the numbers actually mean when refering to brand new tyres, the only issue there is if you have bought old/used tyres then numbers could be meaningless.

the only really good soft slicks you will find are for single seaters, BUT they are all on 13 inch wheels

[900ss]

Ok cheers, so going around in circles here then as 13's will deffo not fit lol

[Graham]

iirc hoosier do a range of road legal semi slicks that should be good for dragging

[therealpinto]

My experience from some dragracing is that a good R-tyre (like 888's) can work well, but the stiffer sidewall means that you are more likely to get wheel hop. So you have to try and see...

Some standard road tyres are soft enough to work OK, especially if you can use a tall tyre (say 225/60-15 or so), but it's a bit hit&miss.

I have used M/T ET Street diagonals (10,5*26,5*15") and they are great for reducing wheel hop but also quite wobbly. The MT ET Street Drag radials are more stable but are also more prone to wheel hop. The Drag Radials could be driven to the race track in a pinch, I would not recommend that on the diagonals.

Gustaf

[Tamworthbay]

Anyone tried tyre softening compounds? I used quick lap a lot in my karting days (non competitive, it's banned in racing) and it makes a huge difference. You just paint it on and leave for an hour or so and the result is a super sticky tyre but it doe at last long, but then it wouldn't need to on strip racing.

[Graham]

certainly "grip" tyre softener works well, best to dose the tyres up with a healthy application every day fore a few days before you will be using them

[stevieturbo]

There are a good range of slicks that guys will use for hillclimbs that work from very cold. They just dont seem to be widely advertised.
They are definitely not limited to 13" or single seaters. I know guys racing on 16" and more common now 17" tyres, Avon seems to be the preferred brand.

Really depends what you want, and what surface you will be racing on too ? Is it a proper drag strip ?

Are you fussed about road legal ( Any Hoosiers will not be UK road legal ) ? Where will you be racing ? What sort of budget ? What actual size ?

There are plenty of drag radial type tyres available from the US in various sizes which will be far grippier than 888's. Some will be UK road legal, some will not. None will be E marked, some will be DOT marked, but even some that claim US road legal because of the DOT marking...they are basically devoid of any tread which makes them totally illegal for UK road use.

[para144]

Considered rally slicks rather than race slicks?

I used to compete in 'road rally class' where road pattern tyres had to be used (48r, 21r, 888's).
Now compete on proper rally tyres, even from stone cold the grip is loads better.

http://www.mrtyremotorsport.co.uk/dunlop-cr311.asp

[stevieturbo]

The supersoft x22 CR311 would be a hillclimb type tyre too.

Although the X marked tyres are not road legal as far as I know.

[freddy686868]

Anyone tried tyre softening compounds? I used quick lap a lot in my karting days (non competitive, it's banned in racing) and it makes a huge difference. You just paint it on and leave for an hour or so and the result is a super sticky tyre but it doe at last long, but then it wouldn't need to on strip racing.

Wd40? Believe it or not it makes tyres super soft. A rolling road operator I used to go to uses it to fix tyre slip on the rollers.