Terminator Owner

[Brakelate]

I would recommend you try what you have for the time being. Don't get all lost wasting time, money and energy on it. IF the tracks are prepped, the tires are far less a concern than your launch, catching all the gears and having a strong platform to work with.

You could have huge slicks and if you don't come out of the hole with enough RPM, can't smoothly and quickly catch the next gear or have a mechanical issue, it won't matter. If anything, it could make all your issues worse with too much HP. Many would rather spin a little, or abort a run and come back around, than bog out of the hole, or snap a half shaft sidestepping on the launch or powershifting into second.

I've run 15's, 16's and 17's on my car. 275's, 315's and even 335s. Bias and Radial. Yes, 15" wheels require a little work to get them on there. Much in personal preference when it comes down to feel and the way the power is delivered to the pavement. But, any decent Drag Radial in a 275 or larger will get you to your desired ET. Again, HOW you use them is more important than what you use, at this point, as long as you are not rolling out there on 245 mud and snow tires.

So, to come full circle, just run what is on there... 275/40-17 Toyos' on stock chrome wheels, right?

[Tetge]

Be careful listening to Brakelate about tires because he is a genuine nut when it comes to tires for cages and bikes. He seems to love to try out cast off and out of date and hard as a rock throw away tires. And, I am not kidding. I used to run 315 Nitto DR's on 10.5" AFS Cobra replicas, and they only lasted me 3500-~4000 miles until they got seriously below the wear bars. And, because I worry about being cited for bald tires, I'd order a new set. And, Brakelate would say "You aren't going to throw those perfectly good tires away, are you?" And, he whisk them off to a tire shop and get them mounted and balanced and run them for who knows how many more miles? Of course, he did groove them with a hot grooving tool and this added apparent tread to them. Then there were the used Viper tires, that even Brakelate had to finally discard. They were huge but, totally cooked and he could get his car to go up into smoke at 70-80 on the freeway. I liked those tires since I could smoke him almost anywhere due to his lack of traction. We will not even discuss all the mismatched, undersized, oversized, ancient, bald, borrowed, etc., tires that he has gone through. And, he also has tried a bunch of tires on his DR-Z. And, don't even talk about radial tubes for the DR-Z.

All that having been said, if you are serious about Famoso, I would recommend some MT DR's on stock 17" rims. If you start to look now, you should be able to find some rims, and, in the worst case, replicas are not all that expensive. You can even drive to the track on the MT's and air them down when you get there. It may sound like a lot of money, but they do work, and, what price success? You also indicated that you are interested in Irwindale, and they should work well there. And, of course, they work fine at the WIllow Drags, although at times, Willow is pretty tough. They also are fun on the street (not that I would ever get on a car on the street) if it is warm and dry as they grip well enough to make a big difference. However, they do not last long at all, and they are scary in the wet. These days I put the MT's on the slug the day before I go racing and I take them off the next day. This is because I do not want to wear them out street driving. But, they still get the job done and they are 2.5 years old, and they have enough tread left to drive to Famoso and back in Feb. I consider them the primary mod that I would recommend for drag racing a powerful Mustang. Even the legendary Carlos (former track record holder at the Willow Drags) finally agreed, although I think his MT DR's are 335's, or some such monster size. But, when you are packing ~1000 HP and can go 120, or more at the Willow Drags, a bigger tire may be indicated.

The pics are of some Nitto DR's that I may have run a tad too long. Even Brakelate didn't want them.

[jhwalker]

Niiiiice.

All good advice...

[MrCaliKrome]

I would recommend you try what you have for the time being. Don't get all lost wasting time, money and energy on it. IF the tracks are prepped, the tires are far less a concern than your launch, catching all the gears and having a strong platform to work with.

You could have huge slicks and if you don't come out of the hole with enough RPM, can't smoothly and quickly catch the next gear or have a mechanical issue, it won't matter. If anything, it could make all your issues worse with too much HP. Many would rather spin a little, or abort a run and come back around, than bog out of the hole, or snap a half shaft sidestepping on the launch or powershifting into second.

I've run 15's, 16's and 17's on my car. 275's, 315's and even 335s. Bias and Radial. Yes, 15" wheels require a little work to get them on there. Much in personal preference when it comes down to feel and the way the power is delivered to the pavement. But, any decent Drag Radial in a 275 or larger will get you to your desired ET. Again, HOW you use them is more important than what you use, at this point, as long as you are not rolling out there on 245 mud and snow tires.

So, to come full circle, just run what is on there... 275/40-17 Toyos' on stock chrome wheels, right?

I'm running 305/35ZR18 Toyo R888 on 18' Black Chrome Saleen Repros.

[MrCaliKrome]

Be careful listening to Brakelate about tires because he is a genuine nut when it comes to tires for cages and bikes. He seems to love to try out cast off and out of date and hard as a rock throw away tires. And, I am not kidding. I used to run 315 Nitto DR's on 10.5" AFS Cobra replicas, and they only lasted me 3500-~4000 miles until they got seriously below the wear bars. And, because I worry about being cited for bald tires, I'd order a new set. And, Brakelate would say "You aren't going to throw those perfectly good tires away, are you?" And, he whisk them off to a tire shop and get them mounted and balanced and run them for who knows how many more miles? Of course, he did groove them with a hot grooving tool and this added apparent tread to them. Then there were the used Viper tires, that even Brakelate had to finally discard. They were huge but, totally cooked and he could get his car to go up into smoke at 70-80 on the freeway. I liked those tires since I could smoke him almost anywhere due to his lack of traction. We will not even discuss all the mismatched, undersized, oversized, ancient, bald, borrowed, etc., tires that he has gone through. And, he also has tried a bunch of tires on his DR-Z. And, don't even talk about radial tubes for the DR-Z.

All that having been said, if you are serious about Famoso, I would recommend some MT DR's on stock 17" rims. If you start to look now, you should be able to find some rims, and, in the worst case, replicas are not all that expensive. You can even drive to the track on the MT's and air them down when you get there. It may sound like a lot of money, but they do work, and, what price success? You also indicated that you are interested in Irwindale, and they should work well there. And, of course, they work fine at the WIllow Drags, although at times, Willow is pretty tough. They also are fun on the street (not that I would ever get on a car on the street) if it is warm and dry as they grip well enough to make a big difference. However, they do not last long at all, and they are scary in the wet. These days I put the MT's on the slug the day before I go racing and I take them off the next day. This is because I do not want to wear them out street driving. But, they still get the job done and they are 2.5 years old, and they have enough tread left to drive to Famoso and back in Feb. I consider them the primary mod that I would recommend for drag racing a powerful Mustang. Even the legendary Carlos (former track record holder at the Willow Drags) finally agreed, although I think his MT DR's are 335's, or some such monster size. But, when you are packing ~1000 HP and can go 120, or more at the Willow Drags, a bigger tire may be indicated.

That's what I'm thinking. Not knowing how much I will or will not need tires is on the back of my mind. If we lived somewhere else where there were multiple days per week / weekly TNT nights at a bunch of drag strips near the metro, I wouldn't be bothered at all. I could even spend multiple TNT nights trying to perfect my launch on these R888s and if I still couldn't find success, then step into a better wheel/tire set-up. Successfully pulling off an 11 is important since there is no telling how many opportunities I will have in the future? Especially considering the great weather I "expect" will be at Famoso in Feb 14.

The only bummer of the Willow Turkey drags was not being able to work on 60fts. Getting to Irwindale and getting a baseline with 60fts will be important, otherwise I feel I will NEED a good drag wheel/tire set-up to help make up for my lack of seat time.

The pics are of some Nitto DR's that I may have run a tad too long. Even Brakelate didn't want them.

Tire_01.jpg

Nice! I'd say you got your money's worth and then some out of those tires!

[Tetge]

Nice! I'd say you got your money's worth and then some out of those tires!

Actually, that is what they looked like after a rather spirited run with Brakelate and Fire818 (a white Cobra vert) from Fillmore through Lake Hughes road, after some Margaritas. Brakelate told me that he was seeing flashes of metalic silver, on my rear tires. But, this was after we motored through the long, windy, canyon, at flank speeds. They did not pop and kill me, but, I certainly would have been uncomfortable had I known how badly they had worn down. My Cobra ate tires big time and they wore more quickly than anticipated that day. When you only get 3500 miles on a tire, you tend to attempt to use it up completely.

But, once again, it was Brakelate's fault, aided by his assistant mug, Fire818. And, as I recall, I also almost ran out fuel that same day, since the pace ended up also consuming much more fuel than anticipated. That Brakelate was a real mug and a bad influence on me.

[jhwalker]

Nice! I'd say you got your money's worth and then some out of those tires!

Actually, that is what they looked like after a rather spirited run with Brakelate and Fire818 (a white Cobra vert) from Fillmore through Lake Hughes road, after some Margaritas. Brakelate told me that he was seeing flashes of metalic silver, on my rear tires. But, this was after we motored through the long, windy, canyon, at flank speeds. They did not pop and kill me, but, I certainly would have been uncomfortable had I known how badly they had worn down. My Cobra ate tires big time and they wore more quickly than anticipated that day. When you only get 3500 miles on a tire, you tend to attempt to use it up completely.

But, once again, it was Brakelate's fault, aided by his assistant mug, Fire818. And, as I recall, I also almost ran out fuel that same day, since the pace ended up also consuming much more fuel than anticipated. That Brakelate was a real mug and a bad influence on me.

Yes. It was always Brakelate's fault.

[jhwalker]

TOTALLY just going from memory here... I am damn sure those who enjoy crunching numbers and with a clearer mind than my own will chime in with exact data;

But, I think the magic number was right around a 1.8 60' time to get you there if everything else thereafter fell into place casually. 1.7's would definitely be there, and I think most of my own 11.7-ish runs were following a 1.68 or so short time. On the occasion I dipped into the 1.5's it was a guaranteed mid 11 pass, and if your car has decent trap speed up around 119-120 mph in the quarter you are at a 11.5 or better, no problem.

My car is sort of strange. It always has done well in overall ET, but consistently falls a couple mile an hour short of other Terminators running similar set up, with matching ET's etc. I have always been in the 118 mph range. But, I always run odd ball tire combos, including left over bias ply's which seem to sap trap speed.

I never did go back and make "THE PASS" with the motor configuration I have been running for the last couple of years, since torching my stock bottom end doing top speed runs on the dry lake in the middle of July. With 4:10's, my current 500 tq / 500 hp to the wheels and traction, I would be at 10.3's in good Famoso air, no problem. But, that is all speculation. And we HATE "best guessing" anything around here. As freakish things happen. Seemingly fast cars can't break into the 11's , while mildly tuned, well driven cars bust into the .3's -under ideal weather conditions-. SO, unless we see it in person, it just isn't worth talking about all the shoulda-coulda-woulda-what-ifs and all that. On the previous board, we even had a "back it up" rule, where you had to repeat a similar ET, within a few % for that number to be recognized, as fluke runs occur. We were (are?) that friggin demanding. There simply is too much bullshit out there. And we want our stuff to be legit.

But, I think those goals should put you in there. Most folks on street tires run 2.2 60' times. You'll HAVE to break into sub 2.0 60's to get anywhere, even into the mid 12's really.

I think the rule was, for every tenth lost on the 60' time, you could double that reduction in a full quarter mile pass. So, the little numbers in 60 foot times means a lot.

Hope that made sense, and helps some.

Sitting around this morning, babying my recent "operation", knowing that I have ONE pain pill left and deciding to save it for an unexpected sneeze, or to deal with falling down the stairs or ???? but memories are bubbling out.

Piggie (an Eaton blower Vert Termi, running 3.90 gears at the time I think -- it was so long ago memory fades) ran 128 in the 1/4 a couple of times. Each time it was at Carlsbad, headlight out, skinnies up front and each time the et was under 11.7 but these were not the 11.51 runs that were the best that Piggie did before my short intense love affair with her ended. We never could figure out how Piggie could run that fast, just on an Eaton. Piggie was very fast when everything was cooking right.

I remember running around in the valley, was where Sherman Way prepares to turn into Platt, and the street is about 6 lanes wide (but only 4 lanes are marked) with the skinnies on and pumped up to about 50 and the aired down M/T ET street bias ply tires out back, cruising at about 3,000 rpm to insure that there were no sneak attacks. Sometimes the sound bouncing around the hills would call out the hot cars hiding away up in the hills. One day an early 70s vintage Plymouth Cuda came out to play, also with skinnies up front and biguns on the back, the owner wearing an engineers cap, fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror, very loud, very rumbly.
We could barely hear each other talk, but exchanged the usual compliments, and I just said "anytime you want, hit it", so he did and got a little jump and piggie hooked and went by him so fast that I was able to back off quickly, point made. He pulled up and had a big grin and said "I was afraid that this was the black Vert I had heard about", tipped his engineers cap and turned off, pipes rumbling. It was one of those mornings that represented the best of the "I love this car" moments. Especially loved not getting arrested.

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

Ronoldo

bite the bullet and buy some MT ET Street DR's. Hawaii Racing in Simi usually has them in stock

[jhwalker]

Ronoldo

bite the bullet and buy some MT ET Street DR's. Hawaii Racing in Simi usually has them in stock

+1
JW