Hi,

Last sunday I managed to go and run few quarter mile runs in Alastaro track with normal street tires.
There were a rain shower, but the track was dry after a while, but two first runs were ruined by slipping tires with third gear.
Four last run were good, or I was very pleased to them.
Times were not so good, 13.1, 13.2, 13.2 and 13.3 sec., but the point, which make me smile, was that all the four run's had terminal speed above 185 km/h (115 mph) ! Best was 186.53 km/h = 115.929 mph .
First and second gear was pure sliding (pumping the gas up and down trying to find grip ).

Next weekend we have the first of two major quarter mile event in our summer and for that event I have bought Hoosier DOT approved tires, so wait and see what the times will be. Personally I'm looking low 12 sec, but like last summer, nothing is so sure than unsure .

- Jari -

Is there any reason why you have to use DOT approved tyres? Just some of the non-approved drag tyres are a lot more grippy due to their tyre construct.

Hi John,

Yes, we are in Street Man class or something like that. And there you have to have "legal" equipment, so tires has to be radial tires and DOT approved and both things match in Hoosier tires.

With these tires we are allowed to run in normal traffic, although the tires are not recommended to that kind of use.
They are quite soft ones, Treadware value 40, this same value in my Bridgestone is 200 or 220.

Other thing is that if I use pure drag tire, I need to be take part in competition class and because of the terminal speed above 180 km/h (111.8 mph) I would need roll cage in my car.

- Jari -

well good luck anyway!! Maybe high 11s if the track is good?

Thanks!

One important thing, last Sunday all my 60ft times were between 2.3s .. 2.5s in those four best runs.
And Ragnar from Estonia managed to get 1.932s with Mickey Thompson ET drag radials, which are more or less same kind of tires as Hoosier are.
Also track in Estonia is concrete one, not real drag track like Alastaro track is here in Finland.

Based on these facts, I'm willing to wait good times .
But, but ... weather (last year rained whole day ), clutch and other technical things in car can ruin all the dreams .

- Jari -

Im sure that you can manage at least 1.8s 60ft times on a decent drag strip. That would surely mean 12.3-12.4s 1/4mile times. Good luck!

when my coupè was anterior traction, my best time in 60ft (18m) was 2.080sec with slick avon tires.
Now (4x4) my best time is of 1.734sec with stock tires (BRIDGESTONE S02). i did it in france . In italy 1.780sec.
After summer i'll try toyo R888.

Hi,

Time for report !

New record done, BUT not with Hoosier tires . They are way too grippy tires to Alastaro track!! Clutch slide through badly with 1st and 2nd and also partly with 3rd gear .

New record with Bridgestone Potenza S-03 tires is now 12.843 sec and 184.58 km/h (114.72 mph), 60ft 2.100 sec, 1/8 mile 8.574 sec / 144.22 km/h ( 89.6 mph).
Weather was fine, +25 deg C sunny day and some headwind.

Now to the Hoosier tires:
Firstly I had tire pressure of 2.8 bar (40.6 psi) to assure the wheel spin, my friend had 3 bar (43.51 psi). He ran first and after his run he said that something was slipping, he thought that most likely the tires, because they are new and he didn't done real burn-out to pre-heat the tires.
Okay, my turn , I made a proper burn out with nice white smoke cloud , then I choose the line so, that there was plenty of rubber on it.
Starting line pumping with gas pedal pressure to the turbo, green light and clutch up. Shit, feeling was imaging, car started to accelerate like el. car , like rubber band, then slipping (I thought the tires), second gear and slipping continued. Then I realized that it is the clutch, quickly to the third gear and finish line. It was a disaster run, clutch was juddering and I had to push the pedal couple cm deeper to feel it release.
My friend was near by me , as assistance, and he told that the tires were never slipped during my run .

Then back to paddock to think what to do, we decided to add tire pressure and not pre-heat the tires and choose the line so where quite a few runs has been done .
I put 3.2 bar (46.41 psi) and my friend 3.5 bar (50.76 psi) pressure to the tires to get some wheel spin.

Noup, it didn't help, we couldn't get the tires sliding at all.

All together I made three runs with the Hoosier tires and best was 12.967 sec / 182.97 km/h (113.71 mph), 60ft 2.165 sec.
Then I changed back to the Bridgestone tires and made one run with new record.

Hoosier tires are marvellous, but not for our clutches and Alastaro track. I have Walkers Garage uprated sinter metall package and my friend has also sinter metall clutch.

I'm sure that the Hoosier tires will give the best benefit to our cars in very rough track (concrete or bad old asphalt).
But track like Alastaro, which has glue (not gluied for the race last Sunday) and really lots of rubber on it, we have no "weapons" to adjust the grip.

My clutch is now quite bad condition, when lifting it judders and for example this morning I couldn't get gear in. I had to stop the car and put the gear first in and after that start the engine. While driving gearbox functions well.

Now I have myself a big question: What to do with the tires, I'm never going to use them in Alastaro anymore. We have some quarter mile races, which have "bad" track conditions, where I guess the tires will do, but what about the clutch itself, does it stand all the torque because of the tires.

Now we need top find tires between the Hoosier and street tires, which could suit us in Alastaro track, which is still the best one in Finland to get the real time.

So, that was shortly the story of very grippy tires.
As I wrote earlier, there are always many BUT's .

- Jari -

Congrats Jari... Im amazed on the times you make with std internals and all I wonder what times I would do here in Denmark also with my setup

Last weekend didn't go very well for me either. Had no grip at the 1/8mile event. The track was slippery asphalt and the best I could manage was 8.684s @ 140.xx kmh / 60ft 2.204s. Thought i could do at least a 2.1s 60ft time but that was impossible. I used my Mickey Thompson ET Drag slicks but I could have as well used my street tires due to the lack of grip with slicks on asphalt.

Hoosier and Mickey Thompson tires seem to be really different... i had 1.1bar pressure in my slicks when i did the 1.9s 60ft time.

BF Goodrich G-Force Drag/TA are possibly a compromise between the Hoosiers and a street tyre.

Or even something like a toyo R888 or a Michelin Pilot Sport Cup

Yes, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires are the one, which I have been looking for at the moment.
Treadware of Cup tires is 80 and also there is available sizes, that I can have profile of 50 to get "softer" tire frame.

With the Hoosier tires, I can imagine to be able to run better in very bad track quality, because then I can play with tire pressure and pre-heating.
16.6 there will be one quarter mile run in airfield, which has quite rough track. I'm not sure if I can managed to go there, but my friend with the other set of Hoosier tires is going there. I will post the results of the car and alsof the behaviour of the tires.

My clucth is really in "shit" shape , it still holds all the torque I'm using, but getting the gears in, when the car stands still, is quite difficult.
Also in high revs and high boost it "crutch", I guess it tries to slip.

So next service will be most likely "clucth change" .
I've been very satisfied to the Walkers package and I will most likely buy new one from them, if there is no one who knows even better one (single plate). Whole + 2 years that I have had it, my max torque has been above 360 lb-ft (+500 Nm).

- Jari -

You could try running the Hoosiers with a lower pressure, the resulting flex in the sidewall might offer a degree of cushioning to the drivetrain. Not sure what they are like but most drag tyres have virtually no sidewall support at all so the wheel turns and kind of catapults the tyre a split second later.