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Advice for fellow TR owners from Tom Shea Racing
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Component Matching #5
Page 3
If varying within the range of allowable rim widths for a given set of tires, always go for the widest ones recommended by the tire manufacturer, that can be used on your car. Wider rim fitments allow more air pressure used in the tire for an even cross tread contact patch. This allows the tire tread cross-section to lay flat against the pavement with even pressure distribution.
Uniform pressure can be checked by using the tips in the Max Boost Tires and air bags tech article. This along with many other Max Boost tech articles are posted on the MGNTA (Minnesota Grand National & TType Association) website. MGNTA.com.
When choosing a pair of tires for straight line acceleration performance. It should go without saying to get them mounted and balanced on their own specific wheels.
The choices include slicks, D.O.T.s and or drag radials. These are all compromises in their own categories. They will perform well at the specific task but should not be used outside the scope of their design.
I like D.O.Ts since they perform almost as well as slicks of the same size. The difference can be almost immeasurable. D.O.T.s can be driven legally on the street and can be used in classes of racing that don’t allow slicks. So unless you get a deal on a pair of slicks you may want to consider D.O.Ts instead.
D.O.T. stands for department of transportation. When a tire is approved for use on public streets and highways they will be stamped with a DOT seal and a serial number. If driving them on the street it would be good to have these markings to the outboard side just in case the authorities become interested. DOTs wear very quickly and can become illegal in short order, keep an eye on your wear bars.
When running these tires try to keep that in mind since it’s very easy to get comfy in cruising in our very comfortable luxury toys. Cornering and handling are not the kind of thing you want to take lightly. If you get caught in some rain you should be in for a very slow long drive home.
That having been said it’s hard to resist the true advantage these tires have over anything else.
Traction is everything, “Spinnin Aint Winnin”. Even if you have an opponent covered by as much as a full second or even more. If they have better traction to any great degree, you will definitely have a difficult time of it at best. I can attest to this first hand form both sides. Get cocky and lose to a much slower car even if you think you can drive past them once you hook up. Sounds easy but it might be more difficult than you think.
If you want to leave easy, you can do it with good traction tires on your car. If you want to put power down to the pavement you may not be able to do that to the extent necessary with tires of lesser traction.
Drag Radials are a midway compromise choice between the extreme traction of wrinkle wall slicks and their DOT counterparts at the high end of the scale and the highway radials we use for normal driving at the low / least traction end of the straight-line traction performance scale.
There are several DRs to choose from in our cars sizes. Some have different tread patterns and tread groove depths as well as softer and harder compounds. I have a set of these for driving and cruising. I use my general purpose highway radials for long distance travel and for storing the car on in the off season. I have a pair of DOTs for serious racing.
Our cars have a small rear wheel well for being large and powerful enough to need more tire. It’s too bad the clearance there is so limited. The 26 inch tall height restriction for us is very limiting. There are some wider sizes but they only come taller as well. These only work if you are willing to do some surgery to your tire wells, possibly including your frame rails. Not an option for most of us TR owners.
# 13, Suspension. In my opinion the GM 4 link in the rear is a good compromise with poly graphite bushings. I like a heavier thicker rear sway bar. This will not only help in handling but also in drag-racing. It’s unusual for a component to be complimentary to both. A pair of air bags in the coils plumbed independently is also recommended.
The extra body braces are never a bad idea. The front end is good except for the possibility of the right front upper A arm rear bushing which is in a very high temp place and may need to be replaced. I like the standard shocks, there is very little to gain and a lot of well behaved driving to loose by going to drag shocks for most of us.
Look for torque converters and turbos in the next installment.
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