Improve Your Tire Traction With the Right Tires for Drag Racing
Drag racing may have started out in southern California’s dry lakebeds, but it quickly expanded to dedicated strips and has become part of the iconography of America. Serious drag racing calls for vehicle modifications and specialized parts, including tires.
Racing tires are designed for the high speeds drag racers achieve, and they differ from regular road tires in several important ways. They can range from soft rubber to enhance traction to harder finishes that blend solid traction with more durability. There are different styles of racing tires, and choosing the right one can help you enhance traction and improve your drag racing game. Here are some top tire styles made especially for drag racing.
Drag Slicks
One of the classic tire styles for drag racing is drag slicks. These specialized tires have no tread. The smooth surface contacts the pavement at all times, which allows for maximum traction, even at high speeds and during sudden acceleration.
Slicks are available in radial and bias ply construction styles. Many experienced racers prefer bias ply slicks, which allow for a hard, fast start. Drag radials, however, also have a solid following among drag racing enthusiasts.
Drag Radials
Drag radials feature some level of tread and are approved by the Department of Transportation for limited use on streets. However, the tread pattern is minimal and will not provide comfortable or even safe driving during rainy and damp conditions.
Drag radials, which provide lots of traction on the racing track while allowing some street driving, are a solid choice if you do some non-racing driving in your dragster. While you need to use care in choosing tires designed for racing, your vehicle’s maintenance needs to be handled with the same exacting attention. If you like to maintain your vehicle yourself, an accurate wiring diagram for your make and model will help you understand how your car works.
Cheater Slicks
Cheater slicks are basically drag slicks with a pattern of two parallel grooves. This pattern was developed in the 1960s. These types of tires are not commonly used now, except when a lover of classic cars wants to recreate the vintage look from the 1960s era. In fact, many cheater slicks come with classic white wall styling.
Some cheater slicks feature a pattern on the outside edges that looks like the edges of a pie crust. Not surprisingly, these tires are called pie crust slicks. Modern advances in tire design and construction render cheater slicks generally obsolete, but enthusiasts still use them to give dragsters a classic, bygone look.
Balance Weight for Enhanced Performance
Selecting the right tires for your vehicle and drag racing life is important, but you can take other steps to improve your vehicle’s racing performance. One such step is shifting and balancing the weight in your vehicle, which improves handling by improving traction and boosting speed. You can do this by relocating your battery. A trunk mount battery kit makes this work easier.
The right tires for drag racing can take your experience from blah and bleary to fast and fun. An experienced automotive tire specialist can help you choose the best drag racing tires for your needs. Once they are installed, you are off to the races.
