Just find some lightly used MT, M&H, or something like that so your not playing full price.

 

My $.02

There are two distinct types of days I go race on:

Street legal=usually cheap and lots of cars. People go otu to have fun and it is. There usaully no track prep besides brushing the track and cleaning off spots as the night prgresses. Even with good tires I rarely get pass the 1.8 60' after the first few runs. People with regular street tires lay down a bunch of non racing rubber and it hurts the performance of the track.

Bracket days=awesome track prep. You pay more $40-$60 and it's worth it. They spray the first 600 feet and then the first 330 after every round. They are constantly on the track checking conditions. I can put my 2 step at 4000 and launuch with little or nos pin cutting low 1.7s 60 everytime. I get no spin on my shifts.


Learning how to slip that clutch is hard. It's almost like you let out 90% of it immediately and the rest a little slower.

 

Exactly. I would take a note pad and write everything down. Tempature, track condition, Launch RPMs ETC. I have to race my car one way in the heat of the summer and another on the cool fall days in the low 50s. Summer I can two step my car at 5500RPMs and hook like crazy. with lower temps I can only leave around 4 grand and still will get a little spin on full slicks.

 

You can smell the clutch without much effort. Just lower your windows after a couple runs. haha

What tires are you running? I found the sweet spot for my pirellis(worst tires in the world, imho) was about 1800-1900 RPM and feathering the hell out of the clutch.

 

you cant expect to learn how to drive on street tire's over night.

you will need a lot of passes to learn how to drive the car on street tires.


get some M.T. ET street radial's and be done with it. Im with 99GT, why try for a 2.0 60' when you can get a faster et, and "easier" better launch with some better tires?!


You need seat time mainly if you wanna keep with the street tire's.

if your going with 4.10's it's going to make it A LOT harder to launch. With quality tire's (dont get nitto crap) you can really dial it in.

my best launch's are around 4000rpm and i almost dump the clutch and stab the throttle before i pass the light's. but 5.0's are a little different.

 

So nitto is crap? I hope you're wrong about that because I just got some Invo for the front and some NT05 for the rear. I've read nothing but good things until now.

I considered drag radials. In the end I settled on what seemed like one of if not the best street tires you can get. Hopefully even with the gears installed now the car will be easier to launch than it was before.

I realize I'm going to be made fun of for this statement. But I don't like the idea of having a set of dedicated tires for the drag strip. Yes yes I know that means I'm not "serious" about racing. I don't care. The idea that a car can be very fast at a drag strip but slow on the street doesn't sit well with me. Say what you want.

 

Nitto's aren't bad, there are better D/R's out there. I want to get some MT's, but am way too poor. haha

AM4.6 actually got a nice sub 2.0 60 time with his 555's.

 

The 555R were the ones I was thinking about getting because they might last a bit longer than MT if I were to drive them on the street at all. Kind of a compromise between the two.

Decided on the NT05 because they should wear better and are supposed to give you some great traction for a street tire. Or so I've read. I won't be going back to the track for at least a month so I won't know for a while whether they'll be enough to help me out w/my 60'.

 

Well I dont know that I would listen to me over Brice (American Speed) as he ran 12.8 with just a CAI/Tune. I never ran better than 12.91. Of course I like to think it was my 280 lb weight at the time but..... The point is some cars can be launched from a lower rpm like Scott's (13.2 in a 100% stock 2005) who left from 3000 rpm and cut a best of 1.83 60'. He tried that in my car and never did better than 2.01 (bog city). My car is quickest with a touch of tire slip. His was quickest when you never squeeked a tire and controlled it all with the clutch.

1. Intial spin: reduce rpm or increase slip
2. Initial hook followed by spin... Decrease rate of throttle increase or increase time of clutch slip.
3. Bog only... raise rpm
4. Spin then bog.... Increase clutch slip and rpm.

That's what works for me in my car but even two good drivers in the same car may use different techniques and two identical cars may require significantly different techniques. These are just a place to start from. From their its simply practice and experience and your developed style may be a bit different from another equal driver.

 

Well I call nitto crap because I run mickey thompson's.

compared to them they are crap.


ive daily drivin my car everyday (except from early november to about feb because of the snow) with the ET Street radial's on the car. through rain and such too. Not that bad as long as you drive with some sence.

I bought these tire's on august 3rd of last year, and have about 9-10k mile's on them. I remember the date because my birthday is on august 5th and the tire's where a "gift" to myself. lol.

anyway.

The car has been to the track atleast 5time's sence then, 5-8 passes each visit with a light burnout each pass.


they are officially DONE. they dont stick as good as they use too, and the "tread" on them are low enough that they are starting to look more like slick's now.... and they are down right SCARY in the rain. Light drizzle the other day the car got sideway's at 40mph about 30-40% throttle in 4th gear.



my point is, you CAN daily drive on micky thompson tire's. they do fine in the rain and such.

Only real issue is your only going to really get 10-15k mile's out of them. even less if you go to the track alot. Plus it's $400 for a rear set of em. But they are basically slick's you can drive on the street. you wont find a tire but a full out slick that will grab as good as these. how hard they grab even when cold is amazing.

with all this said. I will be replacing these mickey thompson's soon.......... with even bigger ET Street radials. Going from a 9.5" tire, to 11.5", and 26" tall to 28" tall