1989 Mustang, Driver / Drag / LSR

[Russell]

Tried to go to the 1/8 last Thursday, got Rained out so after the NC State Victory! on sunday I hauled butt to Fayetteville to run the 1/4. Made 7 passes in a Hour and could have made twice that it was dead. Had a hard getting it to 60' (seems to be a constant theme). Kind of a new PB quickest pass: 2.28, 9.31 @ 77.40, 14.34 @ 97.93. Fastest pass: 2.57, 9.54 @ 78.00, 14.53 @ 99.21. So it was .08 faster than last time at this track and the 1st time it went 99 (I really want it to run over 100). My 1/8 was a couple tenths off my best pass, and I had some crappy passes. A hour at the track took car of my speed fix for a few days!

next time I take it to the track I am going to put the Drag Lites with old school BFG T/As maybe they will hook a little better than the Korea specials. I need to get a High amp relay and temp controler for my mark 8 fan. I bet its worth a tenth!

[milner351]

That's not bad at all on street tires. Put drag radials on it or slicks if you want to improve the 60ft. that's a lot of runs in an hour - I really miss when we could run like that at milan on club nights.

[Scott Liggett]

Tried to go to the 1/8 last Thursday, got Rained out so after the NC State Victory! on sunday I hauled butt to Fayetteville to run the 1/4. Made 7 passes in a Hour and could have made twice that it was dead. Had a hard getting it to 60' (seems to be a constant theme). Kind of a new PB quickest pass: 2.28, 9.31 @ 77.40, 14.34 @ 97.93. Fastest pass: 2.57, 9.54 @ 78.00, 14.53 @ 99.21. So it was .08 faster than last time at this track and the 1st time it went 99 (I really want it to run over 100). My 1/8 was a couple tenths off my best pass, and I had some crappy passes. A hour at the track took car of my speed fix for a few days!

next time I take it to the track I am going to put the Drag Lites with old school BFG T/As maybe they will hook a little better than the Korea specials. I need to get a High amp relay and temp controler for my mark 8 fan. I bet its worth a tenth!

I've gotten 2.10 60 ft times pretty consistently with T/A's. They don't hook very well at all on my car.

[Beagle]

I've always enjoyed T/A's for their capacity to spin. Kind of like Firehawk (?) Firestones or rock hard Gatorbacks on my LX. Not. I don't miss them. At all. The Nitto's are a bunch better on my junk for pretty cheap. I do almost kinda miss the Comp T/A that supershops used to have good deals on.

Maybe if you dip them in a vat of VHT it would help. Sorry to sound fussy about them, I'd personally avoid them though.

My experience with Hankook and Kuhmo recently have not been all that good either. They wear fast for being no softer than they are, they are loud, they suck in the rain, and traction is iffy. I never really noticed until I had an argument at TireRack and they put four new General's on my Escape (removed Kuhmo's with 10k miles) on a dare. They were right. I haven't liked Generals in years, but these kicked the crap out of the Continentals that came on it (trash) and the Kuhmos. Quiter, better ride, better rain handling, better traction, holy crap, just better. The 95 Lightning has Hankooks on it (budget) because the tire size is getting limited attention (275 60 17) and you either pony up serious coin or shut up and deal with it. I won't buy another set - it was a false economy. They won't stay balanced, and I've never had a problem with any other tire on this truck. It's had Comp T/A's (worn out hardened old crap), two sets of Eagle GT II's (Surprisingly good), and now these. I may ask for an exchange on them.

I had Goodyears and Nittos on both the 98 Mustang and the 2000 Ligthning. I preferred the F1's on the Lightning (but OMG $$$) for wear, traction, and weirdly enough, they put more/better feedback into the steeringwheel than the Nittos did (555). They were heavier feeling, but you got more clues about whether it was happy or about to loop on you. Important stuff in a driver.

Sadly, the 15's are getting fewer and fewer choices and the 16's are starting to thin out as well. I'm figuring it's worth it and getting a set of Drag Radials if I can't find a set of decent 26" or 28" slicks. When I get around to putting tires on the LX Notch, I'll probably look at g-forces or Nittos. The reason I went off on this "who gives a sh*t" rant is to mention my experiences and suggest that you will be miles ahead in happiness if you buy the right tires for what you are wanting and consider them a non-budgetable safety item.... a requirement, not a nice to have.

[Russell]

Maybe if you dip them in a vat of VHT it would help. Sorry to sound fussy about them, I'd personally avoid them though.

They came on the set of Drag lites $400 for 15x3 and 15x8 with like new tires all the way around could not pass them up. I have been kind of looking for a set of (lightly used cheap) sticky tires.

[milner351]

Tires, they never stay the same and the suppliers are always changing. I wouldn't put kumho or hankook on anything I cared about.

I still like Michelins on anything you're going to keep, they always seem to be the quietest, best for fuel economy and last.

[Russell]

The other day I was changing the tire on my mustang and I notice an little play in the rack and pinion. The left tie rod would move in and out before it would contact and drag the right tire. I assume I need a new rack It has not been that long that I put a rack on it. While I was there I was trying to look for anything else warn out, how do you tell if the ball joints are bad?

[Beagle]

I grab top and bottom with the tire off the ground and push back and forth. Neanderthal, and easier with a helper. I'd check the tie rod ends... with the wheels up, push and pull right and left with a good helper to tell you when or if the rack arms start to move. I am dang close to buying a Go Pro and a bean bag tripod so I can see/hear what happened since my helpers don't always know what I'm thinking (my communication grunts fail a lot.)

You might also get same helper to roll steering wheel back and forth and watch for rack v. tie rod movement.

Last, but first thing I'd think about - check the rag joint and see if the movement even gets to the rack. Front end loaded (on the ground) is the way I'd do this.

[1trickpony]

Off topic I know. But I saw it and thought of your car. You ever thought about doing a ranger front chin spoiler? Looks pretty good and helps cool, mpg, and I am sure would help down force or something for LSr.

[Russell]

Put the draglites on the car and took it to Piedmont. Made 5 passes the air was pretty bad. The last pass was my quickest 2.201, 9.241 @ 76.94 I had one other pass that was alittle faster 77.07 MPH where very consitant that night ETs not so much. My 60' was .02 quicker but ET was .12 slower than my PB so the BFG might be hooking a little harder? Or maybe I just got a little luckier. Going to go pick up some used drag radials tomorrow! Hopfully they will make me look like a better driver, and not break anything on the car. I know a driveshaft loop is a must for slicks, is it a should or shall for drag radials?



This angle of this side just after a wash looks pretty good
;)

[mlcraven]

Cheap insurance and an excellent idea regardless of the rules. Read Brian's blog entry about the Buford T Justice chassis dyno kablooey event.

[CDMBill]

Are you spinning them as hard as you can as long as you can out of the gate? The 60 ft.s are pretty bad for the rest of the numbers. I wonder if you can make any adjustments to aid weight transfer and tire plant.

[Russell]

Bill,

What do you mean by "Are you spinning them as hard as you can as long as you can out of the gate?" The last few times I have been to the strip. My goal has been to not spin the tires. I more or less launch at idle or just above and try not to dump the clutch to fast. My exprance with street tires my times are quicker by taking it easy off the line. I have not gotten my M/Ts mounted yet I hope they don't cause more trouble than they are worth. Car still has 3.08 gear. The suspention is all stock except for the KYB AGX shocks and struts. They are "adjustable" The front have 4 settings the back 10. I think the fronts are on 1 the back 6-8 I would have to check. I am sure there are a ton of things that can be done to make it better.

[BBR]

Get that 60 under 2 seconds and you are looking at a solid 13 second car. A set of ET Streets would make a huge difference I think.

[CDMBill]

Bill,

What do you mean by "Are you spinning them as hard as you can as long as you can out of the gate?" The last few times I have been to the strip. My goal has been to not spin the tires. I more or less launch at idle or just above and try not to dump the clutch to fast. My exprance with street tires my times are quicker by taking it easy off the line. I have not gotten my M/Ts mounted yet I hope they don't cause more trouble than they are worth. Car still has 3.08 gear. The suspention is all stock except for the KYB AGX shocks and struts. They are "adjustable" The front have 4 settings the back 10. I think the fronts are on 1 the back 6-8 I would have to check. I am sure there are a ton of things that can be done to make it better.

I should have asked the question a different way. As BBR notes the 60 ft times are slow compared to the rest of the intervals so there is more left in it from driving technique. Most street driven stick cars benefit from a bit of spin at the launch and its a matter of trying different rpm until you hit the best combination. You'll be able to launch significantly better wth slicks, bias or radial construction than with drag radials. 26 x 8.5's should do the trick. As to the shocks the question with a single adjustable is what it si adjusting. Usually its just compression a 'handling' shock which isn't as helpful as being able to manage extention or rebound. And finally there is temporarily disconecting one fo the fornt sway bar links which often helps weight transfer by freeing up the fornt end a bit.