I am considering getting some sticky tires for a day at the strip. Hope to snag me one of those "Hero" time slips I can brag about.
Trans is a T56. I need a 16" rim to clear the rear brakes. I would mount the wheels at the strip, so street handling is secondary, But the tires have to be DOT legal. They wont let you run slicks without a driveshaft loop here.
I searched and it seems a bias ply is better for manuals ? Also less likely to break things ?

 

Bias is much better, especially for consistency on a stick. Mickey ET streets and Hoosier QuickTime Pro's are both great DOT approved "slicks" with multiple sizes for 16" rims

 

Agreed. I'd go with the Hoosier QTP if you're looking for bias ply, or if you want a drag radial a Hoosier DR. You should be able to find a set of cheap Camaro or T/A 16" wheels.

 

Qtp
... Will work much better than a DR

 

M/T ET Street bias plys. A driveshaft loop is a very good idea.

 

My buddy runs a '69 Camaro with a Jerico and if I'm not mistaken you can't run a radial with a stick. We run Hoosier DOT drag radials and love them! They'll hook in a car wash. I used to run Hoosier DOT bias ply tires and loved those too ... that's where I'd start. Call Hoosier and talk to them. You should be able to find a set of F-body 16" wheels cheap and easily.

Scott

 

You CAN run radials with a stick - they just aren't as consistent and they hit the drivetrain harder.

OP..QTPs or MT ET Streets are your best bets. I can't find a single post really saying definitively that the ET Streets are better than the QTPs and in fact I find a lot the opposite (opinions of course). So I recommend the QTPs. I run them and they last a good while and are good tires.

 

On your issue with the track requiring a DS loop: make sure they don't consider ET Streets and QTP's "slicks". After all, they are slicks with little tread grooves. Unless they just care about the "DOT" stamp.

Al

 

My local track "frowns upon but allows DOT slicks without a loop" I'm in the same boat, no loop but only reason I can't find a 93-02 fbody specific one that fits 3.5" shafts. I'm not worried though my driveshaft is rated at 1000+hp and I got less than half of that

 

People can make radials work but somethings gotta give and the tires aren't forgiving on hard launches so you better get used to "slipping the clutch" to make em work. I fought them for 2 race seasons and my 60 foots would look like this on a typical day 1.95, 1.81, 2.1, 1.75, 1.93, 1.78.....all over the place, either didn't slip it enough and roasted them or slipped it to much and just plain left slow then I'd get a lucky "hooking pass" every now and then, now ever since my 26x11.5x15 mickey et street bias ply, every pass is 1.61-1.65 slow dumping about 5800-6400rpm, only time it's ever worse than that is if I leave to low of rpm it hooks and bogs, and this is at little to no prep track on Friday night street car heads up nights.

 

I'm confident with a 28" tire my car would go mid to low 1.5's but it'd be wash I think with how much my 4th gear would be bogging at the end of the track with only 4.11's

 

MWC ds loop should do you the trick iowa ws6. Seems lot of folks are running Hoosiers with good success.

 

I'll have to check them out! I got a stock style long BMR torque arm and all the stand alone loops I've seen that don't come with a short torque arm say 3" max

 

Thanks for the replies.
On the driveshaft loop, With my car being lowered I had to lift the back of the trans as high as possible to correct the u-joint angles. There is zero room above the driveshaft for a loop. Is a half loop (just below the dshaft) acceptable ? . I am concerned with safety so have a $$$ carbon driveshaft that wont pole vault the car if it breaks(unlikely).
Track tech guys here don't want to hear that though. They read from the rule book, I have seen it before.
I have some "vintage" 16x8 IROC wheels already just for the task of mounting stickies..

 

Absolutely.
We have had very good success on a 26x11.50x16 MT ET Street. Just make sure that you are either running skinnies up front or bias ply fronts. Wide radials up front coupled with bias ply rear tires can be disastrous.

 

Ive used both MT Et street bias and Hoosier QTPs in my 6 speed. My car liked the Hoosiers 26x11.5x15 I believe the size was. I ran cheapo kuhmo skinnies with bias rears and had minimal problems street or strip. Goodluck

 

That scares me. I have 245/50-16 radials up front. You are saying it will be dangerous at speed with those ? I am not interested in swapping the fronts as well. I may trash the whole slick idea then and just stick with roll races....

 

It isn't that bad in my experience at least on an 11second car, I can imagine problems on a single digit car though. The past 2 years I have made 11 trips driving 70 miles each way to the track and back making 8-10 passes each trip with no tire swap running 26x11.5x15 ET Streets in the rear and 255/45/17 radials up front.

 

The ET bias plys are definitely smooshie around town. At the track I had no problems with them in the rear with 275/40-17s up front, I only trap 107s though.

 

Unless you have low Hp I would stay away from ET streets. Without a Question the Hoosier Quick Time Pros are DOMINATE.