Drag slick compound. School me!

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Frank Mopar

Frank Mopar

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So I'm buying new slicks. Race car only. I get the part one is softer, stiffer walls, Drag vs street, Bias vs radial, Blah blah. And yes I have surfed the net and the website. So let's talk about the compound ONLY. Why would you not buy the softest compound? Anybody have experience switching compounds? THANKS!
 
Soft compounds are for light weight cars -dragsters ect.
Harder compounds are for heavier cars and some hard compounds are fro Stick shift cars
 
[ame]http://www.racegoodyear.com/tires/pdf/drag_tire_compound.pdf[/ame]

Here this explains it
 
I used D5 stiff sidewall on a 3050 lb car and it worked great .The chart said it wouldn't. I wonder if different manufacturer has different ratings?They were 32x16
 
dwire67 said:
Soft compounds are for light weight cars -dragsters ect.
Harder compounds are for heavier cars and some hard compounds are fro Stick shift cars
Click to expand...
wait a minute here? I have to run a different compound with my stick shift car?
 
I run MTs. M5 compound, 2785lbs. They seem to last long and wear well.
 
I talked to some of the Comp teams running a stick with radials. Obviously with as fast as they are you can do it. They all said you have to run a totally different clutch set up with radials. They leave around 6500 instead of 8000-9500 with a bias tire. Stick cars usually require a stiff side wall bias tire. A heavy automatic bracket car just run a drag radial with 16 to 20 psi and hard compound.
 
All tire manufactures have there own compounds
This is Phoenix Compound Ratings
Soft Medium Firm
F30 F9 F14
Compounds General Application Suggestions:
F30 - Soft, better traction, best suited for light cars (Under 2500 lbs.)
F9 - Medium, better traction, best all around compound, works well on most cars regardless of weight
F14 - Medium / Hard, good traction, best suited for heavy cars and cars with standard shift
 
fklskv said:
So I'm buying new slicks. Race car only. I get the part one is softer, stiffer walls, Drag vs street, Bias vs radial, Blah blah. And yes I have surfed the net and the website. So let's talk about the compound ONLY. Why would you not buy the softest compound? Anybody have experience switching compounds? THANKS!
Click to expand...

How fast is the car and what size slick are you running under it? What tire have you been using?
 
MT....M5 - Good compound for general use

Hoosier... D06 Compound for general use....

I dont think you are running Comp...PS or TF....
 
D-50394 said:
How fast is the car and what size slick are you running under it? What tire have you been using?
Click to expand...

No clue. Just bought the car.

So anyway I settle on the goodyear 28x10.5-15. Order them up from Jegs. In stock. No problem. Now they back order them until august. Guess what. National back order. The people at goodyear say they are about to whip up a new batch. So much for goodyear
 
My MT Street ET Radials are slick at the track trough all the gears(340-4-speed).....never tried a bias tire on my car yet but what I have is way better than regular street tires.....
 
Here are the Hoosier tire specs and a compound chart at the bottom of the slick section if you want to do some research. I've been running the Hoosier lightweight 9" radial slicks because I'm limited to 9". I could run the bias ply and they'd be more consistent on marginal tracks. But I'm usually on well preepped tracks and radials are normally a little faster. As mentioned earlier in the thread, 06 and also 07 are commonly used for doorslammers. Each combo has it's own "best" compound. But Hoosier tech can offer their advice.

https://www.hoosiertire.com/specdrag.htm

But to answer one of your questions, a too soft of a compound for the application will wear them out faster than normal. It may even hurt traction. Weight, weight transfer, the "hit", etc. all play a part. One of the most surprising things I've seen many years ago is a big block stick Camaro with the front end a couple of feet in the air actually slipping the rear tires! Some applications simply wouldn't work if it dead-hooked. There may be some advantage to experimenting with minor compound changes because each combo is different.
 
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