Hoosier DOT Slicks vs MT ET Street SS
 

I received one of my two new Hoosiers yesterday. They are way different than my MTs. My first impression is that they're so light and thin I worry whether they'll last very long. I took some photos of them side-by-side and did a little Googling to see what others think about the Hoosier DOT slicks. Photos and comparison follow.

I'd appreciate any input from racers who have experience with the Hoosier slicks in general and DOT slicks specifically. I also have a few questions below.

1. How many passes do you get on your Hoosiers (size tire, wheel/rim width & height, approx weight of car, 60 ft, ET, etc.)

2. Do you put any tire protectant on your sidewalls?

Hoosier 17345 DR2 DOT Slick at Jegs $253.99 ea (free shipping)


My Tires:
Side-by-side facing tread. It's easy to see the difference in size and tread.
Attachment 919641
Tread-to-tread you can see that the Hoosier tread appears to be a bit wider.
Attachment 919642

Comparing sidewalls you can see how much less sidewall the Hoosier has.
I'd like to have had more that would require going to a 17" wheel.
Attachment 919643


[Tread Width]

Although the MTs are listed as 12.4" wide tread and Hoosiers are supposed to be 12.2", the Hoosiers look slightly wider. See photos above.

[Rubber Compounds]

The Hoosiers feel a lot softer and more "gooey" to the touch. Some of this could be due to the MT's age. They have 51 passes on them and 300 miles of street driving to/from the drag strip. My burnouts on the DRs have been mostly quick rolling burnouts but the first pass in each set of hot-laps usually gets a 5-8 sec line lock. Some on-line references say to just scuff up the Hoosiers rather than an extended burnout.

[Weight Difference]

First thing I noticed is how extemely light the Hoosiers are - a svelt 26 lbs. That's 12 lbs lighter per tire than my fat 38 lb MTs. The good part of that is that there's less rotational mass to rob energy from my launch. The bad part might be lifespan. It sure feels like there isn't much rubber on those 5 plies. It's so easy to push down on the unmounted tire. Feels like there's maybe 3/16" of total thickness. I'm wondering how many passes I'll get from them. Some Googling found a wide range of lifespans for Hoosier DOT slicks. Some claim over 150 passes while others get 40 if they're lucky.

[Height Difference]

The Hoosiers are 25.9" dia., almost 2" shorter than my 27.8" MTs. That was what I wanted to give me more power at higher revs out of the starting gate. Having the larger contact patch should keep me from spinning too much. With the DOT slick tread, virtually the entire 12.2" width is in contact with the surface. The MT has a street tread that reduces the effective contact patch by roughly 20-25% of its claimed 12.4" tread.

[Ordering and Shipping]

Jegs was real good about getting the Hoosiers ordered and shipped out quickly. I ordered them on the 8th and one of them arrived on the 10th. Too bad FedEx fell on their ass again. I always seem to have trouble with FedEx packages. Jegs customer support is the best I've ever seen, though. When I called them today they answered in less than 1 min. She knew who I was and already had my order up on her screen. Within 2 min the rep had a tracer on my package and promised to call me in the morning with current status. They just guaranteed a repeat customer...


Hopefully I'll find out next weekend how well they work. We're in a rather soggy weather pattern here in Eastern NC lately but next Sunday looks like a fair weather window. I was hoping for 50s but low 60s will do if it stays dry.

--Cal

I've run both and prefer a Mickey Thompson ET Street R over the Hoosier slicks I had. Technical specs, it's been so long since I had the Hoosiers now so I can't remember much outside of them just being a 28" tall bias ply. Swapped to 26" tall radial Mickeys and will never go back.

My main thing though was the bias ply sway. I didn't like the way the car felt. On the other hand, I know people that run them with no complaints. I also drive my car on them on the street a good bit, so the stability I felt with the radial ET Street R was something I really liked.

That tire is too short, it could cause issues with your abs. I run a 28x10-17 and I put 130 runs on my last year. I put the same tire back on this year. I've only had mine sway if I had a side wind and never had that after I took my rear spoiler off. Some of the guys who at NA run that shorter tire, its really too short for a SC car in my opinion

These are drag radial slicks, not bias ply. I wanted to go with the Street R but they didn't list one with 12" tread for my 18x12 wheels.

I was getting that tail-wagging sway with my MTs from mid-track on too with light sidewinds. I felt like it was the taller sidewall and low inflation.

Thanks for the insights.

--Cal

I hope I don't see ABS issues. I covered this issue in the other thread: "Help selecting replacement DRs" (see post #20) and feel reasonably sure the size difference (F to R) won't affect performance.

That's encouraging you got 130 runs on your 28x10-17's.

I guess we'll see when I run them next - hopefully next weekend.

--Cal

I've ran both, and tend to like the M/T tire better. The Hoosier is closer to a true drag tire than the M/T but for that you lose the ability to street it like the M/T does. The Hoosier tends to flex a lot more and wiggle both on the track and the street. In all reality, the right tire for the track has no business on the street at all, so it's hard to say a good track tire and be a good street tire as well. My 60' was actually better running M/T's in my last car (I have not ran Hoosiers on my 6th gen). You get a healthy grip with the Hoosier compared to the M/T, but you have to drive them differently. If you drive the M/T like the Hoosier you are probably going to break something lol. I'm sorry if this was all mentioned, I didn't have time to read all the post in this as I'm killing time before a meeting. In your pictures it does look like you may have went down a size with the Hoosier which will effect your performance running it compared to the M/T.

I think this is an important point. I am not sure tires that work on an A8/A10 cars are right for M6 cars. To eliminate sway maybe a little more PSI would help with the slicks.

I definitely don't intend to drive these on the roads. I did like being able to drive to the track on the MTs when I couldn't find a support driver but honestly, I'd rather have a tire that's best at what it's supposed to do.

I don't see how my 60' could be worse with the Hoosier. I couldn't get better than 1.9's on stock rubber but never got below 2.0's on the MT's. My best ET on the MT's was a full tenth slower than my best ET on stock.

Can you elaborate on exactly how you have to "drive them differently"? For both stock and MT's have had to get slight to moderate, controlled wheel spin at the tree - just enough to hook in the power band. With that tall 1st gear and over-aggressive torque management, it's the only thing that avoids the nose dive on the M6.

Thanks for the feedback!

--Cal

Good luck and I hope it works out well for you. If you find that their isn't enough sidewall, a smaller wheel or the small brake package could be the ticket.

That's what I'm thinking... With the short, computer controlled lower gears and torque converter on the A10 (and even the A8) and lack of the oppressive M6 torque limiter; there's a lot more power available at the launch. Taller tires help keep these from spinning their tires too much. It's the opposite with the ZL1 M6. I need a shorter, wider tire to make more power available at the tree. The evidence is in the 60' times. I'll still probably have to let it spin slightly but I'm sure it'll hook in the power band much sooner with the 26" Hoosiers. I don't doubt there'll be a learning curve going to the slicks but I'm all about learning...

I really don't expect much sidewall flexing, though. The sidewalls are pretty narrow for a slick at this wheel size. I doubt it could be worse than the MTs. I had to pedal it several times when I felt the ass-end wagging on the big end. I'm planning to start the Hoosiers off at 20 PSI cold with 5/8 tank of fuel. If they feel like they're flexing too much down-track I may add a pound or two. If I'm not getting enough traction at the tree I'll add a few gallons of fuel.

Thanks!

--Cal

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. I'm anxious to see what changes with these tires, once I get used to them. I'd probably go with a smaller wheel first. It would be tough to swallow the cost of these BC Forged wheels, though. I'm not looking to turn this into a dedicated straight-line car, either. I like being able to keep it road course capable.

Whatever happens I'll post details to the forum so that we all learn from it.

--Cal

It probably would help, but you lose something else when you air them up more firm. They like to flex and that flex helps with the launch. I agree with you on driving the auto is much different than the manual as well. Good point.

For me, the radial MT hooks up well and the sidewall is supportive enough that I can get by with good street launches, and able to drive to and from the track with the tire (or while out trolling, if you are into that sort of thing). The Hoosier doesn't act like most radials and you will have a small learning curve to it. It will hook up and flex out of the hole, it can catch itself while spinning from getting hotter and sticky so you don't have to really pedal the car like you would on a radial. Yours not having a lot of sidewall may not flex as much, and may not be lose on the big end like the Hoosier was for me on my older car. Honestly, it's a good tire, you just have to drive it differently and learn how it acts compared to most radials. It's also a tough tire to troll the streets on or drive to and from the track with, but it's made more for the track. It's also going to heat up a lot different than the radial does. Hopefully this was helpful for you.

I have an M6 as well and getting all that car at once is certainly different than the auto. The TM system on my car is very mild compared to the stock set up because it's been tuned out of it, but your car probably pulls all sorts of timing from you off the line just from that over active TM system! It's frustrating haha. Tuning it is nothing like it was on the LS platform. You can't just go in and shut that off anymore. You have to trick it with funny air tables and things of that nature (I don't know exactly because I didn't tune this car.)

The reason I run a true slick is that they don't shock the drive train like a drag radial. Remember the sidewall on a drag radial is more like a street tire the hooks hard at the track. I've not broken any parts so far with the slicks and hopefully I won't even with another 50 to 60 rwhp this year. I could have gotten more runs out of the slicks but I was ready to add more power and thought I'd start off with new slicks this year. I actually had over 140 runs total, 130 or so with the supercharger. Can't beat that in my opinion.