Quote:
Originally Posted by Raven87
I agree with your point about 'adding horsepower' is no longer stock. But, if using DRs is ok in your opinion what about the guy that puts on slicks? It's a tire change, right?
Nearly every car out there needs a better tire to use the horsepower 'the factory gave you' for the most part and when you are in the 650-700+ range that is no question.
But - it is also no question that changing the tire to a drag radial or slick means the car is no longer 'factory stock'. That's not saying it isn't needed because it is.
I agree that Dodge really screwed the pooch on the HC with putting those skinny tires on it but that is what it comes with and therefore is what is considered 'stock'. Yes, if I buy a HC a tire size/type will be the FIRST mod BUT - I will not argue that it is still stock.
Others apparently feel differently.
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Slicks are fine by me if the car requires it to put the power it came with from the factory to the ground. You're still relying on the factory horse power the car came with to get the job done.
Proper tires also remove the track prep variable as I've mentioned previously.
I'm basing this on personal experience. I had a design goal for my old Challenger R/T to have 550RWHP and run 11.50 in the 1/4 mile. When I started building the car I had almost no track experience and just got some summer tires and did my thing. I went to the track and kept running low 12s at 120+. I'd fish tail, wheel hop, and pucker up hoping I could keep it out of the wall shifting to 3rd in the M6 600RWHP car and went home frustrated most of the time. It wasn't enjoyable or satisfying and folks were questioning the power the car made etc.
A buddy let me borrow some DRs and boom, 11.40s at 123+MPH. I bought a cheap setup and became consistent 11.40s and now everyone was talking about how much power the car had and how well it was performing. Next I tried a slick setup and it was 10.90s which was a mile stone I didn't expect and far exceeded my goal. 10 second street car and was obviously ecstatic. There were changes a long the way, and the biggest was changing pulleys. The DRs had been giving me 11.40s and I added 2 or 3 pound of boost with a pulley swap and thought I'd go faster. This ended up being too much for the DRs and I actually went slower, with higher MPH. I could no longer get in to the 11s as the car would spin at every shift. Just that little bit was putting the tires over the edge. Swapped to slicks and shaved 8/10th my first pass on them vs the DRs with the extra boost back to back same track same day about 30 minutes a part on the runs. Tires were the only change.
60 foots went from 2.2+ on the summer tires to 1.8x on the DRs to 1.5x on the slicks with almost no other changes (clutch for durability and a TB I think at that time). That experience really opened my eyes and I'm thankful for it. I was eventually able to dial in the driving to get consistent times to within a couple 1/100ths over and over and could now understand how any performance changes I made impacted my times (throttle body, tune changes for air conditions, etc) and eventually got the car to run consistent 10.80s at 127-129MPH. It was pretty eye opening for me as I just kept wanting to add power initially, but I started listening to folks who had more experience than I, and learned from them, and as a result I had one of the fastest 6 speed Challengers we knew of with a solid reputation. I was also now leaving the track having had a great time and satisfied I was getting everything the car had to offer on any given day.
I skipped right over the street tires on the Hellcat, as I now know and understand what's needed for a 600+RWHP car to try and get the most out of it's performance at the track. I'll jump straight to that in the Hellcat and push forward from there looking for consistency.
A lot of people that never go to the track don't understand this, I don't blame them as I didn't either at one time. I have a buddy with a 750RWHP Challenger and he ran 12s at 128MPH on his summer tires and couldn't understand why, older guy kinda new to drag racing, so I put my slicks on his car and bam 10.30s and 134MPH his very next pass. He came back from the timing tower eyes wide as saucers and he tried to buy my slicks from me on the spot.
So all that to say, I stand by my point to give the car the tire it needs for the horsepower it has to give it the best chance of maximizing it's available HP. If you guys are strictly interested in tracking a list on this forum that requires stock tires, that's fine, but don't fool yourself in to thinking that's reality with regards to drag racing in the real world with drag racers.
If you guys wanna be serious about stock performance on street tires, there should be a "no prep" requirement in the rules as well, and by no prep I mean never prepped, like run the drag strip backward for example, or go out to a runway. Not very practical, but that's the only way to remove track prep differences from track to track from the metric you guys are comparing yourselves against. Or you could just allow proper tires
