Thought on tires/handling on my Chevelle.

[nitrorocket]

On the way to work this morning I ran into a newer Subaru WRX STI with some exhaust and possibly some other hidden mods. He was trying to mess around so I thought I would play too.
He tried to pull me from a light and I stayed on his rear and then we entered a 270 degree right hand turn for a freeway onramp. I was in 3rd which was to low high a gear for the turn so half way through I had to downshift to 2nd.
Anyways, besides me being very nervous about the ass end sliding out, I could not pull on him in the turn and actually lost a car length,I had my radio blasting so I could not hear my car. I may have been able to push it harder as I assuming he was, but my last experience with this turn I had my rear almost slide out from cold rear tires in the early morning. I was dissapointed I could not easily hold his bumper or pull on him and I actually lost about 1 car length to the WRX.

My car felt like the ass end wanted to come around, I was trying to fight that a little, I am hoping it was just a tire issue and not suspension tuning. I wish I had my radio down so I could have heard the tires.

What do you think of this, and what is the the opinion on rear tires, I run a Goodyear Eagle GSCS road race slick on the rear (315/35/17) I nees to do something, just not sure what.

[Blown353]

I can chime in on this as I own both a Chevelle and an STI. :P

The STI is a fantastic car when it comes to handling. Yes it has a tendency to understeer from the factory especially if you don't know how to drive it and set up your corner entry correctly but if you can get it into the corner correctly it has HUGE amounts of cornering grip and is very stable. If you do a little suspension work to them to dial out some of the understeer then they're even more fun.

With the Chevelle's longer wheelbase and quite a bit of extra weight you're already down 2 points... and the STI is a far more stable & composed chassis in hard cornering especially if there are any road irregularities involved. In corners over imperfect roads where my Chevelle will skitter sideways a little bit (especially the rear end) my STI just sticks, sticks, and sticks.

Given a "driver mismatch" (poor driver in the STI and an excellent driver in the Chevelle) you might have a chance... but the problem is the STI's chassis is so predictable and well balanced you have to be REALLY ham fisted to screw things up, to the point I'd say with an average driver in the STI compared a good driver in the Chevelle I'd probably even put money on the average STI driver. Also, the factory RE070's on the STI are darn near R-compounds from the factory. Sure they're louder than a set of Super Swampers but they are AWESOME tires in the grip department.

Also, running road race slicks on your car is probably limiting your grip on the street as I doubt you can build enough heat in them during "normal" driving to get them to really start sticking. A good example would be to try driving a car on Hoosier A-series then R-series. The A-series autocross tires start off sticky when cold but lose grip and get greasy as they get too hot, whereas the R-series roadrace versions start slicker but get sticker as heat builds in them. Different purposes for each tire-- the autocross tires start with no warmup and only have to make a 45 second or so run, whereas the roadrace tires get a couple warmup laps but then have to survive a 20 or 30 minute session. I'd venture a guess that a street/autocross oriented R-compound will yield better traction on the street than a full road race slick as you don't need to build as much heat to get the grip.

Summary:
Just wait for the turn to straighten out then pass him. :P

[Steve Chryssos]

I' don't think any street tire will support four digit power. I'd be looking into traction control.

http://moretraction.com/

[nitrorocket]

I know and I dont expect to. :(

I am hoping to find a tire for the street that will last longer then 2 months that will corner amazing ans dtill provide some straight line grip.

[LateNight72]

You may look into the Nitto NT01 (http://nittotire.com/#index%2Etire%2Ent01%2Eoverview).

It's a Traction "A", Temperature "A"

Avaliable in a 315/35/17 like you currently have.

-Todd

[nitrorocket]

I will check into it!

[68protouring454]

make sure it has a 200 mph rating for those fun blasts to 200mph:D

[LateNight72]

make sure it has a 200 mph rating for those fun blasts to 200mph:D

The NT01s are Z rated. :D :lol:

If I had his car, I'd be wanting to go 200. I'd just have to find the room and let it rip. :thumbsup:

[68protouring454]

The NT01s are Z rated. :D :lol:

If I had his car, I'd be wanting to go 200. I'd just have to find the room and let it rip. :thumbsup:
here comes "cujo"
are you serious, it was meant to be a joke, 200 mph is not 100 not 125 not 150, its way different

[LateNight72]

here comes "cujo"
are you serious, it was meant to be a joke, 200 mph is not 100 not 125 not 150, its way different

Yes, I know....... Notice the :lol: and :D

[nitrorocket]

I am amazed how many cars at the drag srip go 125+ on bfgoodrich radial t/a or coopers.

Yes I will need a tire that can handle a blast to 200 mph, someday at when the opertunity arizes, I am going to try to wind out 5th gear, I will datalog the pass so I can see ho long it takes to get through certain MPH stages.

[race-rodz]

we had an outa town turbo sb2.2 powered 4th gen camaro at our dragstrip last weekend, it was running 8.70's @185ish, on 275/60/15 MT E/T dot tires, i think he said he has run high 7's on those tires at a "good" track. the car was amazing to watch....launches look like nothing, then it sounds like a jet take off as the boost builds.... anyway, we have been running those tires on everything that goes drag racing and really like them, they seem to work as good as a sticky street tire on the back of my lightning when it comes to corners, but then again, thats a 300hp 4400 truck... comparing apples to tomatos

[BigChevyFTW]

im running the 275/60/15 ET Streets with a 383 in a 69 chevelle with around 480 hp and i have to admit its a decent tire. they have a tendancy to slip at first but as soon as they spin a little they turn into sticky tires and grab like Krazyglue. however, im not sure its the best tire for a g-machine id say for a serious g machine with twin turbos id go with a set of Nitto NT01 gumballs
275/35ZR18's up front and 315/30ZR18s out back for a 71 chevelle. and youll be able to take any corner with the power your running also im not 100% sure but i think they car you were toying with is an "all wheel drive" so he has a huge advantage in the corners

[sik68]

I've had 4 birthdays since this onramp showdown. :)