Danny Richie

Well several months ago I took my Vette out to the local drag strip to see how it would fair. And I learned real quickly that the Michelin Pilot Sports had no chance of hooking at the drag strip.

The Pilot Sports are a 345/30/19 and only have about 3,000 miles on them tops. Yep, 13" of rated tread width.

All of the really good tires in a drag radial were for 18" wheel sizes and smaller. But 18" wheels are hard to find in very wide wheel widths. Same goes for the 17" wheels. And I was worried about a 17" wheel hitting my brakes and control arms. So I was looking at some 18's.

Most of the 18" drag pack type wheels look horribly ugly. So I was looking for something decent enough that I would not feel bad about leaving them on for a curse to Sonic or something.

So I finally settled on a set of American Racing polished Aluminum Torq Thrust wheels from Ron's Rims. Ron had American Racing make me a custom set of 18" by 12" rims with an offset for the rear of my Corvette. The price was reasonable too. I paid $340 a piece plus shipping.

And on them I had a set of Hoosier's mounted. The Hoosiers are a 335/30/18 drag radial. I got them from Discount Tire for $240 each. And no shipping either as the Discount Tire was local.



And the old Grand Sport wheels with Pilot Sports weighed 64 pounds each. The new combo weighs in at 56 pounds each. So I lost 8 pounds per wheel.

What do you guys think of this old style classic wheel on a newer model Vette?



I am tempted to order a matching set for the front.



I could go with a 7.5" (instead of 9.5") by 18" front wheel and have less rolling resistance, lighter weight, but still handle driving around on the street better than a pair of skinnies. Kind of an in-between...

Vetteman Jack

Actually looks pretty good on the car.

Danny Richie

Also, just for fun I decide to compare the contact patch of each tire.

So I used a water based black paint and painted a section of tire. I then let the car down on a white piece of paper and bounced around on it a little. I then jacked the car back up and pealed off the paper.

It was then dried and scanned in using a black and white setting.

This one is the Michelin Pilot Sports 345/30/19's.



And here is the Hoosier 335/30/18's.



The paint ran on the paper a little bit, but the difference is clear to see.

Looks like I not only have a lot softer and sticker rubber on the ground, but a lot more of it too.

Maybe these will hook for me.

dennis50nj

To do it right, paint the tire with white marker or shoe polish then drive around and check the wear pattern, also paint it and do a burnout then check for adjusting hot air pressure for best traction, what is the weight of the rim

Danny Richie

Good idea. I should have weighed the rims without the tire. They felt a little lighter than the factory wheels to me. But it has been a while since I held the factory ones with no tire.

I also really like the polished Aluminum. It is polished all the way across the rim from the inside to the outside. The factory style wheels are only chromed on the front edges only. So the depth of the wheel is kind of lost on the factory wheels.

AORoads

I fully agree!

VET4LES

I like them.

dennis50nj

You can get the tire weight off of the hoosier drag tire site, you should get the matching fronts, they look very nice

BadgeZ28

I like the rims Danny. Now how about some times? Your last mods should put you deep into the 11's

Danny Richie

My local track is just an 1/8th mile. Spinning pretty badly and having traction control going nuts holding the power back slowed the times quite a bit, but it still managed a 7.70. Not bad all things considered. I expect at least a 7.30 to 7.40 out of it with a little traction. Maybe 7.20's on a good day. That would equate to a real low 11 in the quarter. Nothing crazy, but not bad for a daily driver that still gets a good 26 to 27 miles to gallon on the highway.

I am noticing these soft drag radials ride pretty smooth. So now I am really leaning towards getting a set of matching fronts and just using them for daily use.

Yes, I know I really can't drive in the rain with these tires. But I have had my Vette for over two years now and never driven it in anything but nice weather. If the weather is bad I leave it in the garage.

And I am sure the drag radials won't last as long as the Pilot Sports either, but they are less than half the price.

Joe_G

Your new wheels look great!

If you do get matching wheels for up front, get some 18 x 4.5 and get some M&H skinnies. Skinnies save a ton of weight (like 35 lbs per wheel) and the combo of skinnies and taking out the passenger seat gives me a consistent .1 to 1.5.

You don't want to drive on those Hoosiers on the street, they will wear out in no time at all. To and from the track only. And of course as you noted, don't try to drive them in the rain!

njfl

These look great. I was wondering why it took so long for someone to do this.

bob guzzy

Dam I would want a set like that on my c6, I like that they are a polished wheel and not chrome.

PRE-Z06

Looks good, curious how much power the car is making?

Jimmy Z

looks good............

Danny Richie

It should be in the 450 to 460 range to the rear wheels with the converter locked. And maybe 430 to 440 to the rear wheels with the converter not locked up.

Nothing crazy, and just enough power to have some fun and hopefully not break anything.

Danny Richie

I just went through mounting one of these on the front to check for clearance. All looks okay.

So I am going to have them build out a set of matching fronts for me. I am thinking about going with only a 7" wide rim. I think I can get some decent low profile street tires that will be lighter and have less rolling resistance and still not give up all of the handling. Sort of an in between skinny verses standard wide street tires.

You guys have any thoughts on going to a 18" by 7" rim?

Danny Richie

Hey Joe, These things sure ride nice. I wonder just how fast they would wear out driving them on the street? Even if they wore out twice as fast as my Pilot Sports, they are half the price... Or would they wear out much faster than that.

And I only put about 2 to 3 thousand miles a year on this car. So I am not putting a lot of fast wear on anything.

Thoughts?

Joe_G

Oh they will probably last 2000-3000 miles..but have you gone around any turns with them? I hate the wobbly feeling compared to street tires, particularly Pilot Sports!

They will also pick up any nail or even sharp rock...and even a puddle will make you swap ends. My advice is to not street drive them except to/from the track. Just my thoughts.

If you wanted DR's you can street drive, Mickey Thompsons, particularly the second gen tread design, are quite good in the rain and last a good long time (mine are 4 years old now)...though they still have the wobbly sidewall. A little late for me to offer this advice I guess.

Joe_G

Ps your car looks great. I really like the new wheels.

And not that you asked for this advice, but I would recommend you to get the black grand sport emblems.

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