those are exactly the tires that are on the car and my car as well. We run them at 18 cold on his Apollo. Do you think I just need a new set of tires? No issues with my car or any other set till these. Overall a great tire for what I use them for. Thank you very much for the feed back.
hey bruce i had that same problem with my car went through several sets of tires and the problem is not with the tire itself but more something triggering it. I found the cure with my car PM me if you want.
BuickSStage1, Jim is referring to someone we both know whom has had a block on order for some time now. TA was just looking for the wrong name. David
Bruce here is a few quotes about radial slicks. "radial slicks also have a history of doing something known as "radial wobble" where your car will rock side to side right after launching and it only gets worse as you continue down track to the point where you may have to lift. The reason for is touching down out of square meaning one tire hits the ground before the other after launching wheels up. Marginal track conditions willl contribute as well and my experience is that it happens usually in the early and late season on cold tracks. "I am not talking about the car moving a bit up top but rather a violent side to side shake which makes it feel as though you will loose control of the car." "The car was bouncing and swaying side to side violently.I tried to correct with tire psi to no avail" "If one tire hits harder than the other it will not recover and it will intensify with speed. "When I added more psi the 60' time went up and the wobble was the same" "Car leaves great but past 330 it starts to wobble back and forth." "Mine wobbled like hell at the 300 ft mark!" I could keep going all day with these quotes. Hoosier knows about the "death wobble" as some call it. When I was talking to Steve at Hoosier, he said he would be a million aire if he knew what caused it. They know about the wobble and they have test the hell out of them trying to make them better be he said something about nylon and rubber don't mix perfectly. There 33X14.5 is worse for the wobble. Here is a few things to think about when swapping over to radial slicks; 2."Used slicks" as to the condition of a pair of used slicks whether bias or radial, you have no way of knowing by looking at them. The sidewalls are gone long before the wear indicators are. 3. you are correct in that radial slicks don't grow and therefore expect to trap 200-300 RPM higher than you did with bias slicks 4. your chassis/suspension has to work! If you struggle with hooking on bias slicks, radial slicks are not for you. 5. Radial slicks DO require different shock settings and or chassis settings than what works with bias slicks. 6. radial slicks are run with more air than a bias slicks, a good starting point is 5 psi more than your bias setting. You do not want these tires wadding up at the hit like a bias slicks. Little to no wrinkle at the hit is what you want. They are a stiffer sidewall by design. 7. you don't run tubes with radial slicks and I don't advise screwing them to the rim. If you believe you need to do both, radial slicks are not for you. 8. like most tires today, radials only need a very short burnout to clean off the tire. At the first sign of smoke they're ready. 9. if your track's starting line is marginal at best, Again, radial slicks are not for you. Unlike bias slicks that will spin a couple of hundreds on a bad starting line, radials slicks spins TENTHS and don't recover. 10. radial slicks typically do not last as long as bias slicks. These are not the tires to run if you're one of those trying to set the record for/bragging about getting 100's of runs on your slicks. At the end of the day all you can do is make sure all is good under the car and stiffen up the rear shocks, try moving the tire pressure around, small burn outs just to dust them off and rotate them, but the results from tire to tire and car to car will vary, and like the tech guy said some cars no matter what you do to them don't like radials. The tech guy at M/T new right away about the death wobble. lol :TU: Regardless they are still a good tire, Chris
I run 10.5 Ws all the time. I must have missed something in the post but I assume from the tire psi that they are radial. I know everyone loves the Hoosiers but overal all I have had much better luck with the M/T bias ply, may not be as all out as fast to the last .001 but running an index and be able to repeat run in run out in the last 15 years I keep coming back to M/T. As for the aluminum block, I tried to contact them to get a deposit in and be in line and was ignored. Got to decide how much further I'm going with this Buick stuff. Jim N.
Jim, I use the 10.5 W's also and have done for a long time. I am not sure if you watched the video's but here is the question that was asked by Bruce, (Once you go to that link there is a couple of "flatire" clips of my car and Dave Benisek's Apollo. You can see Dave's car "wallow" from side to side as it goes down the track. Anyone who can figure out what causes that please let me know. Makes for a real envigorating ride.) I am sure if bias plys were on that car it wouldn't do the wobble. I like the W's because they have a stiff side wall, Have you tried the M/T S's? Chris http://www.youtube.com/user/FatDicksRacing#p/u/2/_kHGOfHzfLQ
Thanks to everyone for all your feedback. Some great information. Now i just need to put the car back together and go give it a rip.
Almost looks like the wobble starts when the front end drops back down. I might suggest a alignment check and front end suspension check. Sweet car!
This car made its first appearance at the 2001 GS Nationals. Has had radials on it since the beginning. All of the front suspension items were new when the car was put together but it doesn't mean the alignment may not be out by now. What is on it now is/was a new set and these are the lightweights compared to the last set. Once i get the car together in a few months I'll do a simple A-B test with the current set and the old set. After reading all of this, I'm pretty sure the problem will go away.
"Jim is referring to someone we both know whom has had a block on order for some time now. TA was just looking for the wrong name." David Hey Dave, Not sure who the persons is that your speaking for, but I haven't had anyone call me that is upset in anyway. If you can do me a favor and give your friend a call to let him know they are finished. We will be picking them up on the 11th of November. Were having shipping crates built. Should be shipping blocks in December just in time to be placed under the x-mas tree. Bruce, your car looks great. Say hi to Dave & Doug for me.
Hey Bruce, Car looks fantastic!!! Mine's been on the back burner this year but seeing what you've come with is inspiring to say the least. What weight were you running at?
Thanks Mike, very pleased with the car. I will pass that on to Dave and Doug. Will be in Chandler this Saturday for the Pinks All Out event.
Thanks Gary, I'm very happy with the car. It ran 9.54 at 3800 lbs., legal GSE weight, 9.40 at 3700 lbs. Had brought some Q16 to put in for giggles but never put it in. Also thought about putting the turndowns on pull off the tailpipes but got lazy. I think some low 9.30's were possible.
Bruce, thank you for the PM letting me know that replacing the slicks fixed your wobble problem :TU: I will be trying out these tires on my car and hope to test them against my MT W's.......Chris
