Thread: ??? Weird....

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I thought that would fire up your curiosity.
Now you have to suffer through a short - relatively - tale about the good ol daze at San Fernando Dragstrip.

San Fernando Dragstrip was quite a place.
They ran the main show from 12 noon to 3 PM.
Stockers, Gassers, Altereds, Fuelers . . . everything that ran open headers.
It was the best show in town, heck in the whole darned valley and it was done in three hours flat.
Reason being, the noise from the fuel cars resonated through town and the churches weren't too happy with the minister's sermon being drowned out.

It was something else being downtown on a quiet Sunday and hearing the big cars run.
When it was a fuel car, there was no mistaking it.

Corked up cars, any class as long as it had mufflers and the cutouts or headers caps were closed could run from 0900 - 12 noon and after 3PM.
Most times, it didn't make much difference in the afternoon, but in the mornings you could get a good start on tuning - timing and tire pressures for the most part - by running through the muffs.

You never knew who you'd see there.
A lot of the early day big names like Ivo, Breedlove and the like as well as some very famous cars.
The Glass slipper for one and the majority of Tony Nancy's cars from both of the 22jr roadsters to his last fuel dragster.

Anyway, we learned to go to a quiet corner of the pits, namely the very way back in the back staging lanes and do burnouts.
Taking note of the coloration of the burnout marks - IE: light in the center, dark on the edges indicated low air pressure and the reverse told us air pressure was high.

An important thing cuz San Fernando could be well over a 100 degrees F. and down into the 40's.
Depending mostly on what time of the year you were there.
And considering the tires we ran - hard and narrow slicks - correct pressure was a big advantage over the guys who didn't know any better.

The burnout marks helped tune the chassis as well, because most of us in our running 1.0 to 1.5 seconds slower cars than the national record holding cars ran open diffs.
Mine being a 335" Olds Rocket powered 50 Ford coupe.

Once each individual tire had the right pressure, you could balance the tire mark shading from side to side by using the little twist-em in aluminum coil spring spacers and wedging the chassis by pushing a little weight onto the right rear.
Along with that many of us ran an additional leaf in the right rear so as to pre-load that side because torque would raise the right side tire and you'd lose traction there.

So fast forward about 30 years into the future and there I was with a lightweight Deuce highboy and a very torquey 462" Buick engine.
This time around, lack of traction with any tire - running the street - was a given.
The goal was to have a good ride without too much experimenting and I figured that rolling the car through very shallow, in fact, just a touch past damp on a cement driveway would indicate the correct pressure by leaving an equal water mark all the way across.
You have to make sure the tires at the other end of the car don't impinge on the end you're tuning, but the water trick works very well.

Just like the light and dark indicators left behind by the burnout at the strip, the damp tires printed a pattern on the cement that told you just where you were at.

Light in the center indicates low pressure.
Dark in the center indicates high pressure.
Equal all the way across the pattern indicates just right.
And . . . there's a little leeway, about 2# going either way depending on whether you're looking for a good ride or long tire life.

Regardless, if you don't spin the tires they last a long time on these lightweight little cars.

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If you keep your eyes open and do a little research, you can find radials that are close to the bias look.
No one - at least those with a little experience - will be fooled when you're parked, but rolling along it will be hard to tell.

Look at the higher rated R numbers - R75, R80, R85 should do it.
R70's work if you're looking for a fat rear tire, but the R70's are a little too fat for the front end.

I'm waiting for the R70's on the front of my 32 to wear down and then I'll pop on a pair of R80's or so.

The pic of my 31 on 32 rails project - again with a 462" Buick, but a bigger cam, more compression and dual quads - shows fairly well the narrow radials.

Sizes are:

Front:
165R/80-15
4 ½" tread width
25" tall
5" x 15" wheel

Rear:
P235/75R-15
6" tread width
28" tall
6" x 15" wheel

Compare the front tire on the 31 with the fat ones on front of the 32 and you'll see what I mean.