My class allows slicks if I wanted to but that would put me up with guys I could never really compete with. Running street tires (/t designation) will at least keep me with the people that still dd their rigs. Most everyone still drives their cars on the street occasionally but very few run their dd's especially in street prepared.


Most everyone around here either runs hoosiers or michelin pilots. Not a lot of toyo's, hankook's, kumho's etc on the fast cars.

 

My recommendation are R1Rs or dunlop dirzza z2 there both a tie for me and the r888 is still a street tire there just not my cup of tea for how much they cost oh ya your recomended not to run the r1rs and r888 in cold weather were as the dunlops you can

 

You are aware that the R888's are R-Compound tires, right?
If not that, you have to keep good track of tire temperatures throughout their use, from the inner, middle, and outer tread sections. You adjust these via tire pressure.

Completely different than tossing on ultra high performance summer tires.
I ran right behind Corvettes and Porsches on slicks, to include a few other things when I last ran an autocross course two years ago. I was shaving off time in an xcab with many problems that should've never allowed it to go on course.

To include a passenger, 4 blown dampers, a cracked rear frame, mistimed engine, and a few other things I can't remember.

Lead a class or jump up a class and show the cars they have something to be afraid of?
I took the latter option and showed them I could get 12th out of 110+ overall drivers.


and it's an r-compound, almost a slick. It's not supposed to be good in the rain, let alone standing water. That's a dead given.




I also got my 295/30/18 R888's for $270 each. That's cheaper than the skinnier tires, let alone compared to other tires in its classification.

 

Damn the r888's are one of the cheaper tires in that size on tire rack. You won't be catching me running rubber that expensive that isn't a full on slick.


I had planned to get some lowering leafs for the rear but after looking at the leafs on the 89 x cab 4x4 parts truck I think I'm going to swap over to 4x4 main and second leafs since they have less arch. I also picked up a rear sway bar from a 93 4runner. I think it'll work perfect on the rear and since it is designed to face forward it should stabilize the chassis better than any rear facing bar that just twists the rear frame rails.

 

It's cheaper than most ultra high performance summer tires, so I figured I'd snag them before the prices shoot up. Already got a second set of wheels dedicated for that. Not going to deal with one set of 18's anymore.

 

I've looked at running 18's since I like the look and performance but most of the tires are too expensive for my tastes. I beat on my truck at all times, there are 2 round a bouts on my way to work and a few fun corners so I burn through a lot of rubber.


I need to get the welded diff out of the truck. Not that I'm worried about tire wear but because I don't think I need the locking action. I have a 4.56 V6 diff sitting in the garage and these tires are an inch taller than the old ones to make up the gearing difference. Oddly enough I'm getting better mileage with the wider tires. It's not because the rpm's have dropped. I'm driving faster than before since these tires are balanced beautifully. I think the old tires were such complete and utter crap that these fatties are rolling along nicer.

 

It's a bit weird to me, also. I'm not sure how much my wheel and tire set up weighs compared to my factory steelies and 205/75/14's.
I think having some wider tires spreads the load better, possibly reducing tire flex friction.

I think being flusher helps me get better fuel mileage.

Corrected mileage with my driving habits, I've gotten about 23mpg on average... with lots of WOT, throttle blipped down shifts, and engine braking on deceleration.

I haven't really focused on sliding around with the price of any tire, really. Include mounting and balancing, I just like having tires last where needed. Probably because I average 20 mile trips to work before I deployed.

 

Yea I drive like a teenager so there is a whole lot of WOT and of course blipping downshifts, left foot braking etc. My commute is just under 50 miles a day coming from the city to out in the sticks and there is negligible traffic so at least I get to enjoy the drive.


I need to get the traction arm and panhard bar installed but I don't see a reason to do that till I get the rear leafs dialed in. I think the 4x4 leafs will drop it an inch directly but I'll probably de-arch them a bit to bring them down a bit more.

 

Out here runing a r compound is the same as runing a slick r888 temp range I dont care for on hot days runing a street tire keeps out of mod class and improves my pax time.

to bad I added a fuel reg and cam so now I am in mod class now so its slick time for me and keep the r1rs for spring and winter auto cross events were the weather can be all over the map

now the big qestion witha slick is how wide to go for me for the amount of power I have

 

A cam would bump me up to a mod class too but a fuel pressure regulator means nothing. I have a carter hp pump and bypass type regulator waiting to go on and my classification won't change even with the fuel cell installation.


The most common tire size at our track for a lower powered rig is definitely a 225/50/15. Everyone runs them in both r and slick.

 

Ya some times ya don't wana go to wide because you do not have the power to fix miss-take's or transfer weight easier.

But we have tight tracks which is no bad because it makes ya a better driver, but kills speed fun factor.
Right now my truck has an under steer issue thus why I changed some stuff up that I just posted in my thread witch has helped but still there hissing at me some times liek pissed off cat after ya touched it's tail

 

If we had slow tight tracks around here I wouldn't do it. That's just fawking boring to me. I don't mind tight corners but there has to be some speed built in!

 

Lots of progress made today! Pulled the middle leaf, installed the drop spindles and started installing my hid's. Tomorrow I'm swapping leaf packs as I'd planned from the start but I lost ambition. Tomorrow is a new day so I'll do it right. It's low now. I had pulled the leaf and used 4" blocks which gave me almost a 1/4" up travel before hitting the frame. Notch and 4x springs will be nice with 3" blocks.

 

I like my belltec drop leafs wheel is centered in the wheel well and there spring rate is not to bad

i have debated about adding a chopped up over laod to stiff it up abit thou

 

Well I got some stuff done but shiat happened and the 4x leafs and notch didn't get done and since they didn't go in I didn't do the sway bar either since it's mounting is suspension height dependent.


I did however find out that I need new tires up front. I'm looking for something around a 225/40 or so. The front tires were sitting on the inner fenders in the above pic. I pulled the rear bump stops and replaced them with 5/8 heater hose.




I couldn't get the bolts out of 3 of the spring bushings so I pressed the whole shebang out so I'll either put urethane bushings in the 4x springs or just get the belltech drop leafs and be done with it.

 

Decided I'll take the next step tonight. The inner fenders are coming out.

 

I vote bell tec's

 

I've got one option to check out this morning that will decide the leaf situation.


Inner fenders came out and now it cruises without rubbing once again. Makes it real easy to adjust my alignment now too.

 

Holy crap it's soooo nice to not have my spine shoot out the top of my head on every bump now.





Still need to make bump stop brackets but at least now the shocks can do their job before I slam the axle into the frame!

 

I've been gathering parts the last couple of weeks.

Last week I ordered Hella H4 headlight housings and picked up another 4" CLR 2 1/4" U bend and a stainless low profile ball coupler to replace the trashed 3 bolt flange on the header. I ordered NGK spark plugs too since I never seem to remember to buy them when I'm at the parts store. I just ordered a 5" CLR 2 1/2" U bend and a magnaflow 14210 muffler with both inlet and outlet on the same end. This weekend I'll finally have exhaust that isn't a compromise, it'll actually be what I want for a change.

On a side note my old plugs were bosch iridium or something or other and apparently they were ****. 3 of them were loose and had enough combustion residue on them that I thought I was pulling threads for a couple turns but the holes cleaned up nicely and the new plugs are in without incident. What a huge improvement that was! Now the truck idles, runs sooooooo much smoother at all rpm's. I always enjoyed driving the truck but now it's even better!