so been looking for 18" tires to put on the car for the drag track. im AWD and plan to stay AWD, which limits my tire options, due to the close matching overall diameter. ive searched on what some people have run, and it seems most that occasionally track have converted to RWD, so they dont have to worry about the OD and front diff issue. so for matching sets front and rear, ive seen the Toyo r888, Nitto NT01, Hoosier A6/R6, and BFG t/a drag radials.... but the first 3 are more track tires, stiff wall and seemingly made for cornering. the Nitto and Toyo drag tires, as well as the MT dont have matching front sets for me.

what are peoples experiences and/or suggestions? aside from the obvious "convert to RWD"

 

NT-01 have awesome traction all the time, I think that would be the easy choice as you could drive to the track on them to get some heat in them. A6 might be a good choice as well, but I've never driven on them, I know they get hot fast, but I don't know if they'll grip after sitting in the staging lanes for a while.

 

Thanx for the reply. I forgot to mention that these tires would be on a spare set of 18', since I roll around on 19' Works, setup on PS2 tires. This would be a race setup. Anyway, after scanning for quite some time, I think I have found an acceptable set of MT drag radials. But I'm still open for suggestions.

 

I see alot of the TT Lambo guys use Toyo R888 for AWD...with big HP

 

Years ago (2004) I used I believe BF Goodrich Drag Radials. After the magazine article I gave them to sharkster. I believe he wore them out on his 996tt. See what he has to say.

 

I read somewhere that the 888 is a road racing tire marketed as a drag radial. Explains the stiff sidewalls.

 

FWIW the R888 and NT-01 are made by the same company (Toyo=Nitto) and pretty similar levels of grip. The NT-01 has less and shallower grooves and softer sidewalls than the R888 though. But they both stick well for AWD cars. Usually the choice boils down to tire size. If I'm not mistaken, they share some parts of tire compound with each other and with the Nitto drag radials.

 

i would try to use a drag radialreather then the R comp road racing tires. soft sidewall is the key to good 60's

 

I was pulling 1.7's on the run flats so not sure if you want to go too sticky and break axles

 

thats nice. on new setup? how were u launching it?

 

ok so after looking for awhile, heres at looks like my best few options, with multiple options for fronts on a few... opinions?

---------------
Nitto NT-01
Front - 245/40-18 (OD-25.55)(revs/mile 813)
Front - 235/40-18 (OD-25.39)(revs/mile 818)
Rear - 315/30-18 (OD-25.35)(revs/mile 819)
---------------
Toyo R888
Front - 235/40-18 (OD-25.5)
Rear - 315/30-18 (OD-25.5)
---------------
MT ET-Street radial II
Front - 245/45-18 (OD-25.8)
Rear - 305/35-18 (OD-26.4)
Rear - 315/30-18 (OD-25.5)

no revs/mile that i found on the Toyo or MT. i looked at the BFG drag radials. no front sizes. and there are quite a few road racing tires (kumho v710, hoosier a6/r6 etc...)that are slick or very minimal tread design. since they are road racing tires and generally stiffer sidewall, how al would these be?

 

How much HP are you running?

Have you considered paring the drag radials up with with an NT-01 or R888 in the front. Since this will not be driven on the street, if you match the diameters up, I think it might work.

I have NEVER driven with DR's on, but from watching and listening to my friends, DR's need some heat put in them to go fast, at least a short burnout. That's hard to do in a TT without the dreaded WHEEL HOP (which could break axles) and R-comps sidewalls aren't all that hard, plus you can run less tire pressure as well for more give.

NT-01's will not need anything, those things are sticky cold. Just clean them off with a quick spin of the tires and go.

 

i have a Tial gt28 EVOMS setup. no dyno, so id hate to make an uneducated guess...
i hadnt considered mismatching fronts and rears, not sure if there would be any issue tho...? and thats at least 3 people that have told me go for the NT-01.

 

Prodigy that was old set up with k24's, 5bar fpr, exhaust and tune on pole position run flats. Now on Kumhos I can launch at 4k with minimal slip and ****s grip and gooo
I do have Cm stage 3+964rs lwfw+ gt2 slave conversion. I don't see why now I shouldnt be in the 1.6's or lower but let me now jinx myself.

 

How are you guys getting heat into drag radials with an AWD setup? I took my SQ5 to the track a few weeks back and my 60’ and ultimately ET were slower than with my Michelin PS4S street tires...on the same wheels...same size tire too (275/40/20). The DRs are Nitto NT555R and we’re still spinning off the line, even after a burnout all the way past the lights. I’ve been avoiding the water box and have concluded that I’m just not getting enough heat into the tires. Any help here would be appreciated. The goal is to go sub 11s...record for the 3.0L Q5/SQ5 is currently 11.012s @ 124.*mph.