Columbus Fellowship

[JimNolan]

James,
   I don't know if I did right or not but I ordered a set of US Wheels that look like the Cragars I have. They are 15 X 8 with a 4.750" backspace. I plan on putting the 255/60R15 BF Goodrich TA on them. That's as big a tire as I can get on my car without cutting the fender wells out. I measured my wheel well with plum bobs last night and the offset of 4.75" puts the wheel dead center of the wheel well and the 10.20" tires are as big as I want to go and not worry about hitting anything. Jim

[57AGIN]

Jim:

My 57 runs Cragars and the BF Goodrich 255/ 60 R15's on the rear, they just barely fit and look great.  Traction wise at the drag strip, they are not great, but I'm running considerably more horsepower with my 351W than you with a 272 Y-block.  These tires will last quite a while.  I know you are trying to find a good traction tire that also has some longevity, but I don't have any real experience in that as I dismount my street tires before going to the strip. 

I can recommend M/T E.T. Street Radials as super grippers.  The ones I bought do fit in our rear wheel wells are P235/60 R15's.  My last time on the strip with these and the CalTracs, I bogged off the line after dumping the clutch at 4,000 RPM.  I was only running about 20 psi in the slicks and only got that one run on the strip that year.  That run was on my naturally aspirated 351W putting out a little over 300 hp to the rear wheels.  Next time I'll start out at 30 psi and go down if necessary.  Lowering the pressure will probably be required as the engine is now putting out a little over 475 hp to the wheels.  I can hardly wait.

Bob
57 AGIN

[JimNolan]

Bob,
   You're car is SWEEEET. I like your paint.
    I'm runing a 390 FE that was a truck motor with a 4 barrel intake and carb. It's not very fast but it's a lot of fun. I found out last weekend that fast don't mean anything nowadays. The idea is to run your dial-in no matter how much horsepower you run. The only relationship I saw with being fast and running your dial-in was the fact that the cars that ran real fast had drivers that were experienced at what they were doing. A fast car in the hands of someone like me wouldn't mean anything. This winter I am going to put about 40 more horsepower in it though. That'll make it @ 340 hp.
   Thank you for letting me know what kind of tires your're running. I sat here the last two days trying to figure out what tire to buy. I've read everything ANYBODY has written about M/T, M&H, BF Goodrich and Hoosier. I ordered a set of wheels that match my Cragar Super Sports that are 8" wide with a 4.750" Backspace, that'll put the tire about in the center of my wheel well. I also ordered a set of Hoosier 28 X 9.50 X 15" Pro Street tires. No more horsepower than what I've got they ought to do good and enable me not to have to carry tires with me when I go to Gulfport. The main reason I chose them was because of wet road conditions I may encounter on a trip. As far as the rpm comming off line I'm idling at 600 rpm when the last yellow light comes on. I dump the clutch and hit the gas at the same time. "You got to remember I don't know what I'm doing". The last two runs I made at Columbus I had the plastic hose nipple of the vacuum check valve break off the power brake booster. I could hardly keep it idling when I made those runs. That won't happen again. I won't run hurt anymore. You can't run your dial-in to begin with. So why beat your car.
   My painter is buffing out the 63 Galaxie now, so I may get mine out of body shop jail before you do. LOL I've about lost interest in it now. I didn't figure I'd ever see it again. Jim

[Ford Blue blood]

Jim, traction and mileage are oximorons.  Learned from my SCCA days that the stickier the tire was the fewer miles it had in it.  One of the things you might look at is the impact of heat cycles has on the compound.  I found the tire we used went pretty hard after 3 - 4 heat cycles.  We shaved them to 3/32s and still had tread left but times fell off if they were run the next end.  Found out the hard way that a new set of tires was the way to go.  Not sure how slicks and drag radials fall into the heat cycles thing, just a thought.

[57AGIN]

Jim:

I'm sorry for referring to your motor as being a 272Ci Y-block, I really don't know where I got that.  Maybe  from reading some of the posts that James was exchanging with some other members???  Anyway, 320 hp is nothing to sneeze at, remember in 1957 probably the only non-aftermarket souped-up engines in street cars producing that power were the race prepared 312 Y-block supercharged engines in our beloved Fords.  I don't remember the advertised power output of the Olds J-2, or Chrysler Hemi.  Isn't it interesting that a unblown Ford Modular Coyote motor can be putting out over 500 hp from 302 cubic inches and with the addition of a fairly low boost supercharger put out over 2 horses per cubic inch.  Who said the muscle car era is dead??? lol 

Bob
57 AGIN

[JimNolan]

Bob,
   I'm with you. I used to tell younger people " in the good old days we had cubic inches and lots of horsepower, and we had fast cars". What's going on today has made me shut up and sit down.
  Connie was taking pictures when all the Y-blocks and 57 Fords were running. She said the crowd seemed to really enjoy it. There's still a place for us I guess. Me, I'm to old to change. I'll drive my slow 57 anyday. I get to enjoy it longer by going slower. Jim

BlueBlood,
    That's why I chose the Hoosier Pro Street radial tire. It's more expensive than the Drag radials and not as good for drag racing but it does a little bit of everything I want out of a tire. Most of the reviews on the drag radials claimed 3000 highway miles at most on a set of drag radials. I'd have them used up in one trip to Mississippi. With the engine I have I'll be lucky to turn them over anyway. Jim

[JPotter57]

I like Hoosiers, best bang for the buck.