I was reading on an ls1 forum that running staggered tires decreases handling and causes the car to greatly understeer. Anyone have any experience with this? I'm currently running 315/275 setup and it seems fine but I'm not sure how running 275 at all corners would be.
Staggered tires?
- Thread starter ConeCrusher281
- Start date
Putting bigger tires in the back compared to the front will make the car understeer. This is because you have more grip in the back then the front. Mustangs already understeer pretty bad. In AX we use the rear to help turn the car. Youtube Sam Strano and you will understand what I mean. 275 would be ok but on my esp car we run 315 at all corners.
Whats your esp car and do you have info on the wheels? My cars is in ESP and I was also wondering if 315s would fit up front.
2005 GT. We run 18 x 10.5 enkei pf01s front/rear. If you have an S197 I can give you info on less expensive wheels. It can be done but 10.5 wide wheels on an SN95 is not optimal.
I have a 96 cobra so 10.5 wouldn't really work. So 275 all around would handle better than staggered?
Putting larger tires on one end will cause that end to stick more...wait for it......depending on how the car is set up. The simple result is the more rubber , of the same compound touching the ground will provide more adhesion, but that's a gross oversimplification. If you have less contact patch on the front of a car that tends to push anyway, then it's probably a bad idea. However IMO the stock type mustang suspension sucks so extremely bad that you will have to fix much more issues that just the tire patch. the saving grace is an IRS or, in some cases the truck arm. Generally, running the stock 4 bar mustang suspension will cause the car to push on entry, then snap oversteer on exit because the lame (design of the) upper control arms are trying to place the rear axle back into a neutral position under the car. Using urethane or heim joints on the top only makes this problem worse. Get that part sorted and the rest will be easy. If you have the IRS, the truck arm or some other rear suspension then you are in much better shape than the , up to 04 mustang suspension.
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The IRS is not the way to go. Trust me I hav e one. The Steeda five link is a good piece. The other option is to use the fays watts link and maybe to a poor man's three link. Torque are not the answer. They can have horrible wheel hop. I have driven national champion F body cars. I will pass on the torque arm. My old esp car is a 98 cobra with an irs. I should have tried the steeda. Also really an IRS swap is illegal in esp.this is why my 98 is my old esp car.
I respectfully disagree about the IRS and I have on in every mustang I own, but in any case, you are correct in that the truck arm is the least desirable, I thought about mentioning the Watts linkage but was thinking that it's kind of expensive. The poor man's three link works remarkably well, but is a little scary.
Here's an IRS link to maybe help you out.
FULL TILT BOOGIE RACING
I have the full tilt boogie kit. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the irs is a piece of junk. It is a good piece esp with the FTBR kit. On a side note the FTBR kit is awesome. The difficulty with the IRS in autocross is that to install it in a 94-98 chassis you have to either drill holes in the upper frame rails for the upper IRS mount or you need to weld the mount in place. Both of these are illegal per the update/backdate rule for Solo in ESP and CP. I have discussed this with members of the SCCA SPAC. To keep the car per the Solo rules you could do the poor man's 3 link or the Steeda 5 link. You could do the torque arm but as we both agree that is not optimal.
I retired my 98 with the IRS swap with the FTBR kit because I run many national level events in Solo. I did not want to get protested because of the IRS swap so I retired the car. I still have the car and am looking forward to running it in open track.
275s will do fine. If you have the cash and want to have a set of R-comps that will last you a season or two get a set of Kumho V710s mounted on at least a 9 inch wide wheel. The V710s are not as sticky or fast as Hoosier A6but they do last. R-comps (i.e., V710s and Hoosier A6s) are a completely different and MUCH better world than street tires.
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