Hot Rods The price of the Gasser look

Here is an observation. Big 'N Littles on a Gasser are about as good as tire/wheel combos can get. The price; I get at most 20,000 miles on a set of front-runners. Rear tires are 20 years old, ~70,000 miles, and still look like new!!

 

with how many burnouts/passes down the track?

 

Damn dude, that's like 25-30,000 passes.
We wait all night to get in 2 passes were lucky we get 3 before eliminations.

 

And drive 6 hours to do that.

 

If you are wearing out tires and putting 20,000+ miles on your gasser - you are doing it right!

 

My kinda thread..Been quiet here this week.

 

That's my daily driver. Never been on a race track. wearing out tires going to work and to the grocery getting milk.

 

Hmmmm. Might this be a side effect of having a straight axle, but using it on the street? Got enough caster(?) to make the steering self-centering?
Is the front set up for drags, in the interest of gasser appearance, but you're turning corners and hitting railroad crossings with it?
See where I'm going, here? You're using it as a daily driver, and have asked us a question about front tire wear, but we have no knowledge of how the front was set up.
Could be that your fronts have a softer compound rubber than the rears.

P.S.; You called then "front runners". Are they true front runners? (They don't look like it.) Or are they a standard street tire, just tall & skinny.

Roger

 

I didn't see a question mark anywhere in his post.

 

Hmmm. Henry, you're correct. I interpretted it as a question. I've been known to be wrong a couple times in my life before this.

Roger

 

You've never been down a racetrack? Living in Bakersfield ?
How come?

 

The biggest price you will pay for the gasser "look" is getting made fun of for not racing it!

 

Priceless...

 

Good question


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Looks like you have Mickeys on the front, I do. Small foot print, and not really a tire for daily driving, but they have the look, and are a quality tire. I wish my slicks and rear street tires lasted one damn season.

 

there wouldn't be any wear on the fronts if the car was on the track. the front tires would be in the air. if your concerned about 20,000 miles on front runners due to cost i bet you still have your first communion money in your piggy bank,

 

Don't give him too much grief, there are probably many on here who wouldn't even venture out of the house in Bakersfield without an air conditioned new car or truck. I've seen his Willys at all kinds of events over the years. NHRA tech being what it is these days, I'm guessing it may not pass tech for a regular event but it should be ok for a street car night/day deal.
Couldn't hurt to run it down the old Bakersfield track at least once or twice if they will let you, I'd love to have a photo of my Austin coming off the line at Famoso.

 

Not asking a question about setting up front ends. I am a 45 yr practicing mechanical engineer so I know exactly how bad this setup is for day-to-day driving. Just making an observation. I appreciate your shock at my not racing it but it is not at all set up for racing; long bell housing 331 bored to 354 with the old small port '53 heads, '54 Hydro tranny (find replacement racing parts for that!), narrowed '56 Olds rear w/ 3.23 gears. Never intended to race it, can get a Yugo and put in a BBC for that and not care if I kiss the guard rail. This car is just for the fun of driving an awesome car around town, the rice burners give me a wide berth! It would be embarrassing to make a run with my setup. Guessing I would be in the mid to high 20 second range.

As the guy said, looks are way more important than function. Tire mileage is due to all the above; beam axle, way too heavy in front, way too small tires in front, etc. Wear doesn't indicate misalignment, it is uniformly across the tread. Those were Mickeys, just got some nice vintage looking Japanese radials last week, see how they run. Having the look is much more important than good mileage!

Oh, and I do have A/C in this car. I pretty well hid it, about all you see is the compressor. Hard to do B'filed w/o it.

And I haven't been to an NSRA regional event since they opened membership to '86 grocery getters (my mini-protest) but last time I was there I got a 23 point safety sticker.

 

I like your car. Wish there was more like yours running around here on the street, they scare the hell out of people, LOL.

 

sounds like a typo? NSRA instead of NHRA maybe?

I built mine to race and drive, and it wears out tires pretty well, too.

 

Yep. Advance Partsheimer's.

 

My quests is u don't do a lot of big burn outs? BC I go thru a pair of rear tires about every 2 yrs but I don't like taking chances of blowing one ou during a burn out but that's just me, lol but ur right about the look of them big/little tire look lol I love it


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Yep


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I'm no expert on gassers, BUTT!! It DOES sound like the front end doesn't spend enough time in the air.

 

'Wear Out Tires"???
In my form of racing, our tires age out before any tread is gone.
We 'race' on soft dirt and semi hard salt, and at El Mirage we only get one pass a day.
At Bonneville, depending on the condition of the salt, and time of the week, early in the week two passes and on Thursday and Friday if you survive, as many passes as your fuel and motor will allow.
And your ties will look brand new.

 

Again, it isn't a racer, it is 100% totally just a street rod. Your wife's Prius probably has more chance spinning tires than my Willys!! With my setup, I can't do a burn out it is so mild. Only time the front end is off the ground is when it is on my 2-post hoist having its front tires changed!!

 

I just changed out the tires on my shoebox last year..Rear tires were MRT Goodyear recap circle track tire 12" wide..Had about 30k miles and wore like iron and extremely even across, could probably have gotten another 20k ...Went to radial Hoosiers for the rear and swapped to radial MT [best tread pattern match] from Coker F-60 Firestone [because they weren't round from day one] just for gp...Previous to the Coker fronts I had F-60 Lee that got about 20k before showing odd wear pattern but if I had swapped side to side occasionally it wouldn't have appeared so soon..Pic is of rear MRT recaps.

 

Let me have it for a little while and I'll fix that little issue right up for you. You will get a better deal on 4 tire's anyway !

 

I'll help!

 

Yea, yea, that's what they all say! What would you tell me if your mods ended up my car like this? Huh?