I've seen several people running street tires say they lower the air pressure when they drag race. Does this make sence? It seems to me that this would make the contact patch smaller, and cause more wheel spin.

Anyone?

 

Most people that i have seen run lower pressure for drags! 18 to 24 psi

 

It actually increases the initial contact patch if I'm not mistaken. Dropping my pressure down to around 23-24psi has netted me a bare minimum of .2 seconds off my 60' times w/ the stock Potenza's...
HTH
M

 

on slicks 10-12psi
on street tires 14-16psi

 

Damn you run some low pressure! Anyway, yes it is to increase the contact patch and traction. You don't want to run much higher than 25-28psi if you want a good launch on street tires (which is all I've ever dragged with ). Tire pressure alone has knocked off as much as 0.2 seconds in my experiences.


[Modified by StolenSi, 9:47 AM 9/17/2002]

 

Cool Okay. But what was that about overinflating tires means only the middle touches pavement, and underinflating means only the outsides touch?
I'm guessing this is overcome by the force of acceleration?

 

with 23 psi in my front tires I pulled a 2.110 60ft on 205/50/15 falken ZE-502's....I think 20 psi is a good place to start