18's on the front / 15's on the back?!?!

[Peter P]

Hey Guys,

Mate of mine at work is looking at improving his MR2 drag times and wants to know if he could run the 18's he has on the front and get just two 15's for the rear with drag tyres or semi slicks.

Can someone explain if this would work or if not, why? :search:

Sounds dodgy to me and although you see plenty of drag cars with tiny pram wheels up front and huge rubber at the back i've not seen it the other way round.

His thought is 'lee weight/inertia to move and smaller=faster accelaration at the drive wheels'

His reason is 'So I don't have to buy 4 new wheels and tyres and have them lying around most of the time'.

Also, what do semi slicks in 225/50/15 go for these days? I suggested 888's and he reckons they cost £150+ a pop?!?! :blink:

All comments/suggestions appreciated.

Cheers,

Pete :)

[Shilakadaddy]

The reason for having smaller diameter wheels on the back (for RWD cars) is so that you can fit much larger tyres on the wheels - larger tyre walls. This means under hard acceleration the tyres can squash down and get greater surface area contact with the ground, resulting in more grip.

Drag cars also tend to have skinnier wheels up front in order to reduce friction.

AFAIK the overall diameter of the wheel + tyre should be the same front and back...

[Peter P]

The reason for having smaller diameter wheels on the back (for RWD cars) is so that you can fit much larger tyres on the wheels - larger tyre walls. This means under hard acceleration the tyres can squash down and get greater surface area contact with the ground, resulting in more grip.

Drag cars also tend to have skinnier wheels up front in order to reduce friction.

AFAIK the overall diameter of the wheel + tyre should be the same front and back...

Cheers mate i'll pass that on to him to digest! ;):d

As I say whilst I don't mind watching drag racing, after seeing the Pro boys in the funny cars and jet cars do 4/5/6 sec runs it just doesn't do it for me anymore!

Time Attack or EDC on the other hand...............:eyebrows::cool: