Anyone ever used the spare tires on the front of your car for skinnys at the drag strip?? I've tested them for the past week on back roads to see what speeds can be obtained with great success.Just so you know I put them on the back of a front wheel drive just in case something happened at high speeds and they run very well at high speeds and will fit in the budget of my challenge car at 5 bucks each from the junk yard.
somehow this makes me cringe... only cuz i have seen the end result of some coming apart.
This is (was) one of those 'better to ask for forgiveness than permission' situations.
I'd run 'em, but I doubt the track officials/GRM/the fellow challengers who are about to pile onto you will allow it...assuming your trap speed is over 55MPH 
Also: Regardless of which wheels are putting power to the ground, if one half of the car is going to break loose at high speeds, I'd much rather it be the FRONT! 
Run the rims with high performance scooter tires. Its been done and works well.
Scooter tires are cheap... I had this setup on 13's for a civic
Unless you have lightweight wheels for them, it's probably not worth the effort.
look at 98 or 99-ish Lincoln town cars. they have a compact spare that is an alloy wheel. super light. actually looks kinda cool too.
I can't find the article, but a while back some magazine (SCC?) took some poor souls riced out automatic Nissan Sentra SE, and made it run 13s on stock everything.
They did remove half of the car with a sawzall and put donuts on the back, though.
I used to run Ford aluminum spares with VW tires. 
Used to find them in every Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.
Taiden wrote: I can't find the article, but a while back some magazine (SCC?) took some poor souls riced out automatic Nissan Sentra SE, and made it run 13s on stock everything. They did remove half of the car with a sawzall and put donuts on the back, though.
IIRC that Sentra was a pre-production test mule turned magazine/show car that had a government enforced date with the crusher shortly after they commenced their foolishness. They didn't exactly advertise that fact in the article though 
.
I would never do it. Those tires were designed with slow driving and a short distance in mind. Sure, you're only going 1/4 mile at a time, but I sure hope you are going to top 55 mph....
your differential is only designed to go 55 mph with a small wheel and a full sized wheel. i'm not sure it has as much to do with the tire. maybe i'm wrong.
I am going to run the rims,They are stock rims but aluminum.The tires are Michelins.I can put 185 16's and everything will be fine just wondering if anyone here had done it.They do it all the time on the corvette forum.Thanks
I remember seeing sub 12 second aircooled VW drag cars running spacesaver tires on skinny centerlines back in the late 80's and early 90's. It was just funny to see the "Do not exceed 55mph" warnings on some pretty damn fast machines.
Yep Ive seen 10 sec cars at Gainesville running them too.I really think if you have a light car your fine.I would not run them on cars over 3000lbs.
I seem to recall that Car and Driver thoroughly thrashed space savers on a C4 Corvette sometime during the 1990s. Their conclusion -- the tires were far more durable (and capable) then one would believe based on the warnings.
Funny to see a complete 180 in reactions from the last time the same question was asked a few years ago.
I'm guessing the 'do not exceed 55' warning has more to do with the fact that suzy numbtard doesn't know that a 4" wide tire will not corner as well as an 8" wide one, and less to do with any spontaneous explosions @ 56mph.
I bet the warnings have more to do with differential wear than anything else. And the fact that one corner is riding much lower when being used as a single spare. It makes cars act funny and at high speeds this is exaggerated.
I mean hell, all tires are speed rated. What's the speed rating on the sidewall of your spare tire?
A friend of mine had a T-Bucket roadster that he ran spacesavers on the front axle. He daily drove it during the summer on the street. In the interest of full disclosure GA doesnt have a safety inspection.
poopshovel wrote: I'm guessing the 'do not exceed 55' warning has more to do with the fact that suzy numbtard doesn't know that a 4" wide tire will not corner as well as an 8" wide one, and less to do with any spontaneous explosions @ 56mph.
Pretty much this, combined with how spacesaver spares are usually a different diameter than the road wheels, making for potential hazards diff-wise if it's on a drive axle. There's probably a small amount of them not trusting Joe Below-Average to put the thing on correctly. (You have no idea how many times I've seen people put lug nuts on backwards)
I do note, in this regard, that back when Subaru still put the spare tire under the hood, the 4wd had a full-diameter mini-spare while the 2wd models had a smaller diameter spare.
GSL RX-7s, which had limited slip diffs from the factory, somehow came with spare tires LARGER than the road wheels.
Taiden wrote: I mean hell, all tires are speed rated. What's the speed rating on the sidewall of your spare tire?
Don't know, but I regularly exceeded the speed rating on the tires on one of my RX-7s. Did it once in my VW as well. (I have Proof that the turd will actually exceed 100mph! GPS high score is 103, tires rated for 99)
The key part of the speed rating spec is that it is the maximum speed that the tire can endure for 3 or 4 HOURS before it is allowed to fail from overheating. Arguably, then, you can exceed that speed for short bursts. (And your plan to run a 200 gallon fuel trailer so you can blitz across the Southwest at 200mph without stopping? Bad idea.)
Knurled wrote:Taiden wrote: I mean hell, all tires are speed rated. What's the speed rating on the sidewall of your spare tire?The key part of the speed rating spec is that it is the maximum speed that the tire can endure for 3 or 4 HOURS before it is allowed to fail from overheating. Arguably, then, you can exceed that speed for short bursts. (And your plan to run a 200 gallon fuel trailer so you can blitz across the Southwest at 200mph without stopping? Bad idea.)
WRONG. All speed tire ratings are for TEN MINUTES at their claimed rating. Not that that will change anyone's mind on here, but your claim is completely false, and I can't let that coast on by.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/rulings/upgradetire/econ/TireUpgradeII.html
I myself pushed an Audi 200 turbo with H-rated tires to 145MPH, but the time spent above 100 was less than a minute. Somehow I get the feeling there wouldn't be speed ratings if it were A-OK to push any given tire far past its rating for long periods of time. YMMV, I know I'd rather not find out the hard way, that's for sure.
As far as the topic title, 16vCorey taught me that dirtbike tires can be mounted to space saver skinny steelies with great success. We've never had a failure in that regard, but then again, from an engineering standpoint I'm sure high-speed rotational stress is VERY different than momentary axial stress.
Space saver spare tires are also not required to undergo speed testing by the NHTSA.
Everyone forgets that the doughnut is supposed to be installed on a NON DRIVE WHEEL
The differential shouldn't even enter the discussion at that point.
If your blowout is on a drive tire, you're supposed to move a good, standard wheel to the drive wheel and put the doughnut in it's place.
Unfortunately, the only person i've ever seen who has actually read the manual and understands this seems to be me.
I've thought of using the doughnuts on my vintage rail dragster that I'm putting together but I think I'll be pulling the crapulent spare tires off and just using the skinny wheels with motorcycle tires.
Shawn
I was asking for drag racing only and sub 15 sec. runs.I can't believe this got so much attn.
speedbiu wrote: I was asking for drag racing only and sub 15 sec. runs.I can't believe this got so much attn.
We can ignore you if you prefer.
No,I appreciate the info. not complaining just thought it would take a few days to get this much input.Its great .
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