Drag Racing Slicks Overview

The first Drag Racing Slick was developed by a company called M&H Tires (Marvin & Harry Tires) in the early 1950s. It was the only company in the world that produced and sold original drag racing tires. Later, competitors stole or reverse-engineered molds, and began making their own tires.

Drag racing slicks are typically very large, to deal with the enormous power delivery. For "closed wheel" cars, often the car must be modified merely to account for the size of the slick, raising the body on the rear springs for the height of narrower slicks, and/or replacing the rear wheel housings with very wide "tubs" and narrowing the rear axle to allow room for the wider varieties of tires. Open wheel dragsters are freed from any such constraint, and can go to enormous tire sizes. Some utilize very low pressures to maximize the tread contact area, producing the typical sidewall appearance which leads to their being termed "wrinklewall" slicks. Inner tubes are typically used, to ensure that the air does not suddenly leak catastrophically as the tire deforms under the stress of launching.

"Wrinklewall" slicks are now specifically designed for the special requirements of drag racing, being constructed in such a way as to allow the sidewall to be twisted by the torque applied at launch, softening the initial start and thus reducing the chances of breaking traction. As speed builds, the centrifugal force generated by the tire's rotation "unwraps" the sidewall, returning the stored energy to the car's acceleration. Additionally, it causes the tires to expand radially, increasing their diameter and effectively creating a taller gear ratio, allowing a higher top speed with the same transmission gearing.

Cheater slicks / Drag Radials

Since completely slick tires are outlawed on most roads due to their inability to handle wet pavement, the "cheater slick" became a popular item in the hot rod world in the 1960s; a typical slick type tire, but engraved with the absolute minimal amount of tread grooves required to satisfy legal requirements. Since then, however, tire development has progressed greatly, so that today's hot rod street cars typically use wide treaded tires which perform better than the slicks of the past; while the cheater slicks available today, both for nostalgic appearance of street cars and for competition use in classes where DOT approved street tires are required, have followed their own line of development, diverging from true slick tire construction to become a distinct tire design in themselves.

Goodyear introduces new tire for NHRA fuel classes

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s racing division has announced the introduction of the next-generation rear drag slick for NHRA's Top Fuel and Funny Car categories.

The D2550 tire will be offered for optional use during the June 19-22 Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown and the June 26-29 Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk. It will be the only offering for those applications beginning at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver July 11-13.

Goodyear's current tire, the D2420, will also be available for use in Englishtown and Norwalk.

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