Cal Club Autocross Forums

I'm just full of questions today. Another friend of mine asked whether Top Fuel drag cars require some sort of attachment mechanism between the rear tires' bead and the lip of the rim. It seems like those cars produce such astronomical torque that the wheel would lose grip with the bead and start to spin faster than the tire, especially since they are underinflated and have so much grip on the pavement. I didn't have an answer for this one. Anyone know? Steve?

Yup, most faster drag cars use beadlock rims just like the rock crawler crowd.

The 8-11 second slower crowd might use rim screws instead of beadlocks. Lighter and cheaper.

My 10 second Super Stocker uses rim screws. Our stockers ran mid 11's and used nothing.

On one of the Vette forums a post showed a (T1 I think) wheel where the driver had scribed a paint line across the rim/tire and ran a few laps. The tire had rotated almost 180 degrees on the rim. The discussion was about tire balance. Since I saw that I have been marking (on the tire) where the balance weights line up (and the amount of weight). No slippage noted so far on mine.