98 buick regal gs wheels and tires for drag racing

Womp

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im looking for wheels and tire size that will fit with min rubbing. im just using these for racing but has to be DOT legal. im having a hard time finding how wide and how tall will work for my application. tell me what wheels/tires you use for racing.
 
seeing the original tire was 225/60x16 measure the clearance you have on the inside to the frame and the outside to the fender. Every 25.4 mm is equal to one inch. So if you have a 1/2" + on the inside and a 1/2" + on the outside you can fit a 245/50x16. Tirerack shows 8 different tires in that size. Next size up would be 255/50x16 which also has a number of choices.
 
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Are you going to drive to the track on them or put them on when you get there?

I have used American Racer G-60-15s on my 01 Regal, had to put them on some 15" wheels I grabbed from a LeSabre. They are a D.O.T. legal bias ply tire for about half the cost of a drag radial. At the time I wasn't up to speed on the different tire compounds and ended up with some KK704 compound (too hard) tires I found on CL.
The tire to get is the Dirt compound (my thumbnail says they're softer than M/T drag radials). These are good down to about 1.50 sec. 60' times (YMMV). Currently running the same tire on the back of my Roadmaster as insurance for when the track prep/condition sux.
I did NOT like the way they felt on the front of my Regal (on the street) and would not recommend this tire if you plan to do much street driving on them, OTOH they are fine on the rear of the Roady - even in the rain.
If you're interested the spec # is 43603, see page 7 of this PDF: https://www.americanraceronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015-RTA-Catalog-WEBSITE.pdf They have to be ordered from your local distributor.

You have a few options in drag radials, biggest prolem with any of them (American Racers included) is that none I have seen are a close enough match (rolling circumference) not to freak out your abs system. My 2 cents, pull the fuse and forget about it. Anything 255 wide or less should not be a problem on a 7" wide rim unless you want some ridiculously low profile tire (low profile = counterproductive at the dragstrip anyways). Try to stay between 26" and 27" diameter.
When looking at radials (for dragstrip), if the treadwear rating is more than zero - do not waste your time. You can also ignore the traction rating (traction ratings are for wet braking performance fyi and have zilch to do with dry acceleration).
 
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