Hey guys, I brought my maverick up to gateway the other night to see how it would run but I never got a good run in. No matter what I did the car would want to fish tail really bad after about half way down the track. It felt alot like having a trailer weaving back and forth behind you. Every one says to pull the tampax out and grow a pair but I`m pretty sure thats not the issue I`m used to driving old worn out sketchy junk and this had me scared. A friend of mine said he noticed it weaving pretty bad too. I was running a set of MT 26x10.5 et streets in the rear and bfg 205/60 15s in the front. I had my air pressure from 17psi to 23psi trying to get something figured out. I did get a really good 5300 rpm launch once though. The car was aligned a year and a half ago but it sat for six months of that and does not get driven all that much all. The suspension bushings have been replaced and most of them are polly it drives and handles just fine with street tires. Any insight or advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks, Elliot.
The problem is running a halfway wide radial tire up front with the bias ply tires in the rear. You usually can get a way with a radial on a 3.5" or 4" rim on the front and it not sway too bad, but once you get the wider radial tire up front it will. With a bias ply front tire you can go down to 10-12 pounds in the rear tires and it won't sway nearly as bad as what you are experiencing now.
What have you got for a steering box? I was experiencing the same thing two years ago, I found I had ply in my steering rack causing the car to hunt real bad , Any body that would drive my car hard through the top end didn't have balls they would have to have no brain! Once I changed the rack out my car is straight as an arrow with radials on front and Slicks on back!
With the right combo,stiff sidewall slicks will also help cure that problem.Thats what I am planning on using when I eventually get to the trk,at over 120mph I don`t want any weaving around.
If it is your slicks you can add air that will help, I found the old ripple wall slicks more forgiving than the new slicks I used to run Firestone with 6 pounds of air! I found when I switched to E/T Drag they are mushy at 10 pounds, I always run more than 12 pounds of air !
some good advice here. I'll also add that even an alignment spec change can make a noticeable difference in handling on the big end. More castor and additional toe can really help matters.
Thanks for the replies ! I guess I`ll get the alignment checked to be sure i`m not over looking something simple. The steering box has a little play but nothing dramatic I`ve had it well over 150 (professional driver closed course please do not attempt) on the street tires and it was a little loud but no drama at all. I`m going to do some junk yarding and see if I can find a set of those aluminum space savers and buy some skinny tires too. what did those come on, any one know ?
