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2QN Product Review
M&H Drag Slicks
M&H Race Tires is by no means a newcomer to the drag racing game. In fact, they were pioneers in the field of specialty drag race tires more than 30 years ago and have been a common sight at dragstrips across the country ever since.
Upon arrival of the first set of tires, I immediately noticed the sidewall construction was much stiffer than the typical 26x8.5" slicks offered by other manufacturers. In my opinion, this has proven to be a significant improvement in performance and tire life. More on that in a minute. I also noticed that every set of tires is matched by the diameter and personally signed off on by John at M&H. This may seem like a trival thing to some people, but to me it spoke volumes about the level of involvement of top management within M&H.
On the track, the difference was immediate. My Outlaw 8.5 Nova suddenly became a crowd favorite due to the huge wheel stands that I was now fighting to control. No longer was traction an ellusive commodity, and traction is the name of the game in small tire, outlaw racing.
Nearly as important as traction, especially these days, is tire life. Well, I'm happy to say that tire life has doubled compared to the other brand I was using. Prior to running the M&H tires I was seeing degredation of the 60' times after 8-10 runs. Now I'm typically running twice as long on a set of tires and have even run them as long as 34 passes. This kind of life may not sound so great to those not familiar with small tire, heads-up racing. But it's common to only get a handful of runs out of a set of tires before performance drops off when trying to hook up 1000+ horsepower. On a lower powered car, these tires would probably last for hundreds of runs and hook up great until the dimples were long gone.
My best 60' time to date is 1.294, which I think that speaks for itself. This tire has teeth! My best ET so far on them is 5.66, but I know of others who have been in the 5.50s on the M&H 8.5" slicks.
Naturally, M&H has many sizes and styles of tires. I also run their front tires and couldn't be happier with them. The car no longer tends to wander at high speed, which has proven to be the difference in winning and losing a few races. They do not leak, either, which is relatively common with a tubeless bias-ply tire.
M&H also has drag radials available, but I've not tried them yet. I've heard good things, so hopefully I'll have a chance to give them a shot soon.
Overall, I've had a very positive experience with the M&H Race Tires and I know other racers who have had very similar results. So next time you're in the market for new drag tires, give John or Michael at M&H a call. You won't be disappointed.
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Copyright © 2009 Bruce Johnson and Craig Watson
