Tubbing a C5 and Drag Radials
 

I have a 2000 Vette with auto-trans, 2800 stall, DTE 3.73 gears Stage 2, ported F.A.S.T. intake and throttle body, 160 thermostat, K & N Air Filter, LG MotorSports long tube headers/no cats and a tune from local tuner.

My question is this...what is the largest size drag radial I can utilize and what brand is considered the best?

I have also read postsregarding tubbing of the rear....is this difficult, how involved is this from a cutting standpoint and who manufactures kits for this???

Thanx in advance,

Jimmy

RE: Tubbing a C5 and Drag Radials
 

Without tubbing the rear wheel well, you can get 305s on it (at least on a ZO6, I think its the same on a standard C5) and maybe 315s (if you raise the rear suspension just a bit -- it seems to depend on the brand of tire).

Lingenfelter's tubbing kit is quite good: afterwards, 345 drag radials (or standard tires, Michelin makes a 345 with tread) will fit without rubbing even in corners. I think 355 would fit it one were made. The kit it includes everything you need, including shock relocation hardware. Lingenfelter has downloadable instructions on its website if you want to look at how complicated the kit is. I had a body shop do the work after Ed Potter at Lingenfelter told me the kit "was easy to install the second time you do it."

You really need at least12 inch wide wheels to fit 345s well. It put 12 x 18 inch wheels on mine so I could run 345 drag radials; many people put 19 inch diamter wheels (12 or 13 inch width)on instead of a 18x12, but at the time I bought my wheels there were no 345 wide 19 inch drag radials (not sure there are now, for that matter). By the way, wheels over 11 inchs width seem to cost a pretty penny no matter where you go.
Here, at least with 18 x12 wide wheels, you run into a second problem: it takes two jacks to change a rear tire. The first you need to raise the car, as normal. The second you need because of a problem wheels wider than the stock (ZO6-C5) 10.5 inch wheels cause: when the car is jacked up the rear springs push the tires down until the rear suspection arms contact and jam against the inside rim of a 12 wide wheel. It binds and you cannot get the wheel to come off the hub. So you have to put a second jackwith wooden board to cushion it, under thesuspension arm and push the suspension arms and tire up slightly until the rim just clears, now you have the wheel off the ground (first jack) and the suspension off the rim (second jack ) and you can take the wheel off and change the tire, etc. It is a hassle and ptentially not the safest evolution unless you are careful. I do not know if 19x12 inch diamter wheels would fix this problem -- they might because the suspension arm seems to just barely touch, but again I don't know if