go fix your boost by gear.

Or invest in tcs.

Maybe even some drag oriented coilovers rather than street ones?

I have Motec Traction control, i'm fairly convinced at this point your car either makes crap for power or you simply don't have a swapped 86 making high torque. Unless you are going to provide truly helpful insight, I think it's best you move on from this topic.

I've never heard of this, i'll look into it!

Can you be more specific? I really don't know what makes a coilover drag oriented. Is it the valving? If so, what coilover do you recommend?

I think what CSG was getting at is that you make too much power.

Bellow are your only real options.

Better/fatter tires. (Looks like you cant go much wider.)
More aggressive TCS.
MCA Traction Mod
More weight in the rear.
Time for areo.

Even with all of that done your only option in the end may be
Less power. (Turn the boost down)

I also would not be running OTS sprint rates/valving with a swap of this magnitude.
I doubt the car has anywhere near the original weight or F/R bias.
Custom may help putting the power down.

Car doesn't look overly dropped from what I saw after hunting down your ceramic vid.

Replies above in red! :)

EDIT: I'm willing to spend some money on serious suggestions from people with actual experience. I've received so many generic "get better tires" remarks with absolutely no proof or backing that the tire they recommend is better than my current. In my current tire class of a street drag tire, the NT555R is as good as its competition. On paper anyway. In real life it sucks, but I can't have any way of knowing if it's just a bad tire and everyone online is stupid by recommending it or if it's a good tire and my car just needs better suspension work.

As far as suspension goes, i'm ready to ditch the tein's. I just don't want to replace them for similarly crappy suspension that just happens to cost more.

No idea if the traction mod would help, only have reviews to go off of.

As for aero, probably not at low speeds, but you mentioned 5th gear so I assumed high speeds.

Another thought.
Boost by RPM instead of straight gear. (if not already done.)

I'd start emailing some suspension companies and see if they could give some feedback.
Suspension sub forum would be a good place for more input on recommended companies, ect.

I think the real solution will be one of the following-

Adding weight to the trunk
Ramping in boost slower
drag slicks
True LSD

Sudden inertia change from boost coming in too fast will make it harder for the tires to react. Adding weight sometimes won't help if other factors are too much; it's also counter-productive to a degree.
Fat drag slicks have been the solution for nearly anyone looking to hook up on pavement unequivocally. I have the NT555R on my car and while they're an R compound, they are still pretty stiff ( I have a 245/45).
You may know people who have better luck hooking up, but there are so many things that need to go right at that power level, it's tough to discern what a perfect formula is other than drag slicks, a real LSD (Torsen is limited, I don't care what anyone says, clutch type is the way to go)
Cheapest solution is going to be having the tuner ramp boost in more slowly, possibly with less sauce overall. But we don't build to slow down, so maybe get a better LSD, some Hoosiers, and start rotating the earth under you instead of spinning on top of it

I have boost by speed technically but it also factors gear and rpm is controlled to extent by TCS all via the motec. I don't want to spend like $5k for a rear end and such, but it may be the only solution. Not sure how much weight I would need back there to help out my situation. A few sand bags surely won't do much. I would need 500lbs or more lol.

I will try more tuning this coming spring to try and ramp up boost slower but i'm limited with a smaller hot side on the turbo. It hits pretty aggressively and under 5k rpm which i'm sure is also not helping.

My biggest concern with a full drag radial is on days it rains. Without some tread on the tire, the car becomes a death trap. At least from all the reviews i've read that is.

I am considering a MT ET Street S/S or possibly toyo R888R but not sure they will be much better than my NT555R. All reviews online say the NT555R is similar to the S/S and "better" than the R888R for street/strip in a straight line. Any thoughts on this tire theory?

OK,,, I'll preface this with the fact that I have no real experience with this kind of power. My initial thoughts center around some previously mentioned ones. I know you've mentioned that your running the widest tire you can. Is putting flares on of some type and stepping up wheel width and tires size out of the question?? I'm not sure that a 315/35ZR17 is not going to spin when you hammer it in 5th,, but I'd think it'd be better. Also aero. I wouldn't think drag from a big wing is going to hurt you top end much,, but real down force might in those 5th gear pulls.

you need a proper drag suspension setup to weight transfer to the rears.

Wider doesn't always = more grip depending on psi and compound you change contact depth for width without an overall increase in surface area.

Weight over the rear would help, like battery relocation or anything else you can relocate. sometimes adding a sandbag or weight plate over the rears adding 50lbs to take a 1/10th off the 60ft to take off 2/10th on the 1/4th will negate the weight gain.

but the number one most important thing is the suspension setup. no one size fits all, every car not only model but specific individual setup is different. you need 2 way adjustable coilovers to have full control over height, compression, and rebound independently. You want the rear to squat down and the nose to come up but you dont want either side banging off bump stops or going fully unloaded in the front either its a balancing act that's difficult to dial in, takes a lot of trial and error, practice, filming your launch to see exactly what's happening and then making adjustments.

Lots of RWD light weight front engine cars have traction and battle wheelies once setup properly. Then once you get to that point you setup boost by gear and launch control etc... to get right to the edge of not doing a wheelie.

very few people have done what you have done on this platform to give you exact real world experience, your best bet is to reach out to other platforms with similar lightweight front engine RWD setups at similar power and get advice from them, even then nothing wil be exact to your car, except what is best for your car.

Clearly, your TC isn't working. Go get it tuned.

You're looking for a magic bullet. It doesn't exist.

I driven and owned cars that will walk your 2J powered 86. There's no way around physics. If you want to delude yourself and waste time and money, be my guest. At the end of the day, your conclusion will be the same as anyone else out there who makes any sort of 500+:

- Fix (properly tune) your TCS
- Get stickier tires

For those of you watching this thread:

- An LSD won't help. He's spinning both tires due to 1. too much power 2. not enough tire grip, not uneven lateral load
- squat/antisquat geometry wont affect his grip due to lack of tire grip resulting in poor articulation


Given a rather high level of build, I frankly expected you to understand my recs, rather than having to spoon feed you.

Altho Im not making much power yet I have traction issues too with NT555R's. Now I have some mickey's 275/50/15 that hook alot better. Still trying to figure out suspension, mine is way to stiff even on full soft. I'll more than likely go with a dual adjustable coilovers with spring rates based off corner balance weight. What spring rates are you running?

Spring rates aren't granular enough to adjust based on corner weights.

Run the car high and use the stock bump steer geometry to your advantage for launching or rolling launches. If you're already used to slick walk, then this kind of alignment wont bother you.