Rather than rely on internet forum conjecture, I took the time to actually phone BF Goodrich and talk with their tech people about this practice.
They STRONGLY discourage the use of their drag radials in applications like ours. They are a very single-purpose tire, designed to only be mounted on the rear, and are optimized for straight-line performance at the expense of handling, cornering etc. The tech I talked with pointed out that they have numerous other tire lines that are appropriate for general-purpose sports car use. I pointed out that they had no other speed-rated tires in the appropriate 15-inch sizes, and he responded with, "uh...."
I also phoned the Nitto tech line, as Nitto also makes dedicated drag-racing tires. They said exactly the same thing--do NOT use these tires on a car that you intend to drive around a corner, and do not ever put them on the front.
But you have to admit that they do look good. And there are lots of Cobra (and GT40) owners who are, for lack of a more polite word, 'posers'. That is, they enjoy driving their car in the middle lane on the freeway to the Sunday morning donut shop car show, making a bit of noise, showing off a bit of bling, then quietly driving back home again.
There's nothing wrong with that of course--there's nothing that says that every Cobra/GT40 owner has to be a wild man, driving around with his hair on fire all the time. :laugh:
Anyway, for the coffee-shop car show crowd, those drag radials are probably just fine. But if your ambitions involve driving you car hard on a back road, or even harder on a race track (one that has real turns in it, instead of just a Christmas tree at the start), then you need to be looking elsewhere for tires....
