Paul 996

PCA published an addendum on July 4th 2011 allowing the RA1 as an alternate to the R888 for the remainder of 2011. Intent is to officially adopt the RA1 as the spec tire in 2012.

Mgloble... It is NASA that has not adopted the staggered and square wheelset. PCA has allowed both for some time.

mglobe

I'm aware of that. I was trying to provide that information to others and make sure we were all straight on that. As best I understand, it was the square setup that first started the rift between PCA and the specbox.org folks.

fuenfer

Sorry to ask a really basic question, but why RA1 or R888 instead of Hoosiers? Are the Toyos that much more cost efficient than Hoosiers?

Gary R.

Actually yes, but most SPB guys would love to run R6's if given the opportunity! I think 98.75% of the SPB guys hate the 888's, think the RA1's wouldn't be as bad but as I never ran either...

As the SPB's seem to run with D and E now I would like them to be on Hoosiers, I think it would make for more competition/fun...

eric523

Since the tire shortage, our sanctioning body the POC, has allowed the use of any DOT tire. We ran the Hoosier R6 and Kumho V710 all year and it was amazing. The tires are so much better, lap times dropped about 2.5 seconds at each track. It doesn't really matter much cost wise IMO. The top guys run a new set each weekend either way. The Kumhos are less than $100 a set more than the Toyos and the Hoosiers are about $150 a set more.
I'm leaving the class before they put us back on those damn toyos...

M758

RA-1 can last a long time. I suspect that RA-1's on a boxster will last about as long as they do on a 944 spec which is some 25 heat cycles in competitive racing winning use. So that comes to around 2 sets of tires for a entire season. Maybe 3 if you run alot of races with lots of sessions.

R888's at least on the 944's lasted half that if you were lucky. We in 944 spec pushed hard to get out class back on the RA-1's as the R888 were not a good tire for us. Not enough life.

Hoosiers are are fast, but best case might last 10 heat cycles in top notch competitive use. Not good for what is supposed to budget cost controlled class.

M758

BTW... If that what it takes to run spec boxster then I will never run that class. Forget about it. I can run up front on shoe string buget with 2 new sets of tires per year in 944 spec. I had seen the boxster as the next step one day, but if what you say is true forget it. I might as well run in run boxster S and actually get some power if I am going to be forced in to spending that kind of money to run at the front.

eric523

well, since the Ra-1 is going to be the new spec tire...should be more towards your liking.

Paul 996

My experience with the R888s is that you had to learn to drive them on the edge and never over it. Ie you had to manage your tires. I had competitive tires that lasted me 4-5 events. But during the same season, I also had 2 tires that went completely away, no rubber or grip in only one weekend.

I did let them get outside of my preferred operating window and during one sprint race I kept pushing on a tire that was telling me it was no longer happy (but I had to hold onto 2nd place) and at the end of my race a nearly new tire was gone. Only happened once.

For 2010 I ended up buying 10 R888s. Had to replace 2 that ended their life early. Otherwise I was rotating 2 sets.

The initial feedback from several SPB racers is that the RA1 is very favorable in handling, feedback and actually better in laptimes (which surprised me). We will see on longevity, if equal to the R888 I would be happy.

A lot of people on here don't get one thing. The S in SPB stands for SPEC. I don't care if we all had to run Hoosier R6, Yoko Slicks or a runflat. Every car would be on the same rubber and constrained by the same limits.

The argument about running outside of our class is a bit pointless. You don't bring a 185hp SPB to an E-Stock shoutout where the E cars have 215ish at the wheels and unlimited suspension development, tires, etc.

J richard

^^^this^^^ and +1 to joes comments, I was looking for a SPEC platform to run against other racers with (as close as possible) the same setup/limitations. The 944 is great but it's getting time for a newer platform that doesn't eat $2k in tires a weekend like the cup. The box is ideal as long as it is kept IN the box, otherwise the best spec series is a gtc3 cup and we're done. The 44 is going to stay in the garage until I get an idea how this works out...(and if I have anyone to race with)...

mglobe

First of all, the comments about this being a SPEC class are right on target. If you are looking to compete with E-stock, buy an E car. Otherwise, tire choice matters mostly to keep a level playing field and to keep costs down. Tires are the single biggest cost of racing imho.

If you want to compare the cost of running Toyo's to Hoosiers, compare the RA1, not the R888. From my experience with the 888, those tires are gone in 15 HC's. RA1's fall off a bit, but are still good for much longer. After 15 HC's on the 888's they are barely good for practice, at least that's been my experience on the SP996. They do make a pretty good rain tire however, particularly because you can run them in transition conditions as well as full wet.

J richard

Mike, got your note, pretty much what I figured, silly...

Your experience with the 888's is about what we had with the 944spec cars, couldn't wait to get off them, I'm fine running the ra1s nice, predictable, long lasting and cheap. Actually the stagger doesn't even bother me.

I was surprised after all the positivity about the class and then couldn't find any conversation online, it just stopped with a whole bunch of dead links and old posts everywhere I went. I've seen plenty of cars out there but the info had dried up. Now I know why, but there us still a strong growing class out there, the racers should start talking some more across boundaries...

winders

Haven't there been issues in this class with transmission and IMS failures? Has that put a damper on the enthusiasm a bit?

I wonder if the Spec911 is a better option overall.

Scott

jrgordonsenior

The price delta is completely different Scott and there's already a nationwide contingency of Spec Boxes. Your Spec 911 class is Nor Cal only. I loved seeing Gary Willard's build but I'll bet that cost $75k to complete. Good Spec Boxes can be found for $25k there days...

J richard

Scott, hard to argue the robustness of the old air-cooled flat six ran them a long time with no issues, but something about the 911 always made me make them a little too precious to run w2w (I'd have a hard time dinging your car) but a boxster, well it's a boxster after all...

I'm going belts and suspenders on the engine,