Gary R.

I used two new sets of tires for 4 races but I see a lot of guys running a new set each race, so I wonder if they are as important as they were (VERY) when I ran Hoosier's on my 911 D car? The thing with these Toyo's is they take a looooong time to physically wear out, I ran the set that came with my car for practice at Limerock and they had a 2014 date, at least one full race weekend, several DE's, along with Limerock practices, Cups and Saucers DE at the Glen, and Glen practices before I took them off at TBolt to make room for my new tires (for NJ and Summit race). They still looked great and I hated tossing them! Doing the thumbnail test vs. new rubber it was obvious they were substantially harder but they still performed pretty well..

FeuerRacing

It's track and weather dependent for me but by default I usually like to 1-4 heat cycled tires over older ones and use the older ones for test/tune and practice. There are some tracks like Mid-Ohio, TWS, MSR (in the cold) that like older tires (4-8 heat cycles) because slip angle is incredibly important and you don't want too much grip.

But the thing to be cautious of is heat/pressure management. Fresh rubber is best for the first several laps but does create more heat/pressure and falls off at the end of the race more. Older tires take longer to build up but maintain speed towards the end of the race.

I believe the reason why there's a lot of new rubber out there for races is mostly because of the qualification style of PCA that the best lap qualifies you for the next race. So I try to qualify on the 2nd or 3rd lap and then I'm racing and managing the tires for the remaining.

My tires are toast at 10 HC and could be because of slip angle being created of amount and/or camber/toe I have on the car.

Gary R.

Guess i'm just cheap because I hate taking off tires that aren't worn out/flat-spotted/or shredded!
I asked Streak and he told me to never buy tires, just use other peoples take offs and i'll be fine...

jdistefa

Agree with Drake, the sweet spot is HC 2-4. Beyond that there is some drop-off, and equally important inner shoulder wear which reduces your effective camber. The big exception in the northeast as Chris mentioned is Mid-O.

If you setup your car (and your driving) to steer the rear first then you will simply go through more tires

Streak

I still have not figured these out to be honest. Yes fresh tires are best but I've also run some laps very very close to fresh tires on ooooooold tires. They seem to drop off in the middle (7+ cycles) then come back. Last race at SP I put on 3 HC tires and was slower than the prior set which had well over 10 so I felt stupid throwing out what were apparently good tires.

I just dunno.

The point of SPB is to control cost so if RR's are only good for Qualy's and two sprints then they are sort of missing the point.

mmuller

Soooooo, I agree with Matt and Drake.....Mostly...

I find, mostly, like they do, that newer seems to result in fast lap times, at the expense of drop off. Balance that as needed and you have helped that little bit more...

Having all said that, I still only mostly agree....

You will never guess what HC the WGI lap is at........

Gary R.

LOL.. Next year will be my best year in SPB, so i'll do whatever I can to be more competitive.

BostonDMD

What, this year was try-outs for you?

I am slow no matter what, so it doesn't really matter if they are old or new............

Gary R.

This year was a learning year, and i'm a slow learner...

audipwr1

I am still a rookie to this racing world, but I must say these tires are so confusing to me.

The wisdom on WC is, HC them once gently then let them sit for 24 hours then you are good to go

I have tried just going out and hammering on HC once and they are a tad slower for me

I have either retired or corded any set over 15 HC, but I know other quick folks that have set lap records on HC20

I also was recently told these tires love 4 degrees of camber which completely surprises me as I have been slowing increasing camber and notice that lap 1 and 2 tend to be bit slow then after they go fast whereas before I could go out lap one and hammer on under 3 degrees of camber.

toddlamb

If you guys want, I'll be happy to heat cycle tires for you.

audipwr1

lol

sbelles

Beats me, I haven't quite figured them out either. I went with the two race strategy this year too. At Summit I ran two sets of last years tires right up to 21 cycles each. The one thing I have learned for sure is to scuff up the rains before using them in the rain.

seanseidman

These tires are incredibly durable (my spb understeers), and I was within half a second of my time on new vs 21 hc tires.

hf1

So how many wheel sets (excluding rains) each shod with how old tires does everyone bring to a standard race weekend? I'm assuming no one counts on (re)mounting and balancing tires on rims during the weekend?