How are falken azenis for road racing,
I know they are wonderful for autox'ing, seeing as they are some of the grippiest
street tires out there, and definetely the grippiest for the price in our honda sizes..

But I've read that they don't handle heat very well, and get alot worse the hotter they get?

So I'm thinking, if you're out there lap after lap after lap, or hard cornering,
do these tires just turn to ****??

What about the new RT-615
anyone know about these? did they make any improvement in this area or just the same?

thanks

 

Search, and you will find:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1201065

 

I ran last season on the original style Azenis and plan to do the same this season... basically, they are fine until you work them too hard (or until you stop and the brake heat gets to them). If you keep going at speed and don't try to force the car to do things, they'll usually be fine. The heat will slowly build up, but you can get them to last for a while if you don't needlessly abuse them.

I find that it's easier and more costly to overheat them on a long autocross course. Autocross is more cornering, harder cornering, and no speed to cool them off... one good screw up and you'll be greasy for the rest of your run. It's obviously worse when you have two drivers.

On the road course, you aren't generating so much heat with them, and you have high speed air to cool them off. Of course, you do have brake heat that gets to them.

 

for racing? you can't afford to give up that big of an advantage to your competitors. some guys are using it as a rain tire, but when it's dry it's r-comp time.

for open lapping, which is very different, it's not bad. they get greasy about halfway into a run session, depending how hot it is outside, at which point you can slip and slide, or pull into paddock, spray em down and get back out.

 

Usually after an auto-x run their around 110-130 degrees. After hot lapping at talladega gran prix the outside was 180 degrees. They weren't as bad as I thought they would be, but still not r compounds.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How are falken azenis for road racing,
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Probably pretty crappy. I imagine you'll be 2-3 seconds off the Hoosier/V710 pace at least. New ones might make a decent intermediate rain tire though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FormulaIntegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Search, and you will find:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1201065</TD></TR></TABLE>

Read, and you will find:

That thread has nothing to do with using them as a race tire, only a tire comparison.

 

I used them for two track days on Pocono North. The first year it was very hot, I was inexperienced, and they would get hot and greasy about 10 laps in if I was puishing. If I cruised for a lap or two they came back to me. That first year I completely wore out the inside halves of my fronts due to the hot temps, negative camber and 2+ hours of track time. I would suggest bringing some spare tires with you because you DO NOT want to get cought in a freak rain storm on the interstate like I did with bald Azenis on the front. I had to stop and wait out the rain. The next year I brought two spares and put the bald fronts from the previous year on the back. The combo of lower temps and smoother driving made the tires last and they never got hot enough to really give up on me. I turned better laps and had a much more pleasant ride home too. So, I would say it's a decent track day tire but it won't touch a real R compound for speed or durability.

 

Ok cool good info.

and just to clarify,
I actually did not mean actual competition, just fun trackday/weekend stuff.
But I still think that is alot more grueling that autox'ing (with the exception of maybe
a really long hard autox course as mentioned previously, but even then, you get to let them rest after reach run..).

Also i'm looking at the new rt615's more, and apparently they are supposed to hold up to higher temps better/longer, so that should be interesting, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see if that holds true.