I have a fairly new set of Yokohama AVS ES100 that have seen 2 track events. I got these tires due to their fairly good reviews and low price. As recommended by most here I don't want to use race tires until I have worked further on my skills.

The problem is these tires started to become slippery as hell toward my 3rd and 4th session. I would enter the turn taking the proper line and almost always have to get completely off the throttle in order to maintain any amount of traction. Otherwise I felt like drift king going through most of those turns.

I'm wondering, will the traction get better as these tires wear down? I mean it was down to almost unacceptable at this last Buttonwillow event and towards the end of the day they felt like complete mush. Will the initial session traction be back at the next event or have the compound on these become harder due to the excessive heat caused by Buttonwillow's many high speed braking and cornering situations? I'd really hate to be getting rid of these already.

And please don't just say "get Azenis" or "you should have got them shaved" because I could not find anywhere that would do tire shaving and I didn't want to mount those massive 205 series Azenis onto my little 15x6 Mazda Millenia wheels.

 

I had the same experience with 14" Azenis (H-speed rated, not V like the 15").

My vote is for they'll never get better.

I miss my old RE71s. They were never brilliant, just very good and consistent lap after lap, weekend after weekend.

Long live RE71......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaddMatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I miss my old RE71s. </TD></TR></TABLE>


Teeehheeeee... sucker.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I miss my old RE71s. They were never brilliant, just very good and consistent lap after lap, weekend after weekend.

Long live RE71......
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll second this! Loudest tires I have EVAR heard(A032R's are about the same, but a different frequency), and there are probably tires that grip better, but damn were they just beast in almost every aspect.

 

Oh yea, original queestion...

I say try to run some more negative camber. I've found that if you are running excessive slip angles, the outer tread can really heat up on these tires. So maybe open up the steering a little, spray them with water after runs etc.

They are just a street tire though, and I noticed them going away a tad at the end of my sessions as well. I just had to do 1-2 slower laps and then I could crank it back up.

 

It took me two track days before my S-03s really started to get grippy. You might also play with the air pressure. My tires are sensitive to pressure choice. You may find the same thing to be true about your Yokohamas.
-Adam

 

there's no issues running a 205 azenis on a 6" wheel. FWIW, you wont find a better balance between grip, wear, and cost.

 

For what it is worth I experienced something similar with both the RE730s and P8000 on our Prelude at both The Glen and Pocono. These are indeed street tires and subject to changes in how the compound works as they wear. If the track is becoming slippery due to buildup on it then the tires will be affected.
We ran at BeaveRun on Azenis and had no problems with them after each session. The only thing I found was that air pressure needs to be adjusted to account for track conditions. You might want to look at that too. I set the CRX up with 35 rear and 32 front to begin the day and was at 34 rear/31 right front/30 left front after that and the car rotated great and stuck fine too. What I found after we got home were tire chunks that I had picked on track versus none on the Prelude's RE730s-go figure that one out.
Keep working with the tires and shock settings. Happy racing

 

Thanks for all the suggestions, will keep them in mind before these become worn completely and I finally step up to race tires

 

maybe i am just stating the obvious or maybe i just know from quite a few years of racing. on warm days run a lower tire pressure on cold days run a tire pressure that is higher than usual. the theory behind this is that the contact patch gets bigger or smaller based on how much air is in the tire. a smaller contact patch heats up quicker and puts more heat in the tires on cooler days. so for u guys gettin slippery the longer u run but a little less pressure in your tires and get a fatter contact and keep them at a more optimum pressure.

also check them after every heat or session. i imagine that most of you run air in your tires and simple science tells you that when heated the air expands. so in a long run where your tires get hot the tire pressure will rise thus changing your contact and getting them real hot. if u dont believe me chek the tire pressure before and immediately after a session. they wont be the same temp as the start. this also comes into affect in your handling because of the fact that since the tires heat up at a different rate your tire pressures will no longer be the same. the remedy that all racing teams use it to get rid of the expansion problem all together and use nitrogen instead of air for the tires.

hope my experience could be of a little help.

 

I hate to use the 'K' word but GRM claims the Kumho 712's get better as they heat up, while the Falkens (and apparently the Yokos) get worse. I can't back this up with experience, however.

 

I ran Kumho 712's at VIR full last August (feakin hot, Carguys event), they were well worn (I was trying to kill them off), and while they squealed when I over drove them, and I forgot to bleed them down (I was up around 50 psi hot) I *never* felt like they were going off at all. Ran well all weekend, and I *still* wasn't able to kill them.

I've got to agree with Matt about the RE71, I ran those this spring at VIR south, and in spite of their age (on the car for 3 years) they were grippy and predictable all weekend. I'm getting them flipped this week so I can nurse a little more life out of them.

Scott