Getting The Most from Hoosier R3S03s
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From: Plotting My Revenge
Getting The Most from Hoosier R3S03s
With several threads currently discussing advantages and disadvantages of Hoosiers and speculations about the new 04 tires, I thought I'd toss in how I've been managing my 03s for the past two seasons. This has worked well on 2 different cars and seems to help keep my budget a bit lower than some other folks while still maintaining competitiveness.
You'll need at least 2 good sets of wheels to manage the tires properly, but when you consider that proper heat cycling can double the useful life of a Hoosier, the wheel purchase is instantly justified.
Lets assume for simplicity sake that you start the year with one leftover set or tires from the previous year and one new set (a common way to start a year anyway). First, you MUST find an opportunity to heat cycle and scrub the new tires before you race on them. Even if this means bolting them up to a street car an taking a few spirited trips around the block and a quick run up the highway (not recommended, but if its the best you can do...). They must sit for AT LEAST 24 hours before you use them.
After this, its a simple matter of management and rotation. Use the older tires for practice sessions, bolt on the newer ones for qualifying, rotate them for the race... Voila!!! Mark where each tire comes off the car at the end of each weekend to ensure you keep the rotation correct.
Using this technique I can get at least 8 qualifying and race sessions out of a set before they start to noticably fall off. You can get sessions 9 and 10 out of them but they'll be showing a dropoff by then. Once this happens, you just move these tires to the role of "practice rubber," buy a new set, and start over again.
Doing this I was able to run the full Honda Challenge season last year on 2 sets of tires (some others used nearly twice as many Hoosiers and Kumho Ecstas). I was also able to run a full SCCA season this year on 2 sets and still have plenty of competitive rubber to start next year.
Yes, Hoosier 03s do fall off in performance (hopefully resolved with the 04), but you can minimize this with a little effort. I plan to use the same technique with the 04s, which will hopefully allow them be competitive for a long, long time.
You'll need at least 2 good sets of wheels to manage the tires properly, but when you consider that proper heat cycling can double the useful life of a Hoosier, the wheel purchase is instantly justified.
Lets assume for simplicity sake that you start the year with one leftover set or tires from the previous year and one new set (a common way to start a year anyway). First, you MUST find an opportunity to heat cycle and scrub the new tires before you race on them. Even if this means bolting them up to a street car an taking a few spirited trips around the block and a quick run up the highway (not recommended, but if its the best you can do...). They must sit for AT LEAST 24 hours before you use them.
After this, its a simple matter of management and rotation. Use the older tires for practice sessions, bolt on the newer ones for qualifying, rotate them for the race... Voila!!! Mark where each tire comes off the car at the end of each weekend to ensure you keep the rotation correct.
Using this technique I can get at least 8 qualifying and race sessions out of a set before they start to noticably fall off. You can get sessions 9 and 10 out of them but they'll be showing a dropoff by then. Once this happens, you just move these tires to the role of "practice rubber," buy a new set, and start over again.
Doing this I was able to run the full Honda Challenge season last year on 2 sets of tires (some others used nearly twice as many Hoosiers and Kumho Ecstas). I was also able to run a full SCCA season this year on 2 sets and still have plenty of competitive rubber to start next year.
Yes, Hoosier 03s do fall off in performance (hopefully resolved with the 04), but you can minimize this with a little effort. I plan to use the same technique with the 04s, which will hopefully allow them be competitive for a long, long time.
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