While tooling around at FATT last Friday, at many times I felt far from being safe as my tires were extremely greasy after a few laps... I can handle sliding around, but when exit oversteer begins happening at track out or T2, T5, the carousel, and T9 at SP, I begin to question the gripping properties of my tires.

While I know every car and driver will get different results, around how many heat cycles can a set of good street tires last? I'm running S03s, and my car with me in it is about 3300lbs (add ~200lbs for a passenger or instructor). This set of tires has about 13,000 miles on them, including 12 cycles at VIR, 12 at Slummit, and 9 at Mid-Ohio. Bear in mind that almost all of these heat cycles were on cold days (except for last Friday). My rear tires are down to the treadbars, but my fronts have about 35% tread life left. Ideas, suggestions?

 

I've never heard people talking about heat-cycling out a set of street tires but I suppose it's entirely possible. I guess regular tires never see anywhere near the temps experienced on the track. Granted the tires I run on are much softer but I'd love to get 33 cycles out of my tires, let alone an additonal 13k miles. Even if we made a conservative estimate as to what they could stand up to I can't imagine it would cover where you're at.

Extra oversteer for me (almost) always means my tires are cycled out, even if they don't look it. Sounds like you might be about there.

 

Sounds like your rears are just plain dead.

 

142,345

 

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LOL!
I still consider 032Rs "street tires", but they get a bit harder and gritty after two Spring/summer/fall stints.

 

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ha!

Almost as entertaining as you saying "Leave it to you Derecola's not to have your NASA stickers" on Saturday.

 

All of the Hoosiers I was using this weekend stay outside all winter long and this is their third season. They still have grip left.

Maybe I have uncovered a cryotreatment process for tires????

By the way, what constitutes a cycle. I was told it takes a complete cooling. Therefore 1 hot HPDE day like yesterday a SP, 4 sessions, is one heat cycle. Car did 3 sessions on Sat. That's two heat cycles for the weekend. Got the tires from a National racer, after he used them for one weekend.

I drive three-four events per year. That's 8 cycles per year, times 2 1/2 seasons, makes twenty cycles, plus the 2-3 that were on them when I got them.

All this on a 3600 lb LS1 Camaro.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Grumpy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">All of the Hoosiers I was using this weekend stay outside all winter long and this is their third season. They still have grip left.

Maybe I have uncovered a cryotreatment process for tires???? </TD></TR></TABLE>

My little accident in PCA that cost me my roof was on "cryo-treated" tires. I've gotten away with it in the past but I wouldn't recommend the experiment to most.

 

My street tires are dead after two HPDE events....

 

The cryo statement was a joke guys. Please do not try this at home. It was done done by a professional driver on a closed course.

 

Bridgestone S03's don't like heat. Sounds like you got them hot and they started to get greasy. I don't think it's a matter of heat cycling so much as it is you ran them on a warmer day, pushed them and they got hot and greasy.

 

I have noticed that street tires that were used hard(i.e. not just trips to the local store to pick up milk) tend to just not grip well towards the end of their life.

I've never driven R-comps, so I can't comment on if its the same, but I've noticed about 1-2 secs lost on a set of worn out street tires on a ~60 sec AutoX course compared to when they were new. This is based on how I ran against my nearest competitors, which was usually fairly constant - but of course, not exact.