If someone who has or uses R compound tires on their car could e-mail me asking for the pics that i have taken of my tires i would greatly appreciate it. I need to know why they are doing what they are doing (maybe overinflation?)

Hondaord@aol.com (there are 5 pics). thanks for the help.

Mike <--who is too lazy to post them up

 

No offense, but I think a lot of folks are going to be too lazy to email you, so you may want to try and put up the pics if you want help.

 

hope this worked

Keep in mind this was my first time using R compounds and i totally forgot to check tire pressures after i got off the track. I had them at 32 cold all around. I was more worried about checking lugnuts, oil, among other things so i never got a chance to measure them hot. I know i messed up but am i on the right line of thinking that they had too much air pressure in them?

felt like they were kinda jumping across the pavement. They gripped much better than the Azenis i had on the last event. thanks for your help

BTW the car weighs 2500 lbs without me in it


Mike





[Modified by talkie25, 1:46 AM 8/20/2002]

 

They are fine. You should see my ecsta v700 after two days of cmp.

 

yeah normal. just smooshing the rubber, yes thats a technical race term. tires get hot and soft and shift, which is why theyre more effective. eventually it will tear of and become a marble and someone else will pick it up. nice grain on the surface too. the only problem i see is that youre using yok 032Rs from all the feedback i heard.,

 

Ohhh man i love my A032R's thus far. I mean they are an expensive tire yes and they won't grip as good as the Hoosier or Kumho or RA-1 Toyo's. I didn't want something aggressive for my first R compound. It is a great beginners tire. They last much longer than those 3 mentioned from what i hear. I need something to last because i am in college and dont have money to replace tires after 2-3 day long events.

Azenis (street tires) =
A032R's (track tires) = they crap all over the Azenis (i have used both on track)

edit: so should i keep them at 32f and 32r cold? I dropped them after the day was over to 29 on his (local tech guy...also road race guru) advice (they are in my room now).

mike





[Modified by talkie25, 2:44 AM 8/20/2002]

 

While I have never run the A032s, I have heard that they get very greasy later in a session. As a beginner, I would try the Toyos or Kuhmos instead of the Yokos in the future.

 

Hello Talkie25,

Besides the Toyo being a better tire to start off on you are misinformed about their life cycle compared to the Yoko.

 

Look pretty normal. The rubber likes to collect on the tread. It will roll up and turn into a tire snake soon. You will be fishing those out of body panels for years to come....have fun The greatest tool in the world is a pyrometer, you should look into getting one. If you can get the temps even over the entire tire then you will notice a considerable performance gain. At least I did while running Kumho v700's on an ITR. A friend of mine runs the yoko's on an s2000 and he said the same thing. R compound tires are awesome but, when run correctly they are really fun.

 

guess i was misinformed. oh well i am really happy with my purchase thus far.

mike

 

Yoko's are generally known as a good entry tire or unshaved; a good rain set, but when you get into the Toyo's and Kuhmo product, you'll see the difference.

I don't see any unusual wear that would lead me to believe your underinflated at temp. I would heed DB1-R81 regarding a pyrometer. It will give you information on how effective your suspension is tuned as well....

Hot pressures for my 2500 lb car generally run around 39-41 psi. I've been told by several others that 40 psi is the ideal pressure.

Get a good pressure guage and take some hot temps with the cold pressures you mentioned and see how close you can get...

 

Another option that is seldom mentioned - talk to a tech guy from the tire company, or even TireRack. They can give you general advice about pressures.

Just start checking pressure before and after sessions. You should see a 5-7psi gain. Anymore than that and the tires are underinflated OR you are overdriving them. And make sure the tires aren't rolling over too much (use show polish on sidewalls to see).

And, as mentioned, nothing unusual about the wear in those pics. Soft tires do that.

 

thanks for the info fellas. I didn't think it would be normal but i am always learning!

mike

 

Yeah these are what mine look like. If you drive on them after the event or to your next event they will "smooth" back out.


[Modified by rs, 4:32 PM 8/20/2002]

 

Yea picking up rubber off the track is great,, free rubber! I even picked up a lot on my old Kumho 712's.
A thing to keep in mind about pressures is having less psi will actually cause more tire squirm, which creates heat. Obviously, heat raises psi. A thing to test out: lets say your RF is 40 psi hot, and your LF is at 42 psi hot. Instead of dropping 2 psi out of the LF, try ADDING 1 or 2 psi and see how it reacts. Just something to play with...

Nice battle over the weekend too, had a blast.

 

thanks for the info Jacob. i plan on checking all 4 tires immediately after session next time to see where i am at and adjust accordingly.

mike