I once called Hoosier and talked to a gentleman who sounded very
knowledgeable (it wasn't Bruce). Not knowing much other than what I had
personally experienced (spins and all), I was curious about the (then) new
compounds and the ensuing differences. This person told me that R25A's fire
(get up to operating temp) much quicker than 25's but, the compound is quite
similar and he indicated, more durable. He went on by telling me that,
unlike the 33's, which needed 3-5 laps to fire, the 35's should fire in
about half the number of laps as normal (as indicated in this thread,
ambient temp., surface, driving style, and setup all contribute to variances
in these factoids).
The outer surface of a "sticker" tire is NOT the optimum tractive surface
and should be "scrubbed" off prior to risking one's neck. The
aforementioned comes into play as to how long it takes to scrub the tires
in. HOWEVER, that outer surface serves a good purpose in that shelf life is
measured in YEARS until scrubbed. Once scrubbed, you will be fortunate to
be able to use the tire beyond one season. As was already stated, each heat
cycle requires more effort to fire the surface. Soaking them in various
goops (e.g., Armor-All) will sometimes inhibit drying but, nothing will stop
it.
Those little holes in the tread surface are a tread DEPTH indicator. They
are not a tire LIFE indicator.
I once ran some tires until the air was showing just to see what would
happens. It never "blew" but, instead, a hole approx. 2" in diameter (not
perfectly round) "mysteriously" appeared and the trip to the pit was on
rubber and rim and there was a surprising amount of stability remaining.
HOWEVER, the tread wear indicators showed abundant (> 1/16") tread
remaining. I may have spun once.
Money spent on tires is difficult to waste.
dg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim's Lawn Shop" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 10:05 AM
Subject: [F500] ? re. Tires
Hi John,
I think the R25a will start to go away after about 60-80 autocross runs.
I use mine for about 1 season maybe 80-100 runs depending on events
and co-driver. If I run year old tires I can tell a difference in the
handling,
generally less grip all the way around. For me I think new tires are worth
about 1 second on the "average" 50 second course. The slicker the
surface the bigger the difference.
Dave Phaneuf
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