Quote:
Originally Posted by 2fast4u
The car isnt a DD (thats the Jeep) but I love to drive it on the street. I have zero experience with R compounds, mostly due to the entry price and just finishing 8 years of college. I liked the way the AVSES100s performed on the track because they didnt melt or chunk like my bridgestones did. They seem to survive higher temps that my pig of a car (3660lbs race weight) seems to generate. That said, I dont know what exactly I am looking for in an R compound other than more traction than the Yokos can provide and to not burn up a set of my street tires in 4-5 track days. The fronts on my car take an insane beating because it likes to plow, and because I only have 3 years of DE under my belt, I could always be smoother. If I could get 3-4 events out of a set I would be happy with them... Does that help you help me???
Thanks!
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I'm sure you've heard this before, but I'll throw it out anyway. More often than not, people move up to R comps too soon. The traction breakaway of an rcomp is more abrupt and harder to read than a performance street tire that breaks away in a progressive slide with lots of wailing. I dont know what your experience is (you could be a Bondurant instructor for all I know), but many people say, and I agree, that you should be able to do cartwheels on street tires before you upgrade. In literal terms, that means being able to aggresively rotate the car in all stages of the corner, and handle a slide/spin blindfolded.
Disclaimer over.
The more grip a tire has, the faster it will wear (and more abrupt traction break-away). More important than wear is heat cycling. A tire like the Hankook ZS214 (not the 11s, there's a dif) or a serious slick like a Hoosier R6 can be heat cycled out in 2 track days. Meaning, the tire has a limited number of times it can be taken up to temp and then cooled down before it [chemically] starts to lose grip. They're fine to run on, but will get slipperier and slipperier until you'll want you're street tires back. Figure each track session is a heat cycle.
If you haven't run on R's before, the lower rung of the ladder is probably the best place to start and the best value. Toyo RA-1, Hankook ZS211, etc. These tires have a ton more grip than your street tires, the break away point is a notch up but far from extreme, they're cheap, and they last forever. I got 6 open track days out of my last set of Toyos, which would mean 9-12 normal DE days.
The first heatcycle for a tire is a big deal since the compound will "set" itself. Proper heat cycling is necessary to get the most grip and life out of the tire. Tire Rack and others can heatcycle your tires before you buy them and it's worth it. Also, a lot of these tires come with a full 7-8/32s of tread which is way too much for a dry tire. If they are your rain tire, keep it full tread. If not, shave it (4-5/32s or so usually). At full tread in the dry, the tread blocks squirm around and overheat the tire and it will start to chunk apart. Shaving the meat off the tire will actually improve its life, and it will be much faster and provide better feedback through the wheel.
The Avons through TR are a good deal and could be worth picking up at that price. A lot of places sell used scrubs as well like
Meisterschaft Motor - Your Motorsport Connection. I haven't used them yet, but I have gotten a lot of scrubs from another race team. They shave them down and use them for 3-6 laps in qualifying and then sell them to guys like us. The qualifying does a decent job of heat cycling and there is 99% of useful life left.
All of that is just my $.02 of course. I've used almost every level of tire but dont claim to be an expert, just my thoughts.