Quote Originally Posted by t500hps View Post
I came into CMC (Mid Atlantic) mid 2013 so I have limited experience on the old RA1's. I was the first in our region on RR's at the beginning of 2014 and have tracked heat cycles for every tire since. Most I've gotten was 36 H/C out of a set of 4. Least was in the low 20's due to not rotating them well.....usually I get 30. I've found my car doesn't even like them the first 3 H/C. I've set track records at 2 different tracks, once on 22 H/C tires and another track using 18 H/C tires. I've learned how each corner of the car wears each tire differently and rotate them for longest life. A typical 7-8 weekend race season is typically 6 tires for me. (Due to stocking up for Nationals in 2015 and 2016 I ran the entire 2017 season without buying a single set of tires. My "newest" 2 sets have 2015 and 2016 dates codes. They have 14 and 21 H/C respectively and I'll use them til mid-season before buying another set)

Hopefully I can make it to COTA in Sept so we can see if I'm actually competitive (obviously I think I am )

I don't think anyone here in Texas has set a track record on 22 h/c tires. Here is what I know for a fact because I saw it happen. I hired a very well known driving coach a few years ago at TWS. After lunch he told me if I put on new tires I would pick up two seconds. I called BS but he said he had seen the same thing while coaching Tyler in a CMC car at the same track. I put on a set of stickers and yes I went two second quicker in the next session. Maybe spring rates have something to do with it. I know I'm hard on the RR's because everyone says if you get them too hot they will not fully recover. I have been known to slide the car way more than I should.
I have been wondering if maybe Toyo is telling the truth about the tires. Maybe we are all so much faster than we were back in the day. I know I was telling Bryan how damn fast Jeff Burch used to be at Hallett. He would be half a lap ahead of the rest of the field. I used to accuse him of smoking a cigarette during the Hallett races. I have never kept up with lap times much but I was shocked last year when BL told me that we were running lap times way quicker than Jeff used to (and we are certainly not one of the fastest guys). If running faster laps is causing the h/c issue AI should have had the problem we are having now even back when CMC was using "thin to win" tires in big races.


Oh and by the way if your car does not like the first three heat cycles I know a guy or two that would be glad to put those heat cycles on them for you......free of course.

JJ