More durable/affordable tire option?

[Pranav]

You guys are over complicating it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jQeBbEbztc

[Supercharged111]

My understanding is that the 615K+ fixed the greasing issue...haven't read anyone having trouble with new compound tires specifically.

On contingency, my thought would be that we wouldn't pursue it given than the number of tires needed per season was drastically reduced. Even winning an event a weekend and finishing well in another, a top guy is spending 3-500 per event to stay on sticker RR's depending on how close to the top step of the podium he was. If Azenis last say, 3 weekends we're spending $250-275 per weekend on tires. If you don't get contingency, well...you guys can do math

I'm not looking to step on toes w.r.t. toyo and NASA, just trying to find a way to make our racing more cost effective and still just as much fun. TOYO makes the R1R which is a 200TW street tire, maybe we consider that option?

The NT01 is made by Nitto...so we'd still be leaving the toyo umbrella with that one, though I liked those tires on the ecobooze at COTA.

I know your intent is not to step on toes, that's why I just said be careful depending on how far you take this. On the other hand the powers that be may notice and take interest in a good way depending on how it's perceived.

You guys are over complicating it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jQeBbEbztc

Hmm, we ought to be able to use that to fulfill the 4 sticker minimum?

[Sook]

The #82 and #99 are on board for a falken test at Cresson. That makes 5, the more the merrier.

- Josh

[mach1]

The #82 and #99 are on board for a falken test at Cresson. That makes 5, the more the merrier.

- Josh

Boom! $814 shipped from tire rack vs $1100+ for RR's, love it!
Ironic, RR's are backordered from Tirerack....

[BryanL]

Great points throughout this thread. Ever since we left the original RA1 I think the tires have hurt our series. I don't care if lap times are two seconds slower-finding a tire that doesn't fall off past 20 heat cycles I believe would only help our series.

Completely agree this isn't the sort of class that someone should have to budget what their car is worth in tires alone. The tires have doubled the cost of a season of racing if you want to be at all consistently competitive.

If it works for Spec Corvette then it should work for us (I hope). They have more power than us and about the same weight and if we could get 4 weekends out of a set I think it would be awesome. It would also help people wanting to run test days and practice.

I agree with whiny Records. I'll also throw out if we are all on a different tire without a contingency then we could all hit Hallett again and see if their Comma group would put us in a race class or one with a separate start. Jerry and I discussed and we would rather go to Hallett twice a year now that we have lost TWS.

If Discount carried them you could stock up when they have their sale and likely knock another $100 off a set. But sounds like I would only need 1 set per year which would be awesome.

[drecords]

Great points throughout this thread. Ever since we left the original RA1 I think the tires have hurt our series. I don't care if lap times are two seconds slower-finding a tire that doesn't fall off past 20 heat cycles I believe would only help our series.

Completely agree this isn't the sort of class that someone should have to budget what their car is worth in tires alone. The tires have doubled the cost of a season of racing if you want to be at all consistently competitive.

If it works for Spec Corvette then it should work for us (I hope). They have more power than us and about the same weight and if we could get 4 weekends out of a set I think it would be awesome. It would also help people wanting to run test days and practice.

I agree with whiny Records. I'll also throw out if we are all on a different tire without a contingency then we could all hit Hallett again and see if their Comma group would put us in a race class or one with a separate start. Jerry and I discussed and we would rather go to Hallett twice a year now that we have lost TWS.

If Discount carried them you could stock up when they have their sale and likely knock another $100 off a set. But sounds like I would only need 1 set per year which would be awesome.

Discount sells em. If you catch it right and sign up for their credit card you can get some screaming discounts...

[t500hps]

I'm on the east coast (VA) so our tracks and temps are different but none of us have problems with RRs falling off like it seems all of you have. We field 10+/- cars per race and seems everyone gets 3-4 weekends out of a set of RRs. I've actually noticed I'm not as fast in the first 3 H/C of new RRs. With careful rotating I've gotten 36 H/C out of a set (however they were falling off). We run VIR often and last year I set the track record on a 3 year old set with 22 H/C on them.

Now, I have no issue changing tires if it makes the class cheaper to run but I have 3 sets right now with various use, including a 2015 set I intend to "finish off" when we start the season. I'm just curious if we are "giving something up" with car setup that allows the tires to last much longer than yours? Wish I could have made the trip to COTA to compare!

[mach1]

Can everyone please post up and confirm when you’ve placed your order for the new tires, I probably will not be ordering until later in the month because we need to get the car on the Dyno first and figure out where the horsepower went. The Fact that spec Corvette is running the same tire successfully is very exciting!

[AI#97]

If it works for Spec Corvette then it should work for us (I hope). They have more power than us and about the same weight and if we could get 4 weekends out of a set I think it would be awesome. It would also help people wanting to run test days and practice.

.

Comparing tire wear and performance on a C5 corvette to a 20-30 year old pony car chassis is like comparing a fine wine to a greasy crecent wrench. Sure the tires are round and black but the alignments they can run and chassis/suspension and shock dynamics they can run are decades better. Having owned all THREE chassis I can say I would not take that data point to heart to make this decision. After chatting with Daniel about the tires we ran in WRL (Hankook RS4's at under $700/set) I warned him that you guys need to remember what driving a track prepped car on 200TW street tires at 10/10ths or 10.5/10ths is like....especially without ABS and in heated battles for 25-40 minutes. If you think driving is sloppy now, it will only get worse and body repair bills will go up. 200 TW tires just don't have anywhere near the grip or heat resistance a true race tire does. Those that have done WRL type events can attest to this. James did rip off a 1:25 on a 255/17 200 TW Hankook at Cresson in a car he had never driven and he had not been on track for a few years.....BUT, you can only do that for a lap or so and you drop time dramatically. These tires at COTA were 4 seconds off Qual times for CMC on RR's...at hour 8 which is just ONE heat cycle.

I suggest NT-01's. Wear VERY well and not badly priced. That being said, you can all agree to go back to the RA-1 too and keep the contingency in place and rotate rain tires into your wear calcs....granted that tire is expensive too but I don't recall there being a drastic fall off on the "gen2" tire? I never ran them in AI.

[centerville]

Comparing tire wear and performance on a C5 corvette to a 20-30 year old pony car chassis is like comparing a fine wine to a greasy crecent wrench. Sure the tires are round and black but the alignments they can run and chassis/suspension and shock dynamics they can run are decades better. Having owned all THREE chassis I can say I would not take that data point to heart to make this decision. After chatting with Daniel about the tires we ran in WRL (Hankook RS4's at under $700/set) I warned him that you guys need to remember what driving a track prepped car on 200TW street tires at 10/10ths or 10.5/10ths is like....especially without ABS and in heated battles for 25-40 minutes. If you think driving is sloppy now, it will only get worse and body repair bills will go up. 200 TW tires just don't have anywhere near the grip or heat resistance a true race tire does. Those that have done WRL type events can attest to this. James did rip off a 1:25 on a 255/17 200 TW Hankook at Cresson in a car he had never driven and he had not been on track for a few years.....BUT, you can only do that for a lap or so and you drop time dramatically. These tires at COTA were 4 seconds off Qual times for CMC on RR's...at hour 8 which is just ONE heat cycle.

I suggest NT-01's. Wear VERY well and not badly priced.

This is what I wonder about with 200tw tires.

So far on both cars I have ran NT01's and have been happy. But I am not driving as hard as you all do. To this point I have planned to buy 2 sets of tires a year. After reading this thread I might need to rethink that.