Roebling Road

[39PitCrew]

Tire question: All my tires that came with the car are RA1s. I noticed AFTER I took off my rain tires that they were a little dry rotted on the treads....looked at the date codes and they are 15 years OLD!!! YIKES, I ran these at 130mph down the straights in the rain! Looked at the rest of the spares.....yea 12-15 years old. Only two of these tires appeared dry rotted, the rest look ok. Whats the thought on this? Discard the dry rotted tires, and run the rest that look ok? Or replace them all?

Nope, nope, nope, nope. Just my 2 ¢. I'm just an amateur race car mechanic but I've got a 77 Vette and already this spring I've seen too
many pictures on the C3 forums of blown up Corvette fenders because "they looked brand new" tires disintegrated at 50 or 60 mph.
When date codes were checked the tires were 9 or 10 years old. Realized last year that the tires on mine were 9 years old. Time for
new shoes - I'd guess the ones on the car probably have easily less than 1000 miles (were on the car when I bought it) and I wouldn't
be shocked to find out they have less than 500 miles on them. I know the car was driven less than 100 miles the year before I
bought it (personal toy of the owner of the dealership) and the story was that he got it from an old guy who had done some
of the restorative work and got to the point where he didn't/couldn't drive it any longer.

The problem is not with the tread on these tires, well besides that they are probably as hard as granite. It's the delamination of the
belts in the tire carcass. Unless you get a bubble or notice an egg shaped tire, you'll get the message when it's scattered all over
the track, probably in the middle of a high speed corner or at the top end of the long straight. Brown moment anyone?

The stupid part on the C3 is that RWL factory style replacement tires are stupid expensive because they are now a "specialty" tire
and only manufactured in limited batches. You might end up getting a 2 year old date coded tire from the"new" tire place.
Yea, Thanks Guys.

Nothing good happens when a tire reverts to some-assembly-required at 130 mph.

[Sook]

Nothing good happens when a tire reverts to some-assembly-required at 130 mph.

It would be unfortunate to lose a car and risk injury for want of several hundred bucks of tires. No need to run Toyos for HPDE1/2 anyway. Street tires are cheaper, more forgiving, and tend to have more feedback.

I would not run any of those date codes. Most organizations in TX have a maximum tire age of 5 years.

- Josh

[ShadowBolt]

If you can connect with some AI/CMC racers in your area I'm sure they would give (or sell at a very low price) you some used RA1's. I have two or sets of four that have over 14 heat cycles on them and at least 1/3rd of their tread. I'm sure every CMC guy racing this year or last will have tires that are not fast enough to race on but plenty fast for a HPDE driver trying to build seat time. If you were around here I have a set you can have for free.....maybe two.


Jerry

[39PitCrew]

If you were around here I have a set you can have for free.....maybe two.


Jerry

Ooooo ... some cheater Mustang tires. Yes!
(With apologies to Jerry, I'm sure an OiF driver who shall remain unnamed has said that at some time or another.)

[64GunPilot]

If you can connect with some AI/CMC racers in your area I'm sure they would give (or sell at a very low price) you some used RA1's. I have two or sets of four that have over 14 heat cycles on them and at least 1/3rd of their tread. I'm sure every CMC guy racing this year or last will have tires that are not fast enough to race on but plenty fast for a HPDE driver trying to build seat time. If you were around here I have a set you can have for free.....maybe two.


Jerry

Im a Texas guy (sorta) but in Alabama for a couple months for training. Using this time to get some DE weekends with the car in different regions. I'll gladly take any tires that have tread left that are being discarded and/or pay it in beer. Problem is, Im still on 16" wheels. I see the R888R's are a decent price for the sizes I can run (255/50/16). My best tires at the moment are 7 years old, however I am very surprised at how grippy they are. Certainly not hard like most think. Even the dry rotted tires held great in the rain (before I realized they were 15yrs old).

I have my 2nd DE at Memphis next weekend. I think Im gonna wrap a new set of R888R's and run them for safety and piece of mind. Gonna dismount and discard all these old tires.

I'd start getting the parts and pieces together to replace that engine block...also consider an LS swap if your car isn't already (I don't remember from your previous posts). We have enough difficulty getting engines to hold together in the base case, let alone with a crack pookyed (technical term) up w/ JB Weld.

Also -- if you're just running DE pick up a set of 200TW street tires, see other thread on that -- I'd rather have a consistent tire to learn on then risk driving around on hard as rocks old stuff. Pick up some RR's when you're ready to come race.

Yea, Im gonna find a machine shop this week and see about getting a block prepped. Im hoping to swap the internals over myself when there is a break between events. Im still hoping to meet you guys in Hallett in HPDE 3/4 in June. I doubt I'll have time to break this TPI engine down and rebuild it before then. So I may be running this JBWelded engine then. I'll report back after MIR this weekend. As for the tires, there arent a lot of options for 255 16" tires. R888Rs are around $675 shipped. So this is my plan for now.

I was gonna suggest a 5.3 swap as well. You can run the truck accessories everybody throws away.

An LS swap sounds great, but I'm slow when it comes to stuff like that. It'll take me months to do an LS swap (if I do it all on my own without help). But honestly, my first experience this weekend with the TPI......Im impressed. I really liked its power. It was a very balanced car. Torque curves were perfect. At the moment, Im kinda like a teenager that just met his first love even though she's ugly.

[Fbody383]

An LS swap sounds great, but I'm slow when it comes to stuff like that. It'll take me months to do an LS swap (if I do it all on my own without help).

Pfft. Based on what you posted here, you just need a parts list. I'll make sure Sean checks here and gets with you. In fact, we might have an LS/T56 or T5 combo we could come up with. Computer and harness is the fairly easy part.

Welcome to the fun that is CMC.

[64GunPilot]

Pfft. Based on what you posted here, you just need a parts list. I'll make sure Sean checks here and gets with you. In fact, we might have an LS/T56 or T5 combo we could come up with. Computer and harness is the fairly easy part.

Welcome to the fun that is CMC.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Ive been wanting to try the spec engine routes. I have a vortec 350 in need of a rebuild. Might have it built per the rule book. I don’t know. Who knows....it’s possible that this JBWeld will hold up a long time. Might even last through Hallett.

On another note, I found some 255/50/16 RA1s x 4 on eBay for $480 shipped. It wouldn’t make it to me in time for this weekend at Memphis, so bought some 888s from tirerack $650. Gonna discard ALL 16 tires I got with the sale of the car (disappointing). But feels better to know I’m on new shoes.

[Supercharged111]

I'm an overwhelming fan of EFI and 5.3s are cheap. Your T5 should bolt right up too, just a matter of clutch trickery to make that work.

[Sook]

Im still hoping to meet you guys in Hallett in HPDE 3/4 in June.

If you bring all the 5.3 parts and enough beer to Hallett, the AI/CMC camp will have that swap done before dinner time on Friday!

- Josh

[64GunPilot]

If you bring all the 5.3 parts and enough beer to Hallett, the AI/CMC camp will have that swap done before dinner time on Friday!

- Josh

Ok. Well looks like this weekend at MIR (Memphis) is cancelled due to weather. I guess its supposed to rain cats n dogs. Anyways, that gives me some time. If I can get a parts list for the 5.3 swap, I'll start pricing it out and shopping around the junk yards here in Alabama. I'll also be looking at other forums for swap info too. Going into research mode now.