Tire changes again?

More grip means what was said above - The need for big brakes is greater now. But if the tire chage was coming, we havethe brake upgrade behind us and not in front of us. This tire would have likely pushed us there anyways. More grip means more parts failures. More grip mean less skill needed to drive fast. Perhaps we should all go to a 235 and the S-197 can go to a 205 (ha, ha).

Treadwear is factored by how much thread is there to start w/. If a full tread is a 100, and a new slick is 40, sounds liek they accually havea similar wear rate (not wear rating).

Surely Toyo wants to make a tire folks want to run, even those folks who don't run a spec class. How many folks do you think run RA1's that don't have to? Not a way to sell tires - only to those who have to run them. I like the move. I don't like change just for change, but I do like this so far. No shaving is big. There will no longer be the "trick shave job" ala the "JB Special" at Vilven ( ;) ). I can now suport my local vendors even though they don't have a shaver. If it proves to last longer than the RA1, another plus.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pulling a Todd Covini here and painting all this to look like a rainbow.... I do think we will all be happier once we change..... if we change. I talked w/ AL today and he said nothing about it. If I recall, CMC change about other classes changed. It could be coming, it could not be coming.

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Originally Posted by Wirtz

Not sure I really feel like getting into this discussion but thinking a bit out loud;
More grip. Personally, not interested. I've run many series where the tires were more grippy than needed for the car / power level. It masks alot of driving issues and car setup differences. I'm not saying these tires will instamatic make every CMC car self driving. But I like having to work the brakes and steering to get a good lap. To me, lower grip and more forgiving can make for much more fun. But I guess I should shut up about it. I'm the one that always wished there was a good rally series in Texas...

You said you had to warm the tires for 2 or 3 laps. Were any tests done with our actual race routine? Stone cold tires, 1 outlap and then into race pace or even a standing start? How do the tires behave when they are shocked?

Good thing is as long as everyone is on the same tires, it is not as a big deal. No mater what tire it is, I still hope to be back out there playing again at some point.

Jeff

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Good Stuff Jeff.. I prefer to keep it driver series too...not big brakes and increased setup requirements.

Anyone like the BFG T/A street radial? Should be plenty slick!

If you all recall, when the 888 came out we were all told that World Challenge and entire other series were 100% behind that tire so we were all [insert derogatory reference] for questioning that despite our own hands-on. Same tune, different band...not sure I want to dance to this one either.

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Originally Posted by michaelmosty

I just read the treadwear rating is a 40.
I'm no tire expert but if the RA1 has a rating of 100, how is a treadwear of 40 going to last equal to or longer?

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treadwear ratings are more about marketing than actual grip levels - easy to skew up or down depending on who they want to sell to.

just ask any autocrosser on "140" treadwear tires....

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Originally Posted by kbrewmr2

treadwear ratings are more about marketing than actual grip levels - easy to skew up or down depending on who they want to sell to.

just ask any autocrosser on "140" treadwear tires....

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Isn't it called "teadwear"? Isn't that a measure of wear?
You could get 80,000 miles out of a set of 500 treadwear tires. Could you do that on RA1's or RR's?

there's a difference between "skew" and "just slap whatever the hell they want on the sidewall" - lulz

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Originally Posted by kbrewmr2

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I just read the treadwear rating is a 40.
I'm no tire expert but if the RA1 has a rating of 100, how is a treadwear of 40 going to last equal to or longer?

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treadwear ratings are more about marketing than actual grip levels - easy to skew up or down depending on who they want to sell to.

just ask any autocrosser on "140" treadwear tires....

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Tread wear and traction ratings come out of independent tests - traction is a wet traction rating not dry or all-over grip.
To Ken's point though, manufacturers assign treadwear in a range based on the actual testing and their overall product line with contraints mandated by regulations (e.g. they cannot out right OVER rate their tires but they CAN under rate them). Also, the test for tread wear does not exactly map well to actual tread wear resulting in racing....the test is largely a convoy at relatively slow speeds that will not push most tires to their maximum operating range and will definately not see maximum "grip" level - and the testing is done by the manufacturer. 888 and RA1 have the same tread wear (100) and frankly that means nothing to me based on use on track.

looks like some early problems with the Toyo RR - something about having to be mounted a special way and even then tread delamination ala early Kumho V710s. Will post more when I see more than just random forum posts here & there. Seen enough stuff from 944-Spec users and people like Phil (of Phil's tire) to think it's an issue with the tire and not an issue with the early adopters though that's for sure.

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Originally Posted by kbrewmr2

looks like some early problems with the Toyo RR - something about having to be mounted a special way and even then tread delamination ala early Kumho V710s. Will post more when I see more than just random forum posts here & there. Seen enough stuff from 944-Spec users and people like Phil (of Phil's tire) to think it's an issue with the tire and not an issue with the early adopters though that's for sure.

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That brings up a good point. Are the inner and outer sidewalls the same? If they can't be flipped, that's a huge mark in the wrong column. It's easy to pull an extra 2-3 days out of a set of RA1s just by flipping them.