Topic: Let's talk tire hardness and age
Help me and my team decide whether we have one more race left in a set of tires.
I think my science is tight, as far as providing data that is useful:
Direzza Star Specs, Mfgr date July 2011. They have always been kept indoors in a well insulated but not climate controlled steel storage building. Plenty of tread left.
Two races on this set of tires, one where the car saw approximately 20 hours on track at texas world speedway in 2012, and most of a two day race at MSRH in November of 2013.
Yesterday I test mounted one of the tires on a car outside and left it jacked up. Today when I arrived at the shop at Noon, the tire was still in complete shade and I could spin the wheel around freely, so I took 10 durometer meaurements each of the inside, middle, and outside of the tread, all around the circumference of the tire.
Shore A Scale average readings, ambient temperature 78 degrees, are:
Inside: 83.3333
Middle: 72.22222
Outside: 82.44444
So that's all the data we have. I think we can race one more race on these, plenty of treadwear. My teammates question this like they question everything. And I mean that in the nicest possible, most positive way.
What say you?
-Dave
Scuderia Ignorante // Modena / Dearborn / Aichi Prefecture / West Texas