Topic: Tire question

We run direzza zll on a Jetta, how far down can you run the tire wear before you start losing considerable lap time? Looking for professional input.

Re: Tire question

leondetweiler wrote:

......Looking for professional input.

Wrong site, wrong everything......

2020 I.O.E. CT #36 The Rootes Of All Evil,1958 Sunbeam Rapier Convertible (YES 1958!!) & 2019 Judges Choice NJMP
2016 Thompson Speedway #36 Sabrina Duncan's Revenge, IOE Trophy, 5th Place 'C' Class 1977 Ford Pinto
2009 Stafford Motor Speedway #16 Team Teflon, 11th Place (overall) 1997 Saturn SL2

Re: Tire question

Uhhh.  You run till corded???  I dunno.  We're running half used for Barber.

LemonAid - Changing kids lives one lap at a time.

Re: Tire question

Nahh they grease out if they get too hot. But they recover if you pull back. But, I can defiantly say they give up the ghost before they cord out. But usually by then your driver is shot to shit and driving badly anyway. (usually why they reverted the damn tread in the first place.)

If you run them down carefully they get grabbier as they wear until they hit the lower carcass but heat faster. Which you really don't want to happen say right as the track starts getting wet down with rain.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Tire question

TeamLemon-aid wrote:

Uhhh.  You run till corded???  I dunno.  We're running half used for Barber.

And here I am bolting on new rubber for Barber, finally decided that I should replace the rear 1/2 worn hand me downs smile

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: Tire question

We're coming for fun and are willing to see how we do with used tires.  I'd run Barber on anything.. I love that track.

I'm not sure we'll be starting with everyone on the same lap this race. 

LemonAid - Changing kids lives one lap at a time.

Re: Tire question

Thanks for the "semi pro" help guys

Re: Tire question

leondetweiler wrote:

Thanks for the "semi pro" help guys

It's just that a lot of us are considerably less than even "semi-" professional. For my car's first race it ran on decade-old Kumho M+S tires. The following year was different, of course. At that point the tires were eleven years old.

1982 MG Metro 1300: IOE 2015 Pacific Northworst GP, Longest Distance 2010 Cd'L Box Wine Country Classic
1980 KV Mini 1: Worst of Show and Fright Pig Supremo 2009 Concours d'Lemons
1978 H Special: Second-Round Elimination 2010 Lemons Pinewood Derby at Sears Pointless
1967 SAAB 96: IOE 2012 Pacific Northworst GP, Organizer's Choice 2022 Hell on Wheels California Rally

9 (edited by ninjacoco 2017-01-02 10:49 PM)

Re: Tire question

It really, really depends on the car. My 944's Direzza ZIIs get hard (huh huh) from age before the tread wears out completely. Good for accumulating rain spares, but less good for the fact that I have 2013 tires still around that I probably need to hand off to some drifters. Haha.

If your car's heavier, they're still good. They're the tires on my daily driver (yay Texas), which is about 3,100 lbs of FWD Lancerness. I can't adjust my camber on that car, so the key is to remember to watch tire pressures and rotate fairly often—which either involves having a good spare set lying around just in case or finding someone with a tire dismounter. TBH, I think you'd be fine for a weekend—especially if you can put a bit more negative camber in to compensate. Just a decent all-around fairly sticky summer tire, IMHO.

I and many others have had OK luck wearing them down to the wear bars. Hey, more traction! (Not recommended in rain. They're OK in the wet before that, though.)

I've had less issues with greasiness if I remember to drop the tire pressures (~30-32 psi is usually OK) before heading out on track. It gets hooned for substantially less time than a Lemons car, though, so IDK.

- About as unprofessional as it gets, but has run these tires forever out of laziness and lack o' budget

10 (edited by gump 2017-01-26 03:21 PM)

Re: Tire question

Our experience with the Dunlops is that they get heat cycled past their peak well before we run out of tread.

There are mitigating factors, however.  The track surface itself, for example, can make a big difference.  Weather also can affect how long they last. 

With us in particular though, one of our knucklehead drivers usually flat spots one or more tires before we get anywhere near the tire's useful life.

10x loser (Arse-Freeze '11 - Vodden '15) 1x WINNER! Arse-Freeze '14 in the Watermelon Volvo Wagon
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)

Re: Tire question

My opinion is that the Kumho tires are the best in combination between quality and price. They are very good in every condition, but especially in rain. But at the end it really depends on the car which tires will last longest.

Re: Tire question

If you have a budget for pricier yet reliable tires, you can select from many brands like Pirelli, General Altimax, Cooper.
For me, Kumho tires are inexpensive compared to others. I've tried it and its a good buy.

Re: Tire question

J-D123 wrote:

If you have a budget for pricier yet reliable tires, you can select from many brands like Pirelli, General Altimax, Cooper.
For me, Kumho tires are inexpensive compared to others. I've tried it and its a good buy.

General Altimax, Cooper and especially Pirelli are high-price level tires, Kumho is like a middle-price level but in my experience has that high-price level quality.
Of course, I’m talking about driving a normal car, I don’t have any actual experience from racing.

14 (edited by SpaceFrank 2017-01-31 09:19 AM)

Re: Tire question

I have no experience with Direzzas and haven't run the Falken Azenis long enough to tell, but it was my experience that the BFG Rival (non-S) would also get hard before it ran out of tread. We usually swap tires out when they get down to about 1/16", or the outside shoulder gets corded, or they got hilariously spinny, whichever comes first.

Re: Tire question

Just ran BF Goodrich Rivals at barber and they are still good for another race day or two.

16 (edited by TeamLemon-aid 2017-02-07 12:07 PM)

Re: Tire question

The used Direzza's we used at Barber were definitely less grippy than new tires.  It still didn't affect our finishing position.

LemonAid - Changing kids lives one lap at a time.