aMaff
05-05-2008, 03:50 PM
This was posted a couple years back by one of our local guys and an excellent autocrosser. While the tire models may be a little dated, I still think this is some of the best advice I've heard for a new autocrosser, and also one of the reason I decided to drive in a street tire class for a while so I can learn to drive. Sure, I'd be faster on R-comps, but I will learn to be a better driver by putting my time in on street rubber.
For the record, I think this deserves a sticky ;)
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Am I ready for R-compound tire to autocross on?
Autox and driver’s events on tracks are fun, and besides the driver, your weakest link to faster lap times is going to be your tires. On a 60 second Autox course, race tires will be around 2 seconds faster than the top street tires. The only thing is, is that r-compounds are dedicated tires, ie: you don’t drive on them on the street, well, you shouldn’t.
If you are just getting into Autox, or have been autocrossing but got a new car, here is my OPINION on what I tell people that ask me about tires. I also follow this routine, so I do this with ALL new cars to me that I campaign.
Drive at least 2-4 events on STREET tires. This allows you get a feel on how the car is going to behave. What does the suspension do, how does the car react, etc.? Street tires are much more forgiving than R-compound tires. Yes, street tires howl at their limits of adhesion, and they communicate to you, race tires much less so.
Before you go out and drop $800 on race tires try this: Drive the course without the tires making a sound, no howling, no screeching, no locking up the brakes. This will help you to learn where the limits of the tires are, critical when driving on race tires. Learn to not over-cook corners creating horrible amounts of understeer, and learn to straighten the wheel if this happens. Brake in a straight line, learn trail-braking later. Learn throttle application so as not to light up the inside tire coming out of corners.
Once you can do all of this, then you can consider race tires. Welcome to a whole other world of traction. When you first drive on R-compounds, you will hopefully under-drive them if you are able to drive silently on street tires. This will allow you to push the tires to their maximum grip levels instead of having to back-off to make them stick. Also, R-compounds tend to have a smaller window of error than street tires. R-comps will “snap oversteer” whereas street tires tend to yell at you before they break loose. Because race tires are much softer and the sidewalls are much firmer than street tires, it is much easier to destroy them. Constant plowing through a corner and locking up the brakes will surely have you cursing upon noticing the cord after only a few events.
If you don’t want to drop a lot of cash on new race tires, try to find a used set. Toyo RA-1s and Kumho Victoracers are very affordable, and they have a much longer life-span than the “top” race tires. They will also be much more forgiving to overdriving.
The definite “go fast” race tires are the Hoosier A3SO5, Kumho V710, and the Avon Tech R/Ra. I have driven on all these tires on various cars. I would suggest checking out the review that Grassroots Motorsports did on the Race Tire Challenge. Their results are very similar to what I have experienced.
Now I’m not saying that you can’t go out and buy some Race tires and just go for it, and if you can afford to do that financially then great. But too many times have I heard people complain about and regret dropping a bunch of dough on race tires only to render them usless because they didn’t know how sensitive they are.
I am not judging anyone’s abilities or decisions, just to try and help out people that have questions. I wish someone had given me some more guidance when I first started Autocrossing so that I wouldn’t have made some mistakes.
Remember to look ahead! And apex later.
~Wayne
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For the record, I think this deserves a sticky ;)
==================================================
Am I ready for R-compound tire to autocross on?
Autox and driver’s events on tracks are fun, and besides the driver, your weakest link to faster lap times is going to be your tires. On a 60 second Autox course, race tires will be around 2 seconds faster than the top street tires. The only thing is, is that r-compounds are dedicated tires, ie: you don’t drive on them on the street, well, you shouldn’t.
If you are just getting into Autox, or have been autocrossing but got a new car, here is my OPINION on what I tell people that ask me about tires. I also follow this routine, so I do this with ALL new cars to me that I campaign.
Drive at least 2-4 events on STREET tires. This allows you get a feel on how the car is going to behave. What does the suspension do, how does the car react, etc.? Street tires are much more forgiving than R-compound tires. Yes, street tires howl at their limits of adhesion, and they communicate to you, race tires much less so.
Before you go out and drop $800 on race tires try this: Drive the course without the tires making a sound, no howling, no screeching, no locking up the brakes. This will help you to learn where the limits of the tires are, critical when driving on race tires. Learn to not over-cook corners creating horrible amounts of understeer, and learn to straighten the wheel if this happens. Brake in a straight line, learn trail-braking later. Learn throttle application so as not to light up the inside tire coming out of corners.
Once you can do all of this, then you can consider race tires. Welcome to a whole other world of traction. When you first drive on R-compounds, you will hopefully under-drive them if you are able to drive silently on street tires. This will allow you to push the tires to their maximum grip levels instead of having to back-off to make them stick. Also, R-compounds tend to have a smaller window of error than street tires. R-comps will “snap oversteer” whereas street tires tend to yell at you before they break loose. Because race tires are much softer and the sidewalls are much firmer than street tires, it is much easier to destroy them. Constant plowing through a corner and locking up the brakes will surely have you cursing upon noticing the cord after only a few events.
If you don’t want to drop a lot of cash on new race tires, try to find a used set. Toyo RA-1s and Kumho Victoracers are very affordable, and they have a much longer life-span than the “top” race tires. They will also be much more forgiving to overdriving.
The definite “go fast” race tires are the Hoosier A3SO5, Kumho V710, and the Avon Tech R/Ra. I have driven on all these tires on various cars. I would suggest checking out the review that Grassroots Motorsports did on the Race Tire Challenge. Their results are very similar to what I have experienced.
Now I’m not saying that you can’t go out and buy some Race tires and just go for it, and if you can afford to do that financially then great. But too many times have I heard people complain about and regret dropping a bunch of dough on race tires only to render them usless because they didn’t know how sensitive they are.
I am not judging anyone’s abilities or decisions, just to try and help out people that have questions. I wish someone had given me some more guidance when I first started Autocrossing so that I wouldn’t have made some mistakes.
Remember to look ahead! And apex later.
~Wayne
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