Hi,

I am a newcomer to the forum. I have some questions on tires.

How does everyone like the spec tires?

Do they last a long time?

Do they save a lot of money?

Just wondering how they are working out for the class.

Thanks in advance!
Stephen

Hi Stephen,
I expect you to get a wildly diverse set of answers to your subjective questions.
Here are mine (dry tires only - see earlier post (TWS perhaps?) on my feelings about the new rains):
1) I like the tires a lot. I would prefer a smaller front tire for handling, but the ability to swap tires front to rear is nice since they are the same size. Overall they are very driveable and forgiving, though if you get the rears hot, you enter a nasty cycle of overheat, get looser, overheat worse. This takes some driving management, especially in the summer.
2) Last a long time? As always, YMMV. I think if you are running mid-pack or further back, you can run these tires a looooong time. I personally can't get more than 8 cycles out of a set of rears, and often (track dependent), I can only get 4 *competitive* cycles out of them. I run hard (euphemism for "I slide the car and treat my tires like they owe me money" to be competitive) but I don't run aggressive camber in the rear and I still wear out the insides very quickly it seems.
3) "Saving a lot of money" has to be relative to something. Relative to Yok 008's? Heck no. They are way more expensive to run than those tires were. Relative to 048's? I'd say yes, they save money as the heat cycles do not fall off precipitously like the Yok's did.

Hope that helps!
Denny

Stephen,
I think that Denny has nailed it in his summary, but I'd add the following
1) Like Denny, I've found that I have to slide the car to put up any sort of competitive times. Sliding the car does wear the tires faster than I'd like, but you can adjust the suspension to improve the balance of the car and improve the life of the tires.
2) The rears do wear faster, but as pointed out above, you can swap the fronts to the rears. I ran a 'scab' set ( 4 tires at 8+ cycles, formerly from the front of the car ) at MSR-H a week or so ago. The first session out was entertaining, as the car was very loose, but we were able to dial out some of the oversteer. Although this set up was probably 1-2 seconds slower than normal, it would probably work for a test day or when learning a new track.
3) Saving money? Not in racing. Tires are probably the single biggest cost in running an SRF, which is otherwise bullet proof unless you are heavy handed wih it.

Hi Stephen,
Might I be so bold as to speculate that you are doing comparison analysis for your FV efforts on using spec tires. If so I will tell you from factual use having owned and still owning both a SRF and FV that the Goodyear SRF spec tires provide about the same life cycle as the 55 Hoosiers. In SRF as in FV good tire management is a must. From what I have seen the spending ratio on tires in SRF is no better than it was in FV at least in my experience. If I missed the mark in your post, please accept my apology. Otherwise you have some real feedback from someone who continues to race in both classes.

Jim Regan

Denny's comment about mid-pack drivers (hey, that's me!) ... I get two good race weekends out of a set of rears. That's 10 cycles and after that they will be OK, but not great for a test day. Depends of course on the track and the weather. Fronts will go a little longer.

Do I wish the tires were cheaper? You bet ...

Rich Kenny
#33, San Francisco Region

Ditto on all above. After 8-10 heat cycles, the rears fall off, but remain driveable (not evil) up to about 15-20 heat cycles.

As for the Yoke A008's, the original A008 had exceptional durability. The second generation A008 we ran after going back to Yokohama wore roughly the same as the current Goodyear.

Also, we now have a new rain tire that is required in Nationals this year that wears very well.

JFR wrote:Hi Stephen,
Might I be so bold as to speculate that you are doing comparison analysis for your FV efforts on using spec tires. If so I will tell you from factual use having owned and still owning both a SRF and FV that the Goodyear SRF spec tires provide about the same life cycle as the 55 Hoosiers. In SRF as in FV good tire management is a must. From what I have seen the spending ratio on tires in SRF is no better than it was in FV at least in my experience. If I missed the mark in your post, please accept my apology. Otherwise you have some real feedback from someone who continues to race in both classes.

Jim Regan

That is part of it. I am also looking into a rental for a couple regionals. The rental includes used tires, or I can buy tires. Just trying to get an idea for how competitive the tires are if used and how long they will last if I buy a set.

I essentially run out of inside tread on the rears before they are done from a heat cycle perspective (sometimes that's 4 sessions, sometimes 6-8). So... if there's decent tread on the tires, they should be good. Perhaps not "golden lap" fast, but certainly competitive. The exception would be if they are old and have hardened.

For a rental effort I would not recommend spending a lot for new tires as it won't make much of a difference until you're up to the limit on the car.

That said, the Goodyear's are OK. Their major saving grace is the lack of a "magic" lap compared to prior tires. They are also very forgiving.

I forgot how good other tires are, though, and hope that in the future we'll look at other commercial options. I did some testing and a four hour enduro on Ric Heer's Non-Spec Racer Ford (NRF?) that re-enforced my appreciation of Toyo tires. We ran Toyo R888 tires (in proper front/rear sizes) that were two years old (left over from the 2009 25 hours of Thunderhill) in five test sessions on Friday, put new rears on with old fronts, and managed to run them through four hours with tread left (based on past experience we got nearly 16 hours from an unshaved set, and more than 8 from a shaved set).

May be the wings and things we put on the car, but the grip through the corners, and even more so under braking, was pretty amazing. We had a minor emergency during the event when the left front valve stem cracked and we threw on Goodyears on the front. Mike Boyle was the "guinea pig" for that and he was a great sport for putting up with them until we fixed the fronts (managing to improve his lap time by about 8 seconds a lap immediately.)