That is a nice pile of sticky rubber...* Thanks to the guys at ABF Tech Division for great service and a great price! :cornut:
Interestingly, they look very similar, tread wise, to the Direzza Star Spec's. Let us know how you like them, Brian. I've been thinking of trying them out for DD's once my Dunlop's die.
These are my pick for my new DD tires too. They just seem too good not to try out! Definitely let us know how you like them!
Yep. Tread is similar but the compound is supposed to better. I will be running these next week at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. I'll let you know what I think versus the Starspecs.
So wait, are these your new autoX/DE tires too? If so, now I really want to know what you think of them. In your "uneducated" opinion :rolleyes5: cheers!
Dont get so bent out of shape. :cryin: lol Reading comprehension not yalls strong suit, huh ? :crazy: Ive heard nothing but good things about these tires while on track (course & auto-x), but i would be very interested in knowing how they compare to SS in DD form. Heard they are louder, and not the most confidence inspiring in wet conditions.
The Starspecs were only for Autox/HPDE. The same will go for these. I'm running around tomorrow on the R-S3s to get the tread separation compound off and then I will use the first run session next week to heat-cycle them properly. I have some crappy DD tires with a 360 treadwear that have good wet traction. So I won't have a good DD reference for you guys. Sorry. I actually don't know anything. :beer
LOL You made that painfully clear in my thread :aureola: Just trying to give you the benefit of the doubt in this one. Thanks for playing....
Yep. :lol: So, I admit I lied a bit. I'm running on these tires today and tomorrow to and from work to get the tread separation compound off and get a bit scrubbing-in done. So, for DD folks I'll give you some initial impressions with the caveate that these are BRAND NEW so this info won't be as relavent for thier performance DD in the long run. That being said: These tires are loud. I have had MUCH louder tires (Falken Azenis RT-615s) but with the windows up and my music going I can hear these "growl". Turn the radio off and it's the dominant sound in the cabin. Windows down actually reduces the audible effect as the wind noise and the tires are near the same audible frequency. One thing to note: ALL tires get louder as they wear so these will only get worse than they are already. Impressively they don't seem to "rut" or "track" on the freeway in the grooves created by the big-rigs. Most performance tires I've had will have a tendancy to to that but these don't. We had a bit of rain here over the weekend. So I got to "play" a bit on the wet streets. Their grip is actually impressive. I would have expected them to feel much less grippy in the wet. I have basically FULL TREAD so I suspect they will lose wet traction pretty quickly over the thier life. Dry grip feels pretty good but I haven't pushed the tires yet. I am going to rotate them F->R/R->F tonight to get remainder of the tread separation compound off the rear tires tomorrow. I'll give a better dry grip update then. After that I'm pulling them off and the next bit of road they will see will be the 3.1 mile config of SMMR. :ihih:
Unless he's hitting four or five cloverleaf interchanges on the way, probably not. You really have to work full depth tires side to side to get the heat all the way into the tire. And highway driving cools them off, too.
I will heat cycle them first run session next week at the track. I run a warm-up then two 85-90% laps then come in for 10 mins then one more time out during the session the same way then park it until the next run session. That should cycle them just about right. Since these are street tires heat cycling is not as important as it is with r-compounds. I have a 60 mile round trip commute at 60-75mph freeway most of the way. These tires aren't really getting any good heat in them and thats okay for the above reason.
Thanks for the update, now I'm really excited to see what you think about them on the track! I was wondering about the heat cycle bit, good to know. :beer
I'm not an expert, so I'm not saying you're wrong, but the guy who does tires for all the local racers described heat cycling a little differently. He said take the car out and drive it through a bunch of on-ramps, or find a parking lot and do some figure eights, but really get some heat into the tires. Then take it home and jack the car up so the tires stay perfectly round (or pull the wheels). When the rubber's fresh, the grains are kind of loose. When you heat it up and let it cool, the grains of the rubber line up and tighten up. When you let the rubber settle for 48 hours, the grains tighten up even more, and at 72 hours, they're as tight and uniform as they're going to get. Like Redbeard said, heat cycling doesn't matter as much for street tires, but the effect has been proven, so you're likely to get a little more life out of the tires. It distributes the natural oils in the rubber better and locks it deeper into the tire, which will prolong the effective life of the tire, too.
I equate heat cycling a tire to tempering a metal. You heat the compound up to the point where the molecules are in an excited state beyond standard DD heating and you start to separate weak bonds in the rubber. By rapidly cooling them (parking the car and not gently cruising around for a bit after) the molecules with have a tendancy to compact and reform bonds that are usually stronger. This has a good and a bad effect. The bad effect is that now when cold the compound is "harder" and will grip less than before. The positive is that when warm the compound retains is orginal stick but the better aligned molecules let the tire heat and cool more evenly and increase the high-temp wear life. The softer and more high-temp rated the compound the more this has an effect. For most DOT R-comps and actual Race Slicks you need to let them "cure" for 24-48 hours after a hard heat cycling. Street compounds (event a 140 like the R-S3) need less time as they have a "tighter" structure to begin with and the change will be less. Had I bought say, NT-01s, I would have had them heat-cycled for me so they were ready to rock as soon as I got them.
Speaking of which, does anyone know of local places that do heat cycling. I have a set of Hoosiers that I loath to heat cycle on the streets.