xcrider2005 Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 I did my first HPDE last fall at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Colorado. The track is known to be rough and put a good amount of wear on my stock tires. I am now running Bridgestone RE-01R's which are really soft. I am running at at Summit Point this weekend and I am wondering if I should put some used tires on for the weekend or if I will be OK running the Bridgestones. Thanks, Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRINGER Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Word of advice...get a second set of rims for your track tires and get a good set of street tires for daily driving. No matter what track your at...your going to put some wear on the tires. I destroyed a brand new set of Falken street tires at Rockingham and another at Roebling last year. Rockingham is super abrasive and Roebling is not. Not to mention that if for some reason a tire or rim failed that weekend...you got another set to go home on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbrew8991 Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 run the newest set you've got if you're killing tires in just one HPDE weekend, you may need to re-examine things like your understeer/oversteer control, braking, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niles Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 I'm a huge fan of finding someone with your same car who is "upgrading" to bigger or fancier wheels, and buying their used rims for cheap as a set of track wheels. Out of curiosity, what do you drive? Some cars are just heavy and hard on tires. I've got 3 sets of STi BBS forged aluminum wheels. I have yet to pay more than $500 a set. One set even came with almost used up tires that I used for a track weekend, then changed out for autocross R-comps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcrider2005 Posted June 16, 2008 Author Share Posted June 16, 2008 Saab 92x 2.5i Linear aka a Subaru Impreza 2.5i. The tires that I destroyed were about cooked anyway. I just don't want to ruin a new set of tires. I have a set of used all season Continentals I can put on for the track day, but its a pain cause I would have to get them mounted and balanced and then taken back off after. I will probably just run with my Bridgestones on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRINGER Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Another thought....just how are you wearing the tire? Is it even or outside wear? Or maybe just the outside edge? Just fronts or all around? Maybe an adjusted alignment might be needed to preserve the rubber. Depending on what sort of wear you have will tell tales as what to do. In my case I ran a stock tire size at 60 series on the sets I killed. Too much sidewall made the tire roll over and wear the outside edge a lot. When I dropped to a 50 series...I dont have that issue....but now I see an uneven wear over the whole tire. Time to look into alignment adjustments with negative camber for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcrider2005 Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 I think my main problem was that my front tires didn't pass tech so the tech shop sent me to a tire place that hooks people up with used tires for track days. I think the tires were old and dry because they start chunking off and I actually had to cut my last day short because cord started to show. I know this won't happen with my new tires, but I was just wondering if I should switch the tires because they are so soft and I don't want to ruin them in one weekend. I've done a few autocrosses and a autocross school on my new tires so I have an idea of what pressure to run. Should I raise or lower it for the track? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingDog Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Don't put all season tires on your car for a track event. You'll piss off everybody else in your session by A) going too slow through every corner OR B) going off into a tire wall and wasting everybody's valuable track time. Run with the Bridgestones or find a set of used track wheels and tires. Track tires would be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbrew8991 Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 you can wreck or be slow on any tires, and it doesn't matter if you're quick with point-bys - Ken, who had fun TTing on crappy all-seasons and loved the 4 different stages of tire squeal you'd get before they fully started to slide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niles Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Have you had a good performance alignment? Our cars are on similar chassis, and 0.3 to 0.5 degress of POSITIVE camber is within the factory specs. Rotating the front camber bolt to get maximum negative camber (usually 1-1.5 degrees), and zeroing or going with a little toe out will help with grip and tire wear. I run about 3/32 to 1/8 total toe out front and rear on my STi. Some cars come with wierd and asymetric toe in from the factory. Some came with alot of toe in. The popular thing to do is run zero toe all around. Also, on these cars, a front swaybar does wonders for turn in, overall grip, and reduced tire rollover and wear. Even a mild upgrade to something like a 1" bar will yield a noticable difference. The wacko autocrossers on monster r-comps have been going all the way up to getting custom made 32mm bars... don't ask where. As far as pressures, it's the same routine as autocross: start them a little high, and lower them until they are just rolling over a little. As an example, I ran my RE070's at 36 psi on the street, 42 hot for autocross, and I let them go to 44 hot for track use. Because the sessions on track are longer, they'll heat up more than an autocross. I found those last couple pounds of pressure kept them off the sidewalls. The rule of thumb I was taught was find the street pressure, and go 5 psi over that as a starting point. Fine tune from there. Running any tire at full tread will probably cause it to squirm and you'll get some feathering of the edges. At least that's my experience. Actually, if you want a good starter track tire, find some cheap 17" rotas or something, and get some takeoff re070's. great combo, and both can be had for cheap! So in summary: Check your alignment Start 5psi over street tire pressures Consider a front swaybar (legal in every SCCA autocross class) Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonz Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Saab 92x 2.5i Linear aka a Subaru Impreza 2.5i.The tires that I destroyed were about cooked anyway. I just don't want to ruin a new set of tires. I have a set of used all season Continentals I can put on for the track day, but its a pain cause I would have to get them mounted and balanced and then taken back off after. I will probably just run with my Bridgestones on. I would go ahead and run the Bridgestones. This is what they are designed for. I've run street tires at Summit in a WRX ( Azenis RT-215s & Hankook RS-2) and never had a problem with excessive wear. Both of these are summer tires. You should consider front camber plates at some point if you want the tires to hold up better & not wear the outer edge. In the mean time, I would switch the tires front to back at the end of day 1. There is nothing wrong with Continental all-seasons. I've got a set of ContiExtreme Contacts on my WRX and they are easily fast enough to keep up with Group 1 or 2 pace. However, they have skinny tread blocks & aren't designed for the kind of heat generated in a track day. They would likely suffer a lot of excessive tread wear. As noted your driving technique can have a big effect on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcrider2005 Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 Thanks everyone for your help. Anyone headed to Summit point this weekend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasaregistrar Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Thanks everyone for your help. Anyone headed to Summit point this weekend? almost 200 racers and a little over 100 HPDErs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOT///MPOWER Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I've been running 205/50 R15 Falken Azenis RT-615's since June 2007, and have done 13 track days + daily driving on them. They are now at about 1/2 tread depth and have so many heat cycles on them that they are just now starting to loose their grip. (or maybee I'm just getting faster ). To qualify the above here's the car info: 1991 BMW 318is (2600lbs) Bilstein sports H&R sports Poly bushings & mounts Non-adjustable stock strut mounts Camber set to neg. as much as possible Toe set to zero So, run the Bridgestones. Summit point isn't really that hard on tires IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonz Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Thanks everyone for your help. Anyone headed to Summit point this weekend? almost 200 racers and a little over 100 HPDErs That was funny. I plan to be there, in HPDE3. 95 Mustang dark red. Go to the Mid-Atlantic forum & you can find the hyperfest thread & entrants list. Gonzalo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokie Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I'll be there in HPDE 1. White Scion tC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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