Tire choices for TT and Road Racing
 

So I'll keep the post short, I would like to gather some of the feeling and experience and data people have had with different tires for TT and road racing (but mainly TT).

My findings so far are:

From fastest to slowest over a single lap:

Yoko A052
Nankang CR1/CRS
Falken RT660 (when new)
Bridgestones RE71R (outperform the RT660 after a couple of heat cycles)
Nankang AR1
Maxxis RC1 (R1 compound)
Nitto NT01
Toyo R888R
Hankook RS4

All of those tires will overheat when pushed for more than 1 lap on my current setup, but out of the bunch, the RC1, NT01 and R888R will drop very little and stabilize, the rest falls off a cliff by lap 3.

I want to run closer to hoosier times, without hoosier $$$ (yeah I want my cake and I want to eat it too). Next year Im going to try the Goodyear Supercar 3R, which apparently will slot between the yokos and hoosiers R7 time wise, and will hold out decently well over several push laps (but need a warm up lap, which I'll complete on my outlap, hopefully).

What are your experiences with tires? Found anything that could be close to hoosiers fast but cheaper or longer lasting?

Good luck.

The gridlife tc winners seem to have picked up the re71rs for their sprint races, but they’re restricted to 200tw and I think they have to manage pace to not overheat, in my experience comparable to a052 but not significantly faster, slightly cheaper and more durable though. Supercars are likely better. Keep an eye out for the Yokohama A055, GRM should have an article soon if they don’t already.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it this is a good intro to the topic: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...-buyers-guide/

@ZDan did a good comparison to the A052 and RE71RS.



Around here it depends on the organization. For groups that restrict most classes to 200TW the AO52 and RE71RS are still the two most popular with the RT660's being run by the budget minded. One group allows most classes to run down to 100TW and the SC3R is pretty much the spec tire for that group if that says anything.

Just tried the Maxxis RC1 r2 at Laguna. Nice tire.

Are you limited by class rules at all? You're looking tires from different TW ratings. The Hoosiers are a fantastic tire. Depending how many laps you're running, you will be able to put down some serious times with the A7.


Few people run Maxxis tires, what did you like about them?

I've been through at least a dozen sets on my old TT4 S2000 and TT4 Miata.

They are one of the quicker 100TW tires, have a pretty decent lifetime, they make noise like a street tire (some people hate this, I like it), and most importantly...

They have what I think is the most generous contingency there is with NASA for normal people.

5 people min in class, winner gets two tires per day, 2nd and 3rd get a tire each per day. The claim limit is 8 tires per year and the tires being claimed with need to have been bought in the last 365 days(new), so if you're good regionally you can buy a couple sets per year and win another two sets.

Are they going to beat a Hoosier car prepped to the class limit with a good driver? No, but that isn't a game I'm interested in playing money wise.

GRM already did the Yok A055 article. Not worth, unfortunately.

Tested on a 1:22-ish track. A052 was within a tenth or two, Goodyear Eagle RS was almost a second back, and the R7 was 7/10ths quicker.

just felt good overall. Very predictable at the limit. My data showed slightly higher lateral G than the Nitto’s I’ve been using.

Not restricted by class rules, just looking for budget options to running hoosiers. I know they are fast but they are also very expensive. I would have to run 2 sets for just 4 events and that would put tire budget thru the roof already (and also would make it pretty much impossible to get practice days in without using another tire or blowing even more $$$ in it, and practicing on one tire then competing in another is far from ideal).

Without a spec tire and/or a budget cap, if you want the fastest setup, you'll need to always have fresh fast tires.

You'll need to make a judgement call on which events you can show up to with slower and/or older cycled tires and still be competitive.

Yes, that seems to be likely (its what im already doing, just street tires loose a lot less speed over heat cycles than slicks or soft r-compounds do.

With current events setup, I need to be able to do 4 sessions each competition day at the bare minimum if I skip practice, but realistically, expecting to do well with 0 practice is a bit asinine, so the more likely scenario is 6 heat cycles per competition day. Championship is either 4 or 5 days total, and from what I've seen, hoosiers slow down quite a bit by their 10 heat cycle or so, and it only gets worse from there, and worse, even if I were to run them, they might not have enough meat to least a whole 4 days so its a 2 set problem. At current prices 2 sets of hoosiers will equate to 3 sets of goodyear supercar 3Rs, I guess my question could also mean if I were to up tire budget to allow for it, 2 sets of hoosiers or 3 sets of SC3R? or Some other magic unkown tire that I havent heard of (doubt it).

How much slower is a 10-15 heat cycle hoosier? Something like an A7 or an R7? Are we talking several seconds a lap or within one sec (yes yes, track and car setup varies, and all that jazz, talking aproximate numbers here, all of those who have used them know what I mean, wether they want to share or not is a different story).

I found the RE71RS to be maybe a couple of ticks faster vs. A052 only in relatively cooler track temps (60F or lower and overcast or early in the day). Under "normal" conditions mid-day (clear skies, 70+F), again starting from "stone cold", the RE71RS are about the same as A052 to a tick or two slower. But even after a session taking it super-easy doing lead-follow with a student at 7 seconds off normal pace, the RE71RS next session were a full second off "normal" A052 pace.

CR-1/CR-S run similar to a couple/few ticks slower vs A052, but feel more rubbery. I didn't mind them on the front of the car, but on the back the rear end moves around a fair amount.

When I ran Hoosier A7s a couple of years ago, running them for one practice and the TT at 5 events, I got two great TTs out of them (1 to 1.5 seconds faster vs. A052) and they fell off after that. By 6th heat cycle they didn't seem much if any quicker than A052 :( I have heard that R1-S stay fast for longer fwiw...

For me? a 10-15 heat cycle hoosier probably wouldn't have any tread left if I were looking for time. Let's pretend it did; we'd be talking several seconds.

The Nankang CR-S is a great tire, much better than what last years Grassroots test said. As an endurance tire, it will go 8 hours (set of 4 on a fairly heavy car) and win races and championships. It's one of those tires which needs a break-in, but the next session/day they are much better. Also good in the rain.

I am gonna give the Kumho 730v a shot. It looks to be a good middle ground between top 200tw tires and RS4 on Pace, but looks to be super consistent and Wears very much like the RS4. Got a set of 225/45/17's on there way from TR and opted to get them Heat Cycled so they are 100% ready out the gate. I have a track day on the 16th of this month at Buttonwillow.