heat cycled?
 

this is my first season auto-x'ing and i plan to get more serious about it. with this being my 4th one coming up, its really taking a beating on my street tire (sumitomo htr200's) and i want to move up to something a little more... stickier. doing a little looking around on tirerack.com i found the hoosier R3S03 in heat cycled and not. its cheaper if you dont get them heat cycled, but what exactly is this for? this maybe a dumb question, and i searched, but couldnt find anything on it. could anyone clue me in on this?

also, i have a 85gs with tokico blues, eibach springs, and a gsl rear end as far as suspension goes. i hear 205 is the widest you can go and my 205/60's are pretty damn close. but i dont really want to run a 60 profile tire. i was looking for somethign a little lower like a 50 or a 45, but they only come in a 215 or 225. ill be using stock rims that i picked up at a junk yard, so i guess those tires are out of the question? am i stuck with 205/60? can someone help me out a little? thanks

heat cycling the tires helps the tires perform better and last longer. if you check out the recomendations Hoosier gives for the initial run on a new set of tires you might get the heat cycled ones. basicly you are suppose to take the new set of tires and get them to operating temp(4-5 laps on a road course) then remove them from the car and let them sit overnight. then the tires are ready to go. the more the tires are heat cycled the harder and slicker they will become(this happens with repeated uses). so a one time heat cycle by tire rack on a machine before you buy them can save you some time and effort. I have bought the heat cycled and non heat cycled tires and I have not really seen a big difference in performance. and they never seem to last long enough.

thanks man, i was thinking it was somewhere along those lines, but i wasnt sure.

in autox's i dont really want to waste runs heat cycling them, but then again, i dont want them run down fast either. basically what im asking is.. are they worth the money?

also, how long do the racing tires usually last? i know it all depends on how hard you drive and the roughness of the road, but a general amount of time?

If you are autoxing you don't want the RS303, that's a roadrace compound. You want the AS303 from Hoosier.

i just noticed that they dont make the as303's in the size i need. what about the V700 Victoracer by Kumho? are they sticky and good for racing? or are they a good performance street tire?

V700 is a race tire and widely used by many for both autox and track racing. Although technically street legal, you wouldn't want to run them on the street. Race tires wear quickly and you want to save all the rubber you can :p:

I run V700's in 245/45/16 for autoxing and some track on my FD.

If you're worried about treadlife or stickiness-life, you shouldn't even be looking at Hoosiers. Granted, they are the stickiest tire you can legally run outside of Prepared and Modified classes ... but they are expensive and they don't last very long. Kumhos are equally sticky when new. The V700 is the older Kumho race tire ... it's a good tire that has decent treadlife. I've about burned up one set ... with approximately 80+ passes on them. That's pretty long, in my book. The Ecsta V700 is the newer Kumho race tire. It's as sticky as the V700 and supposedly will be stickier in the future, according to Kumho. It has a deeper tread design, so it's a very good rain tire.

Also, if you're willing to wait a little longer, Hankook is supposedly to be coming out with an R-compound tire. It should be interesting to see what it shapes out to be.

thanks man, that helped me alot. 80 passes is alot. sounds like ill try those out and go from there. i have never owned a pair of race tires, i just know that in 3 autox's and one of them being in the rain, i need to do something about running on street tires. i think ill try the v700's and then go from there. thanks for the help you guys.

the v700 victoracer is a good sticky tire but will not last TOO many heat cycles before you feel them start to go away. toyo proxes (RA-1) actually somehow mysteriously get better as there life goes on and some say they are close to, if not as sticky as, the v700.

and the purpose of heat cycling is..... when they are heated for the first time, the rubber bonds together to perform best. i dont know all the details but that the main idea of it.

in road racing, its a waste of money to pay for heat cycling because one practice session will do the exact same thing. but in auto-x you cant really do that so you'd prolly have to pay

Also, Formula V Traction Treatment does help bring back some life for race rubber that's been abused. It will bring the stickiness back to near new performance ... although not as good as brand new. It will definitely help you get some more life out of a 'dead' tire. $40 a bottle; one bottle should be good enough for 2 sets of tires.

As far as purchasing tires heat-cycled, don't waste your money. Buy them full tread, mount them, and slap 'em on. Go for a 20-min drive with some moderate to heavy braking (get heat into the tires and wheels). Take 'em off and let them cool down for 24-48 hours. This helps scrub off the release compounds and heat cycle them. Easy way to safe yourself $60.

formula V is good for auto x but illegal in road racing. SCCA at least

I have not had a heat cycle problem with Kumho's or Hoosiers since they tend to wear out before they get hard. With Toyo's this can be a problem but not with the Kumho's and Hoosiers in my experience. but with the slow speeds and short runs in auto-x you may experience this problem.

I went with the kumho ecsta v700 and after about 20 passes they look great. For autox these tires are wonderful! I have not been to a track but I suppose they will be equally as amazing.
Don't waste your money on hoosiers, although great tires they wear fast and unless you have a nice bank account the better stickiness is minimal.

Are you sure about this? If it's legal in SoloII, I don't see why it wouldn't be legal for SoloI or Club Racing. It's does not ADD stickiness; it merely returns tires to near-new performance. For most club racers, this is a moot point ... they just buy new tires. But for us time trialers and wannabes, traction treatment keeps us coming out to events. I can't afford a new set of tires every month ....

yes, im sure. im not 100% sure its illegal in ALL classes, but it is in SRX7 and im pretty sure its the same for all classes. i dont know the reasoning behind it either. but if someone sees you or suspects you put it on your tires they can protest you to the chief steward of that weekend and they can test if they want to. road racing can get expensive with buyin sets and sets of tires.

And then some ....

whats more expensive is how these damn cars crack rotors like no ones business. even with 2 cool down laps and another 10 minutes puttin around the paddock, ill be sittin next to the car and hear *ping* and... "shitttttttttt, not again!"

I haven't had too many issues with FD rotors ... then again, I've only done a handful of DE/TT's.