[VR Baron]

Originally Posted by Msquared

The day before the first autocross on these tires, I put them on the car and went for a drive on a hot summer morning. I went to "research park" that has no traffic on weekends and did some slightly spirited cornering, accelerating, and braking, trying to work the carcasses and generate some temps without ever sliding in any direction. A cop or Karen would disapprove, but it was nothing like an actual autocross run. Then I gently drove home and parked the car until the next morning's event.

I'm hoping that helps stabilize these tires and gets a little more usable life out of them. The 285 square set I used last year fell of a cliff in terms of grip, to the point that I wondered if either my car or I were malfunctioning. Mike (Apexit) saw my times at the St. Louis CAM Challenge (he won CAM-C...in an FS-legal Camaro!) and probably thought the same thing. But based on last Sunday, it was just the tires.

Well that sucks in regards to the 285s. Mine have 72 runs and still gripping strong, and had fastest day relative to other camaro guys I run with. But could be they had a not great day and I had a better day as I tried less psi and mag in sport on a very bumpy and patched lot. Wear not a issue, just the grip hopefully will last another 36 runs or so

And Happy 4th of July everyone!!

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by Msquared

The day before the first autocross on these tires, I put them on the car and went for a drive on a hot summer morning. I went to "research park" that has no traffic on weekends and did some slightly spirited cornering, accelerating, and braking, trying to work the carcasses and generate some temps without ever sliding in any direction. A cop or Karen would disapprove, but it was nothing like an actual autocross run. Then I gently drove home and parked the car until the next morning's event.

I'm hoping that helps stabilize these tires and gets a little more usable life out of them. The 285 square set I used last year fell of a cliff in terms of grip, to the point that I wondered if either my car or I were malfunctioning. Mike (Apexit) saw my times at the St. Louis CAM Challenge (he won CAM-C...in an FS-legal Camaro!) and probably thought the same thing. But based on last Sunday, it was just the tires.

Mine fell off quite a bit over winter. I kept them in bags in my crawlspace, so probably not under 50 degrees. Then they continued to fall off more every event until a couple weeks ago when they took 3 runs on a hot day to warm up and turn on, luckily we had 4 runs so the last one was ok, but still around .5s slower than they were last fall. So I'm going to try to use up the new set I just put on this year, and if not I'll store them in my basement where they won't go under 60F or so.

200 tw tires are the worst part of autox. They don't seem to save money whatsoever over any other tire regardless of tw rating or even being DOT legal.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Mine fell off quite a bit over winter. I kept them in bags in my crawlspace, so probably not under 50 degrees. Then they continued to fall off more every event until a couple weeks ago when they took 3 runs on a hot day to warm up and turn on, luckily we had 4 runs so the last one was ok, but still around .5s slower than they were last fall. So I'm going to try to use up the new set I just put on this year, and if not I'll store them in my basement where they won't go under 60F or so.

FWIW, I kept my 285-square set in the basement over winter, so they never got cold or sun. They came out of the basement on April 14 and were still fiarly grippy, based on my times relative to other local benchmarks. Then they fell off. They still have tread, just not nearly as much grip.

200 tw tires are the worst part of autox. They don't seem to save money whatsoever over any other tire regardless of tw rating or even being DOT legal.

I mostly agree at this point. The big advantage they still have over, say A7s, is that it's reasonable to drive to local events on them. I wish there were a way SCCA could work with a company to build a control tire. Wouldn't need it to have as much grip as an A052 or RE71RS, but if it would retain its peak grip over at least 100 runs and have a much wider plateau for optimum temps, that would be nice. And less than $400, of course. The real challenge to this is getting something made in all the sizes, with a commitment to produce it for at least five years.

[JamesNoBrakes]

It sounds like you are heat-cycling out tires before the tread is worn too far...which is definitely thing with these tires.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

It sounds like you are heat-cycling out tires before the tread is worn too far...which is definitely thing with these tires.

That's definitely what's happening. I just would like to extend that time out further if possible. Ergo, my more careful break-in procedure this time around. Basically have to wait a year to find out if it worked, though!

I should mention that many (most?) tires do this. The Falkens did it too, but the drop-off was much more gradual and took longer. On my last set, I had decent grip by the 5th and 6th runs (local events) until cords appeared. But I couldn't have run those at a national event, of course.

[VR Baron]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Mine fell off quite a bit over winter. I kept them in bags in my crawlspace, so probably not under 50 degrees. Then they continued to fall off more every event until a couple weeks ago when they took 3 runs on a hot day to warm up and turn on, luckily we had 4 runs so the last one was ok, but still around .5s slower than they were last fall. So I'm going to try to use up the new set I just put on this year, and if not I'll store them in my basement where they won't go under 60F or so.

200 tw tires are the worst part of autox. They don't seem to save money whatsoever over any other tire regardless of tw rating or even being DOT legal.

Here in SoCal we are lucky . We all store tires in the garage. I will say that by the DIC temp, when new it took a run to show warm, now it’s two runs. But runs 3&4 they and me are the fastest and times are close on those last runs. Grip seems as good as new just longer to warm. On my old nankangs when they were shot they were still pretty fast but only if you used track race to slow me down where I couldn’t take corners as fast anymore

[WishfulSS]

Hi Folks,

So O'Gorman and Leeder were tops in F street at SCCA nationals, does anyone know if they were 285 square or 285/305? I have been running 285/305 with 32 psi front and 33 to 31 psi in back, still a work in progress.

[Msquared]

Just realized I need to update my experiences here with the 285/305 combo. But first...

Originally Posted by WishfulSS

Hi Folks,

So O'Gorman and Leeder were tops in F street at SCCA nationals, does anyone know if they were 285 square or 285/305? I have been running 285/305 with 32 psi front and 33 to 31 psi in back, still a work in progress.

They were not. Both were on 275/35 fronts and 285/35 rears. That's the best fitment for this model of tire and our wheel widths, but of course the question is whether or not that gives up a bit of grip compared to the larger tires.

My own 285/305 experience did not continue on such a positive path as my July posts. I experienced serious ice mode at the Chicago Tour at the worst possible place, and it caused me to DNF two of three runs on the first day. Then I thought I solved it, and I had no issues at the Peru Tour. But ice mode reared its ugly head once on each day of Nationals. I also found ice mode on one of six runs at a local event last week. Now I know that I tend to induce ice mode more than most other drivers, but I have rarely had a problem with it in this car on other tire sets. So I consider the 285/305 combo to be a bust: the ABS just isn't happy with the front tires being taller than the rears.

Given that, the 285/285 and 275/285 both seem to work well on the car without ice mode. The 275/285 combo is probably least likely to induce it, but the square setup hasn't caused me problems. I got a chance to run on a new set of 275/285 on my car a few weeks ago and it was good. It might have a bit more understeer than the 285-square combo, but that could have been the course, too. It felt good. I'm not totally sure, but I am leaning toward the 275/285 combo for my next set.

It's worth noting that nobody has tried 275/35 fronts and 305/30 rears. That front size might be just shorter enough to not excite ice mode. I had considered that combo when I bought the 285/305 set. I don't think I'll be the one trying it, though.

Or Bridgestone could just sack up and give us a proper 285/30/19 so we could stop screwing around...

[DaveC113]

Ice mode is scary! I've had no issues with it running 295 square this year. The REs made it to the wear bars without cycling out as I had a few events with codrivers, but then fell off a cliff. Got around 85 runs before falling off, about 100 total.

I think the current best (non-FS legal) is likely 295/35/18 ft and 305/30/19 rear but I don't want to buy a pair of 19"wheels to run it just because of limited tire sizes. I do have a set of ZLE sized wheels with PS4S I could use, but then I wouldn't be able to use the PS4S... We'll see if Vitour becomes an option or if Hoosier moves to 7/32" tread depth.

[JamesNoBrakes]

295 square was great for me this season.

[WishfulSS]

Yes I have gotten to ice mode both with 285 square and the 285/305 combo. 285/305 seems worse in that respect. I am thinking if both O'Gorman and Leeder were running 275/285 at nationals that says something, maybe total avoidance of Ice mode. I sill like the idea of a 285 front to help with turn in. Thinking my 305 experiment will die when the 305 wear out early next year. Probably going to 285 square. Hmmmmm....

[clyde]

Originally Posted by WishfulSS

I am thinking if both O'Gorman and Leeder were running 275/285 at nationals that says something

It says that's what they ran at Nationals.

The Lincoln surface is pretty unique. Just because something worked there for one particular event does not mean it will work somewhere else. Likewise, things that work everywhere else almost all the time frequently don't work so well there. The surface is weird. It's concrete that shares a lot of characteristics of medium grip, worn asphalt...that varies more minute to minute based on temperatures and sun/clouds than nearly any other site.

An optimized 275/285 setup might be the best possible for everything. It might not.

[VR Baron]

I am still running my same set of 285/35/19s on 10.75”x 19”wheels that I first installed in December 2023. As of now they have 128 runs.they have gotten a bit faster as they wear down but still have a couple of 32nds left to the wear bars. These tires have helped me get faster vs nankangs and the old Re71s with my car setup, which is only maxed out alignment and a hotchkiss front bar. They still grip great, for me and my abilities anyway. At this point I do get a little ice mode but have only noticed it briefly when hitting the brakes for a short distance before some tight 90 degree turns.but not often. Next set will probably 305/30s since I can run whatever I want.

[RoaringV8]

I'll be running the RE71RS 305/30/19 square setup on APEX SM-10 wheels this weekend at VIR this weekend and will report back my opinions of the tire. I've run the stock SC3's, SC3R's and Falken RT660 so I'm curious to see how they will compare. I've only ever run SC3's at VIR, however.