How long do tires last?

[jamesjedi]

I am still looking into these cars. However, not much information on tires. Specifically, how long do they last? How many track days and races.

Are there any pro teams using the same tires (for a mid 90’s) car? This would be for take off tires. Thanks for any guidance.

[jrh3]

Inversely related to the race budget

[jamesjedi]

Thanks for the reply. I am sure the budget is very dependent on what you want/can spend. I found some information. 4 heat cycles for competitive tires. They drop 3 seconds per lap after that. Good for 16 - 20 heat cycles.

[TeamLMR]

Hey James,

Typically in a race weekend (SCCA USA) you'll go through one new set per weekend. If it's the Runoffs, it'll be a new set every session.

If you're just pounding laps (for a track day) and you have a decent set-up on the car, you could probably run the equivalent of 3 race weekends of wear. This would involve flopping the tires on the rims for extra life. Also keep in mind that you'll have very little grip after the "one weekend" usage.

For a typical race weekend, you might use an older set from the last race for a half test day and/or practice on Saturday morning. You'd then mount a new set for qualy and the race. That same set would be used for qualy and a race on Sunday. At this point, you would then use these for test/practice the following race weekend.

Good luck.

[Jerry Kehoe]

Having tried several of the various tire treatments I have found only a very little improvement in performance and life and basically believe for our use they are useless. I know the circle track guys swear by it but they generally soak the whole tire in it and usually their races are only a few miles long. Not worth the cost or time, in my opinion!

[EYERACE]

Slicks can be run down to almost seeing cord when one is careful and not overly concerned with lap times and beating all the other cars on track........it's called CLUB racing for a reason....we're a bunch of putzers out to have some fun and drive cars that can't be driven on the street. When it comes to lap times, I had a guy ask/say this to me years ago.....think inversely > it's about a thousand dollars a second....now how fast do you want to go? The thing about FM is to be fast - you gotta make the car slide and the tires will be key to just how much sliding you can keep up doing

[kevsgone]

I am still looking into these cars. However, not much information on tires. Specifically, how long do they last? How many track days and races.

Are there any pro teams using the same tires (for a mid 90’s) car? This would be for take off tires. Thanks for any guidance.

I'll share my tire strategy:

Run of the mill lapping, member track days, track familiarization, shake downs etc. I run the harder Goodyear 470 compound tires until they cord, usualy about 15-20 25min sessions. I also use up the old practice session Hoosiers if they haven't corded.

Previously raced Hoosiers used for Test & Tune, early practice, etc (these are usually 4 session at the start)

New set of Hoosiers for a race weekend, sticker at Qualify 1, race Saturday, Qual 2, race Sunday (4 session total for weekend)

So: race weekend costs 1 set of Hoosiers and practice is done on old used tires or Goodyears that last a long time.