Tires

[blackhole]

How long do a set of slicks last on a FST to race competitivly?

[Bill Bonow]

In terms of heat cycles, a conservative figure is 20 heat cycles. They stay pretty darn competitive through those 20 heat cycles. I used this photo in a thread above, but this is my rear with 22 heat cycles before I ran the ARRC in '09. When the weekend was done (finished 2nd), they had 24 heat cycles.

[jsteeb]

During this past season, I managed between 15and 20 race competitive heat cycles out of my tires. What I mean by, "race competitive," is that after ~20 heat cycles (on my car), the raw lap times were still there, but I don't think the longevity was. I feel like at ~20 heat cycles, my car developed a moderate under steer, which hurt lap times during the latter half of timed sessions. I did have a set where I felt like the lap times fell off just after 15, but the entire weekend was screwy thanks to a rainy test day and a setup mistake on my part.

20 heat cycles is still 2 or 3 weekends, with test days, so I'll take it.

BTW... I flip the tires on the rim when they start to look worn, and cross-switch the tires to keep wear even.

Cheers!
Jason