Who runs hard compound tires on FF's?

[Tom Duncan]

Branching off from a suggestion by Marc (mblanc) in reply #63 of the "...your forum awaits" thread, let's hear from those that are running a hard compound tire on a 'modern' push-rod or rocker FF (we know they work fine on CF cars) as that is the type of car being addressed by this effort.

The most common point of resistence I have run into is "How will my car work on such a tire? Will I have to re-engineer it? Will I have to change shocks/springs/valving/bars/etc?"

We are curious what your experience has been. Trouble adapting the car? Transformed the car into a Gestalt experience?

Anyone running their DB-6/DB-1/Van Diemen mid-90’s and newer, etc on R60’s or AR133’s?

Roland Johnson told me there were a few FF's running in "The Series" in the Pacific Southwest, any others?

Is anyone actually doing this?

Please, no conjecture, just looking for actual experiences.

Tom Duncan

[Josh Pitt]

Roland Johnson told me there were a few FF's running in "The Series" in the Pacific Southwest, any others?

Is anyone actually doing this?

Please, no conjecture, just looking for actual experiences.

Tom Duncan

I ran my DB-1 with "The Series" on the AR 133 tires. I cannot compare them to GY160 or similar, since i have not ever used them, nor will i ever use them. they are just too expensive for the amount of heat cycles, and are what have kept me from running FF in SCCA(that and the fact that the fields are pretty much non existant out here in AZ/SoCal).

The AR 133 worked great. I was able to run a high 1:50 or low 1:51 out at cal speedway my first and only time there; from what i understand, thats a fairly good time for guys on the sticky tires(maybe i am wrong).

anyway, the car worked just fine, and i ran it on the factory setup per the factory set up sheet. The car never really even needed to be adjusted much at all.
another car that consistantly runs on them in our group( a VD RF93) is very fast on them also.

I guess that i cannot offer a comparision, but i can say that the feeling of going to a race and needing to have the sticky tires (how many per weekend?)to run with other cars IS what kept me from racing in a group without a spec hard tire.

I have since bought a Crossle(sold the swift) and will be back running in this group on the AR133.
My feeling is that the participation numbers are in part due to the fact we use this spec tire.
My experience was also that the tires were the fastest for the first few cycles, and then dropped off a bit, but you could run them after that for another 20+ cycles easily w/o any more degradation.
I hope that helps.
Josh

[Tom Duncan]

Thanks Josh, that is the kind of report we need, detailed and to the point.

Anyone else?

How about someone that had a less than great experience?

Tom Duncan

[stevestaveley]

Thanks Josh, that is the kind of report we need, detailed and to the point.

Anyone else?

How about someone that had a less than great experience?

Tom Duncan

I have run both on my Crossle 55 - and frankly, the GY are a bit faster, but not much half a second or so, and not worth the money vs. the AR. I run AR's in SCCA (Cal Club) and ran the FF birthday in May and was mid pack, but that is me, not the car or the tires. Any improvement I am going to make is ME, not the tires. I see no reason whatsoever, not to go to a hard spec. tire - they are very stable, last a long time, and while I have not changed my set up between the soft GY and the Harder ARs I doubt it would have made any difference given the age of the car and the age of its driver, anyway.

Harder tires will reduce cost, and improve the potential for others to join the fields.

Steve Staveley FF 59 Cal Club RE.