THSCC Forums

Speaking of which, I have a set of 275/35-18 A6s with 2009 built date that have been stored inside and covered that have about 15 runs on them. They're free if you come and take them to be unmounted (without damaging the SSR wheels they're on).

That's awfully tempting.

Get Jeb to mount them up and he probably wouldn't charge much if anything to unmount off the old wheels.

If you think Hoosier is going to give away the specialty autox tire market you are dead wrong. They will have something stupid expensive and soft with a 200 stamp on it soon.

Sales won't drop that much. It was the spec autox tire but road racers can sometimes use two and three sets a weekend. They are the big market.

FWIW We did want to get RS3 tires but went with Dunlops even though they are pricier because they were available in the size Noah wanted. I drove a chumpcar at VIR last year and they did great. I ran a 316.5 on grand which held up as one of the faster laps all weekend. I think it will be a good tire for our varied surfaces and temps through the season.

Dunlop hasn't published any cold temperature warnings for the ZII, so it
should be OK from a cold compound cracking standpoint. If it is wet and
temps are below 45 then you may as well just leave the Pirelli's on. If it
is dry they will work OK, but be prepared for a little chipping and
tearing of the tread compound in the shoulder and leading edges of the
tread blocks. When the compound is that hard it rips away, rather than
wearing in fine particles like a pencil eraser. Just limit the slip angle
when stone cold and you'll be fine. You will also likely feel some
dramatic grip/slip/grip effect, especially if its wet. The breakaway and
regain can be very rapid and rather dramatic in some cases.

We are the exclusive source for the ZII, like the Rival. We cover the vast
majority of that market, and the manufacturers want an easy way to keep
the pipeline full on a very low volume tire. We sell to just about every
tire shop in the country, too. So it's easier to keep them in our
warehouses to ship on a moments notice than in all the different
distribution centers of the manufacturer and all their distributors across
the country. That would (ask Dunlop) result in tires in Memphis but not in
Philly, etc.

Re sourcing of Rivals (and ZII)...I ordered my new set from Jeb (Discount Tire Millbrook Rd store) who placed the order with TireRack. You of course pay NC sales tax but you don't pay shipping (and you get the TR price), so it works out the same price-wise within a few dollars. I'm continually impressed with Jeb and how well he runs his store. You get a good feeling for this when you interact with the guys in the shop and also how well the store runs when Jeb isn't there. So far, zero wheel damage across many different cars/wheels/tires over the past few years (including 35 series runflats on my wife's car...makes squeezing a V710 onto a narrow wheel look like child's play ).

The ZII doesn’t feel too bad when cold, I drove them every day to work, except in the snow, and, to me, they are better than other tire I had in the same temperature range.
Also Cold = more power but I’m not sure with my car, it look like it’s regulating boost with the air mass, when it’s colder the boost doesn’t go as high as when it’s warmer.
Anyhow only 1 more week to wait for the 1st AX of the year.

Somehow I think tirerack's advice to use low slip angle is impractical. Essentially go easy on them, lol.

Maintaining temp in tires will be easier in the Mustang. It's heavier, has a big ass engine, and lots of exhaust piping. Leave it running and park the car and the waste heat will keep the tires warm. The first run is a throwaway due to cold tires, leave it running stationary and do a second. If you get them hot enough by the second run make a decision to cut the car off or not between runs. It's a big difference if you cut the car off and let them cool.