THSCC Forums

I as well as many other buddies are running the MXs for track use on a variety of cars. My e36 m3, friends s4, another guy in a 944 turbo, and another on his wrx.

None of us have any real complaints. I was getting pretty crappy wear till I figured out to run them around 40 hot while down at Roebling Rd. It really made a substantial improvement to the grip and wear of the tires down there. Sure there are better tires out there, but for the money I'd say they are hard to beat. Although they arent GREAT in the rain, they are good enough for hpde.

I've got 3 weekends on this set now. One weekend at roebling, one at vir north, and one at vir full. Total about 8 hours of dry use and 2 hours in the wet. I'm hoping to get around 3-4 more weekends out of them. Fairly even wear on my e36, stock suspension, about 2 degrees camber front and rear if i remember correctly.

edit: Quick addition. I have run them full tread from the start. The weekend at roebling chunked them a bit on the front left, but the only millage on them was the trip from raleigh down to georgia soooooo.

Art,

Dick said :I like the suggestion to get some used road race compound Hoosiers!!!

But I have to say that after buying my M3 from Walt Smith and then running it at R Road on the RA1's that had 12 Track event's and were showing a little C**d on sat then running used, just bought Hoosiers that Steve Perice found him and me a great deal on. The RA1'S WERE faster. The Hoosiers still have a lot of tread on them and I'm sure have far less than 12 track weekends on them but just did not hold as well as the Turned on the Rim wore out Ra1's. I think Steve had simular results.

He might know of some used in Your size down there but that's in Florida. I'll go get them for ya. lol

Good Luck

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Folks, Alway's be aware. I work out of town and it may be a while before I can read mail. Thanks,
Bill Gratton
caines21@wmconnect.com
910 670 1302

Bill,

So, if Art could get used RA-1's in his size, they would very likely have more grip than used Hoosier road race compounds. Interesting (and not too surprising). I guess the Hoosier compound goes off much faster than the RA-1's. Just for clarification (its the engineer part of me):
Were the Hoosiers the "normal" road race compound vs. some sort of special version used as a spec tire? Was the car set up "appropriate" for the Hoosiers (whatever that might be )? Was the lack of grip for both ends of the car?

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

to quote hoosier-while they have rounded shoulders, they benefit from signifigantly negatively cambered cars (sic)

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they misunderestimated me.

OH NO, now I went and got a smart guy asking me questions. Hey Dick, miss seeing you at the A/cross.

I beleive it's just what we have heard about the current tires and this is speaking track, not autocross. I am afraid I can't answer the question about what specfic Hoosier Tire's they are except they are Track, not autocross. They were pulled of when they got a second +/- of Real Race BMW'S. I am sure they may have more aggressive Alignment but I do have about 1.7neg all around.

I had started a weekend at Roebling Road on used Ra1's that I was only running because I would not get the used but with much more tread and a lot less cord showing untill Saturday from My guy coming up from Florida. I thought I would atleast turn them as I know how bad R Road is on tire's. I ran the Hoosier's in Saturday's Time Trial and because of my concern's, didn't work any slip angle's to the best of my ability all day and they held up well.

I was able to pick 4 Hoosiers out of a stack of about 12. All had good about of tread through out. Frankly I was excited about getting to run the bad azz Hoosiers. Reason's 1. I've heard how great they are. 2. They had no Cord scaring me so I could let loose a little. Despite the fact that R Road has bit me a time or two, I love the way that track flow's.

I became concerned with in a few laps when I assumed I just wasn't bring the tire's up to Heat/Grip but since I was sliding around a lot more than I had SAturday, they should have been Heating even faster?? I tryed expermenting with Presure's ofcourse and asked several folk's with Hoosier experence and it seems they were just going away.

It's like they say, if you want to be fast for the weekend, buy a set of Hoosiers. If you want to be fast next weekend, better get ready to get another set.

That may be extreme but I would be willing to bet that a driver of simular exp/tallent on Hoosiers would only be faster for 1, maybe 2 weekend's then the guy on the Ra1's would be right there with him.

And the Ra1's would pretty much stay about that good all the way down. In my car, that was 12-14 Track events. They were run on this car through out the Candian Trip the guys made last year also.

Sorry, can't remeber the other question. I'll check Later and get back to ya.

I have no experence with the MX's other's have metioned. I only know the Hoosier's are Great, then they are not very good. The Ra1's are Very good a long time. Wow, if we could all be just that. haha

_________________

Folks, Alway's be aware. I work out of town and it may be a while before I can read mail. Thanks,
Bill Gratton
caines21@wmconnect.com
910 670 1302

Bill,

Thanks for the info. I guess what this boils down to is that the stickier an R compound DOT tire is when new, the more likely it will have a limited "sticky" life, even if the tread doesn't wear out. Basically the same as racing slicks where "sticky" typically goes away before tread for the stickiest tires. In the good old days of autocrossing I won a lot of events on tires that first saw lots of street use . . . of course they did cost between $125 and $150 each in 1977 dollars . . . ouch

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

I think that M&M Autowerks in Morrisville may be able to get Hankook tires. I seem to recall the owner telling me that when I stopped in there last year.

Dick Rasmussen wrote:




Dick, I think you're right. I've had Toyos and loved them and though they can get a bit hard and crusty, they are certainly no worse than anything else. They probably stay fresh longer than any other tire I can think of. On the other hand, I have a set of Hoosier RS03s that I got cheap as take offs. They had good tread left, but had been raced on. I've run these tires all season and the front's don't look like they've worn at all. The rears are wearing significantly, but I can't get the fronts to wear out!! No, they are not very sticky and they have date codes of early 2002. If I ever get a tire budget again, I'd like to try the Hankooks or maybe even the Nittos. If I had my choice again between Kumho take offs or Hoosier take offs, the Hoosiers would probably be on the bottom of the list. Well, I do actually have an old set of BFG G-Force R1s that are probably even worse than the Hoosiers.

Miles

To wrap this up....
I contacted Robert Chick and also Appalachain Race Tire about used tires. Appalachian didn't have anything in a size I could use, and all Robert had were some Hoosier bias ply tires... (I remember Ed Mann scarfed up a set of those at a vintage race once and said they made his Mustang GT just about undriveable)... So I cracked open my credit card and ordered new RA-1s. At this point I'd like to remind everybody to go out immediately and buy lots of systems management software from that company that employs so many of the club's present and former officers, so I can pay off my account next month. I'd really appreciate it

I got mine from Vilven Tire in Illinois. However, I also contacted Colony Tire on Harrison Ave, and when they finally called back with a price several days after I ordered from Vilven, their price for full tread RA-1s in my size, with tax, would have been a bit lower than Vilven's shipped price. I don't know if Colony can provide shaved tires.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions.

Art

Off topic:
Art,
Are you with Tivoli or have i somehow missed you amongst the swarms of Director developers on my team?