Anyone ever buy new tires with an old build date?

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:36 pm

Tire Rack has a few sizes of the Hankook R-S3 on close-out for pretty cheap compared to the the brand new 200 Treadwear, but they have a 2009 build date. Does anyone have experience buying brand new (old) tires from some place like Tire Rack that I'd imagine have been kept in a controlled environment. While they likely wouldn't see UV rays and radiant heat, it's doubtful they keep them sealed in anything, so they can't be like new. 2 years old and I wouldn't hestitate. 4 years old, how much am I giving up?

josephmay · **Joined:** Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:23 pm **Posts:** 17

I bought some Yokohama AD07 from tire rack in 09 that were 05 build dates. I got a good year of substantial HPDE use out of them before they lost all grip but still had tread left. Granted, I wasn't competing or anything but for the steep discount, I feel like I got my moneys worth out of them.

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:29 pm

I have no doubt I can have plenty of fun on them for DE's, I'm more concerned with how much time I'd be giving up at autocross. I currently run a 2 year old set of 285 Hankook R-S3's in RTESP that I'm sure Rodney produced many smoke screens with before I got my hands on them and I've been pretty happy with them. I thought about going to a narrower rim and tire size so I could run in STX, but it really isn't that big of a PAX advantage (.005) and I'm having trouble convincing myself I could go faster on a narrower tire. Plus, if I save $600 on tires, it's like getting a tuner and an intake for free, or at least that's how I'm selling the wife on it.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:06 pm

I think with the compounds in today's street tires, you will find very little fall off from the age as these really are stored in a climate controlled setting with no sunlight. If they were R-compounds, the drop off might be more significant, but for street compounds, you should be good to go. - AB

Mark Barnes · **Posted:** Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:51 pm

Buy them up and get the tuner and intake too before Judy could saw no. You can always ask for forgiveness later if the tires don't work out.... With the tune and intake, should be easier to turn them into smoke....

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:22 pm

Mark Barnes wrote:

Buy them up and get the tuner and intake too before Judy could saw no. You can always ask for forgiveness later if the tires don't work out.... With the tune and intake, should be easier to turn them into smoke....

Tune and intake are already installed. Unfortunately, I delayed too long buying the tires and they are gone. Oh well, I'll have to buy something newer and stickier. :twisted:

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Anyone ever buy new tires with an old build date?

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