re: track tires

[Dana Loomis <dloomis@domain.elided>]

Doug Bender asked what the rest of us are doing for track tires.  Doug has
worn out his old Yokohama A008s and wanted to get new ones, but has been
told they're no longer made.  

Sadly, it's true, the 008 was replaced by the A032 about a year ago and is
no longer manufactured.  The other old standby, BF Goodrich's Comp T/A R1,
was also replaced at the end of 1998 by the new G-Force T/A.
Interestingly, Yokohama and BFG went in opposite directions with their new
tires.  Yokohama's A032 seems to have been aimed at the high-performance
driving school crowd.  It has a longer track life than the tire it replaced
and offers decent wet traction, so you don't need rain tires and can leave
them on all the time, if you want to.   The trade-off, of course, is that
it doesn't have as much grip in the dry.  The G-Force T/A, in contrast, has
more dry grip than the old R1, but it has substantially shorter life.
Based on what I've heard, you could expect to wear out a set in one
weekend.  The G-Force tire also costs 30% more than the old R1.  So, with
the shorter life and higher price, using the new "improved" BFG tire might
end up costing twice as much as the old version over a season.  That
equation was enough to keep me away.  I doubt the decrease in lap times is
enough to justify the cost.  

A lot of people who were unhappy with the choices now available from
Yokohama and BFG have switched to Kumhos.  These tires have been popular in
autocross, but they don't last long on the racetrack, either.  I have seen
Kumhos worn out in one or two weekends and most people I know have given up
on them.  

The other tire I see people using is the Toyo Proxess.  I dont' have any
experience with these, but they seem to last longer than the Kumhos, and
people who have tried them seem to stick with them.  Worth investigating,
anyway.

For my part, I may got back to running street tires when I wear out all of
the old R1s I have, unless someone comes up with a more economical
R-compound tire.  

Dana 

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End of alfa-digest V7 #779
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