[alfa] Re: [Alfa Racing]: Falken Tires

["George Schweikle" <schweikg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter,

The reason for Falken Azenis popularity is their use in SCCA Solo II Street
Touring class where DOT tires must have a minimum tread wear rating of 140.
The natural selection process of finding the fastest time has identified
these tires as the thing to have for Street Touring. Stock and
Street-Prepared classes must also use DOT rated tires, but with no tread
wear restrictions. These are the classes using "R" compound tires with the
Hoosier A3S03 compound (Radial construction) generally accepted as the
stickiest. These are not suited for more than a few laps of road course use,
but the same tire is available in R3S03 compound for track use. The Khumo
Victoracer and Ectasa are just a little bit harder, but are very popular
autocross tires, and can be used for lap track use. They also have tread
(compared to the Hoosier Radials which are essentially slicks with two
grooves) and I know people who drive Khumos on the street. There are new
A3S04 and A3S04 Hoosiers available replacing the "03" versions with claimed
longer life, improved turn in, and higher cornering force. Hoosier also
makes Bias constuction R compound DOT tires with the Autocrosser now only
available in 13 in. rim size, but the Street TD is a popular, treaded,
vintage tire with multiple sizes available.

This tire wear rating issue can be taken with a grain of salt; one of the BF
Goodrich Team TA officials once told me the values are assigned by
manufacturers with no common Standard. My Hoosier A3S03 tires are marked
"40". The old Autocrossers were marked "0", and my Street TD tires are also
marked "0". Go figure...

George Schweikle
Lexington, KY


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Webb" <webb.p@domain.elided>
To: "Alfa Racing" <alfaracing@domain.elided>; <alfa@domain.elided>
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 8:17 PM
Subject: [Alfa Racing]: Falken Tires


Alfa Speed Freaks;

I've been looking at tires for next season for my Verde hot rodded street
car that sees time trials.  Hopefully 5 or more next year.   I drive the car
to the events, which is pretty much the most street use the car sees at one
time.  I take it around town a couple of times a week and occasionally 20
miles to work.  I think I put less than 3000 miles on it this summer, 1000
of which were related to track events.

I'm looking for a dual purpose tire for the car so I don't have to buy and
haul a second set of wheels and tires around.  At Gingerman a couple of
weeks ago, I noticed a number of people sporting the Falken Azenis Sport
tires that are supposedly an autocross purpose tire suitable for the street.
Not an R-Compound but they claim pretty close to the grip.  Rated 200 A AA.

Does anyone have any track or autocross experience with these tires?   The
Audi driver I talked to at Gingerman said they were great on the track,
sticky on the street and stable in the rain.  At $112 each, sounds like a
great deal.

I'm interested in hearing from people who can compare them to an R-compound
tire on the track and against the usual high performance street tires.

I have Dunlop FM901 street tires on there now (also rated 200 A A), which
have been great on the track for a street tire and good on the street for a
dry performance tire.   (Pay no attention the those big chunks of missing
rubber.  I think I left them at Gingerman :)

A related question.  Anyone run R-compounds daily for a combo street/track
car?  I know it's done with the Porsche and Corvette crowd.

TIA

-Peter
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