>My OE Firehawks chunked (even with 20k miles of street "break-in").
>They were all-season tires and I was a novice. None of the Pirelli
>(P700Z or P-Zero), Potenza (RE71) or Yokohama (AVS) tires I've used have
>chunked.
=========================
WOW!!! 20K miles? I wish I were that lucky. I raced on the factory tires
at about my first dozen autocross events and the edges chunked quite badly
where the tire rolled over and slid all over the place on the edge of the
tread. (And the sidewall.) In my defense I was brand new to the sport.
Today, at 18K and some change all four of my factory tires were DEEP into
the treadwear indicator bars and were great in the dry but as worthless as
slicks if it rained. (Some of this was due to my alignment settings also.)
Just for shoots and grins I stopped by the Goodyear dealer this afternoon
and asked if my tires were still covered by the 40K mile treadwear warranty.
They took one look at the harness hanging from the drivers headrest, the
huge amount of negative camber on my front wheels, the yellow Konis, the
SCCA sticker in my window and didn't mince words when they told me that
there was, and this is an actual quote, "No way in hell are we gonna honor
the warranty on _those_ tires!" I just chuckled and said, "Yeah, that's
what I thought you'd say."
Anyway, I finally had to break down this afternoon and buy another set of
street tires so I could make it to and from the Solotime event in Wichita
this weekend. 205/60-14 Dunlop D60A2's if you wanna know. (The salesman
didn't think that the 205s would fit onto my 6" wheels. I told him that I
get 225's on them all the time and the 205's would go on easy as pie.) Once
dismounted I noticed the factory 185/65-14 Goodyear Eagle RS-As had VERY
soft and spongy sidewalls and even the tread face could easily be distorted
with modest hand pressure. Sheesh. No wonder they always felt kinda
spongy, even with 50 psi in them. ;^) Performance tires my patootie!!
BTW, I almost got a set of Kumho street tires but they were the lowest line
that the nice folks in Korea make so I opted instead for a known entity with
the Dunlops.
Not quite R tires, but compared to the old tires they stick like glue.
Well, that's my 2 cents (and then some) concerning tire chunking. ;^)
See you on course.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
#69DS TLS #13
'98 Neon R/T
<eric10mm@qni.com>
Mustang Sally,
You better slow your Mustang down.
============================
"Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett
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