Unless you are using bias ply hoosier autocrossers, or the old radial
autocross compound, the current crop of R tires is not gummy enough to
seriously pick gravel and rocks. In fact, the highway driving will clean
them off.
Even on my soft slicks, after a manual brushing, The drive wheels seem to
be fully clean by the first or 2nd turn, with the rears coming up to temp
and cleaning off in about 3 turns.
About all you might sacrifice would be 1-2 corners of the first run, and
this only if they were very dirty.
Stan Whitney
GS talon awd
DP CRX
At 09:16 PM 6/24/99 -0500, Brian M Kennedy wrote:
>Driving R-compound tires over gravel or dirt roads results in lots
>of small stones getting impaled into the rubber. You can easily
>pop them out, but you'll have a small depression or slit where
>the stone once was.
>
>Now for the questions:
>
>1) If you drive to an event and end up carrying a lot of small
> rocks in your rubber, what is the impact on the stickiness
> of your tires?? Should you take the time to pick out all
> the impaled stones?
>
>2) What is the effect of small gaps, depressions, or gashes in
> the rubber? They are nowhere near through the tread, so the
> integrity of the tire is not compromised. But the traction
> may be affected? Or the wear of the tread may be accelerated?
>
>3) Should I be careful to keep my R-tires off gravel/dirt?
> Or should I not worry about it?
>
>Thoughts?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Brian
>
>
|