Jake,
This sounds pretty familiar ; -)
It's "novice driver wear". It's caused by "fast in, slow out"
driving. "Fast in" means overdriving the tires in the turn,
and having to scrub off all the speed to give you the "slow out"
result. I did this for several years!
I'm sure you have been told "slow in, fast out" plenty of times,
I know I was. But until I finally started really braking enough
in a straight line so that I could turn in tighter at the beginning
of the turn, get on the gas early, and unwind the wheel out
of the turn, I went through tires by the bucket! Even if you're
as dumb as me, you'll eventually get out of it. Expect to
pay a lot for tires!
Or, try to slow down a whole lot more. It's
not the speed in corners that matters, it's the speed in straights, and
getting control and acceleration through the longest possible
period will make you faster. Getting an additional 2 mph through
the curve, actually TRYING to get those mph, plowing through the turn,
not being in good control at the apex, and not getting on the gas till
you're out on the straight, well that's going to lose you lots of time,
and wear those tires really fast!
If you are not down to the cords, and still not down to the wear
bars in the grooves, they should be OK. Some tires are OK to
flip inside out, some are only limited to one direction by tread design.
You should check with Tire Rack or Yokohama, or maybe somebody
who knows those tires will answer, too.
I dunno about that "autocross".
Jerry Mouton mailto:jerry@moutons.org Laissez les bons temps
rouler!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jake Hodges" <jake_hodges@hotmail.com>
To: <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 3:52 PM
Subject: Poor, poor tires..
> Novice autocrosser here, and one on a college student's budget.
>
> For my birthday, a friend got me a set of very nice tires. That was three
> autocross events ago... Just 12-15 runs. I run 48-50 psi front and 38
rear
> in my Yokohama AVS Intermediates on a '95 Honda del Sol. My chalk marks
> don't scrub off of the sidewalls at all beyond where the tread blocks
merge
> with the sidewalls.
>
> Questions:
>
> I know these tires are soft, but my front tires are almost totally rounded
> off on the outsides after just three events. What can I do to minimize
> this? Driving? Pressure? Voodoo hex?
>
> When do they wear too far? When are they no longer safe to use on the
> street? Or should I just not worry about it?
>
> Can the tires be turned around on the rims to present a new square edge on
> the outside without hurting anything?
>
> If this really is the rate that I'm going to go through tires, should I
just
> leave the only reasonably rounded rear tires on the back and nuke the hell
> out of the front ones, replacing them at a shorter interval? Or will I
get
> more net tire life if I rotate them after every event?
>
> Finally, people say they get a season of use out of race rubber on a
> light(ish) car like mine. Is this a function of some magical property of
> race tires, or are these other drivers on crack?
>
> Oh! And one more thing.. A guy in one of my classes said saw what he
> thought was an autocross in San Jose last weekend near the corner of 7th
and
> Tully.. Anyone know what that is?
>
> Thanks all.
>
> Jake
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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