James Creasy wrote:
>i say save your money and drive as much as you can for a year or so on
>whatever r-tires you find convenient. tires will net you tenths at best,
>driving skill will net you whole seconds yet.
I agree, that's part of my reason for "pushing" the Kumho's in this message
series.
>
>BTW- i recommend heat cycling the kumhos- NOT at an autox- you want 100
>continuous and gentle freeway miles with no scrubbing, then 48 hours rest off
>the car before an autox.
Important point, heat cycling is absolutely necessary for the Kumho's but,
doesn't seem to be as critical with the Hoosiers. However, on the three sets
of Kumho's we ran in '99, they all had days of 60-70 mile drives before
first beeing run. In each case, the first event on the "new" Kumho's was
still a "slow and mushy" experience. To take minor issue with your comment,
I think they have to get to hotter temperatures, than street driving
develops, to accomplish the "heat cycling". That first day, there's a lot of
wear from the "green" rubber and Jim, you're absolutely right, they have to
rest quite a few days after the first event before being run again. The
"chemical" re-arrangement of the rubber molecules (or whatever secret
process occurs) takes a while.
To emphasize that point, last year I saw an (un-named here), former national
champion (with two drivers) run new Kumho's two days in a row on McClellan
cement and use up about half the tread. On that weekend, we ran two
different sets of Kumho's on each day in order to get some feed-back on
which one, the relatively new, or two-thirds worn tires were the fastest. On
that aggressive cement surface, the more-worn tires were quicker.
Don
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