GeneT

I'm looking at buying a set of either Hankook RS3's or Nitto NT05's for autocrossing. Should I pay the extra $15 per tire for heat cycling or its that more for road racing ?

autoxer6

The first autocross will put in a heat cycle. You dont need it. The rubber will be stronger after the first event and will wear longer.

The only time it is needed is when you are going to use the tire in one day (or two). It takes a couple of days for a full heat cycle, so if you use the tire in an endurance race, it wont have time to heat cycle and crosslink.

Han Solo

I had one set of tires heat cycled and they didn't last as long as all the sets after that I didn't. I'm not sure they don't overheat them with that mechanical heat cycle process.

When I buy new tires I drive them out on a highway and bring them up to temp gradually then do some figure 8s in a parking lot. After that I let them sit 48 hours. Haven't had any problems with this and get good life after.

hungryhippo

Those are street tires, they shouldn't need heat cycling.

autoxer6

Street tires do need a heat cycle if you are going to use them all up in one or two days. ChumpCar teams will chunk Dunlop ZII's if they don't get a heat cycle first. 6 minutes of autocross in a day doesn't stress or heat a tire like hours of continuous racing.