Cold weather racing- Hoosiers or all seasons?
#1
Safety Car
Thread Starter
Cold weather racing- Hoosiers or all seasons?
Been running my RE 760s for a couple of seasons and have enjoyed them. We have a winter event, an actual timed event, at eh NCM this weekend.
I'm wondering if i should leave my RE 760s on or switch out to some older Hoosier tires. I've never run a slick in the cold, are they terrible?
Guessing that neither tire will do well, so which will do better?
I'm wondering if i should leave my RE 760s on or switch out to some older Hoosier tires. I've never run a slick in the cold, are they terrible?
Guessing that neither tire will do well, so which will do better?
#2
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How cold is cold?
Depending on the tire, you have to be careful with slicks when it gets in the 30-40's as they can crack if they are not handled correctly. You can see cracks in the side wall or even in the contact patch.
Ideally if you have a set of tire warmers that would be the best thing, but you can run them in colder weather, just takes a long time to get them up to temp.
We had a tire test for World Challenge at Circuit of the America's last winter and it was 30-34 degrees at the start of the morning....by the afternoon it made it to maybe 42 but no sun, tires ran fine but took 3 laps or so to start to make a fast lap.
Depending on the tire, you have to be careful with slicks when it gets in the 30-40's as they can crack if they are not handled correctly. You can see cracks in the side wall or even in the contact patch.
Ideally if you have a set of tire warmers that would be the best thing, but you can run them in colder weather, just takes a long time to get them up to temp.
We had a tire test for World Challenge at Circuit of the America's last winter and it was 30-34 degrees at the start of the morning....by the afternoon it made it to maybe 42 but no sun, tires ran fine but took 3 laps or so to start to make a fast lap.
#3
Supporting Vendor
Yep, depends how cold is cold and what you are doing with them. Track day, autocross? It will take some time to get heat in them, so if it's 30 degrees all day you need to consider that, obviously lapping them will make more heat that you can make use of. If you are autocrossing then I'd strongly recommend tire blankets for between runs.
If you can get any heat the Hoosier's will obviously be faster than RE760's. But since you've never really had experience on DOT R's in the cold I think maybe it might be best to wait to try them when it's warmer. Hate to see something bad happen as they have NO grip when that cold.
If you can get any heat the Hoosier's will obviously be faster than RE760's. But since you've never really had experience on DOT R's in the cold I think maybe it might be best to wait to try them when it's warmer. Hate to see something bad happen as they have NO grip when that cold.
#6
My experience has been that once you start getting into the 40 degree weather range, Hoosiers tend to not be real happy. And below that, they can be very sketchy.
I can't entirely agree that you should avoid them as a newbie. As you can learn some things by driving on less than ideal tires. That being said, use your judgement. The venue, surface and your own skill may make choosing slicks or r-comps in the wrong environment an unsafe decision.
Competitively speaking, as Anthony mentioned. It will take several laps or autocross runs before they even feel ok. Before that, it's slip slide everywhere!
I can't entirely agree that you should avoid them as a newbie. As you can learn some things by driving on less than ideal tires. That being said, use your judgement. The venue, surface and your own skill may make choosing slicks or r-comps in the wrong environment an unsafe decision.
Competitively speaking, as Anthony mentioned. It will take several laps or autocross runs before they even feel ok. Before that, it's slip slide everywhere!