henryr

is the accumulation of rubber on tires built up from your tire or picked up from the track or ?

what/where/how does this come about ? what is it a sign of and can anything be learned from it ?

thx

Reggie Dunlop

OPR: Other People's Rubber, although technically it's both yours and theirs. Absolutely normal.

rfn026

Here's an F1 Tire


I prefer the propane bottle and a putty knife

This is not a fun job. I usually put it off until the middle of the week.

Richard Newton
Tools for Your Tires

PaConehead

Does this count as a "Heat Cycle"

dp201

Good question OP. Was wondering what to do with mine, big gobs on the tread like Richards above. Tried spinning the tires, weaving, etc to no avail. After about 3 laps the rear tires felt like they were both flat and about to come off the rims. Do you think it's due to the rubber build up, or are they in fact heat cycled out? PSS with 6/32s tread left.

spearfish25

I just did the blow torch putty knife routine yesterday. Worked great actually.

Bill Dearborn

I just take them out on the track and after 4 or 5 hot laps the rubber comes off.

Bill

spearfish25

LOL. Not when you drive Sebring the weekend after the twelve hour race. I had a lumpy ride home.

speedwaywhite

Amen. Debris was everywhere. Crew finally swept it a little Sunday AM, a day late.

Bill Dearborn

I purchased a set of Continental Slicks from GT Racing Tires a couple of years ago for my C6Z. A couple of the tires had a fair amount of other people's rubber on them and when I took the car out for the first lap around the Glen it was bumping like hell. On the third lap the bumping got a lot better but then I started hearing a banging noise in the rear. When I pulled into the garage the rubber was smooth but the driver's side wheel well was filled with a big ball of rubber about the size of my fist and one of the other guys who had been on track with me came by to say I was throwing big chunks of rubber at everybody I passed.

Bill

63Corvette

Bill................stop passing people!

Sox-Fan

I just tried using a Dewalt oscillator. Meh. Back to the heat and scraper.

harrydirty

I find that driving the car home (at least 50 miles) does the trick for getting OPR off the tires, but does nothing for all the OPR inside the wheels.

bb69

Driving with old rubber build up on the tire will make the tires feel like there is no grip. You have to get the old stuff off before the tire will work again, and that's the catch 22. You have to drive hard enough to get heat into the tire so the chunks will come off, but it's hard to drive fast enough to get heat into the tire without grip.

I don't have fenders on my car, so I can literally see the rubber build up and scrub off in real time. It's amazing how much rubber moves around the width of the tire.

I pretty much always use scrub tires, but the last ones I got had a lot more build up than any I had used before. When it takes 4-5 laps out of a 20 minute session to get rid of the chunks, it makes me think it's time to start scraping them.

Ken

SocalC5Z

I've never even considered the rubber accumulation a problem. Even huge buildup seems to come off by the time the tires are up to operating temp, or the lap after. I guess if you are playing F1 racer and need immediate grip as soon as you pull the tires out of the warming blankets you need to scrape it off

What I have found more troublesome is the rubber buildup INSIDE the rim where you might put balance weight. Enough rubber there will change your tire/wheel balance. Easy enough to remove of course.

EdsC6Z06

Hate the chunks! The inner barrel is easy to chip off but welded onto the outside tread is tougher. I just run 'em and they self clean, but wish I could start with balanced wheels.

SocalC5Z

Once I proved to myself that my tires were turning on the rims...I stopped balancing track tires and wheels. In nearly 15 years of track events, I can't say I noticed the difference between balanced and "unbalanced" track tire and wheel combos.

TKOGTO

I pay extra and get the self-cleaning feature. All I have to do is accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, rinse repeat.

Mjolitor 68

My coach Eric says it's from driving offline, so stick to the line better.

It can create annoying vibration but I don't think it's dangerous unless you're at the absolute limit.

harrydirty

Correct, but need to go off line in order to pass, so unless you are constantly being passed, you will have to go off the line at some point.