M1Cruiser

How do they compare the the A6 and the V710?

Alludc

low stock just barely trickled in for the end of nationals, so I dont think youll hear a whole lot right now. I have a major player, multinational winner in my hood runnin em though which leads me to believe one of two things.

they rock. or theyre free to him. Im considering spotting out 1100 to try a set.

autoxer6

I would assume they are free to him. Magazine test said they were 1 sec slower than A6. A local friend tried them and also found they are 1 second slower than A6.

I haven't run Kuhmo's for several years. I would guess they are somewhere in the middle.

Han Solo

I ordered a set then got cold feet and canceled before they shipped. I decided to go back to V710 this year. I've had good results with them in the past and they seem to stay more consistent for track days than the A6s.

I've been competing with a guy in autocross and beating him by a few hundredths of a second with both of us on worn A6s. This last event he had new A6s and I had new 710s and I beat him by a full second. I did make another setup change on my car that helped. I'm nowhere near a national class driver so it's not a good comparison but just saying.

talon95

I had a set and was very disappointed in them on my stock C5Z. Some notes:

1) I never did a back to back, but was obviously slower relative to other folks in Midiv than I am on A6's.

2) Despite what others have said, I found that they hate the heat. In fact it is my opinion that this must be a big factor in why we've seen such large differences in opinion. Once the weather finally got cooler, I was able to be more competitive on them.

3) Running higher pressures to make up for the soft sidewalls does not work. They do feel better, but lateral grip suffers greatly, even in transitions. You just have to live with the soft sidewall and adjust the car accordingly. This was another change that finally got them working better. Lower pressures, closer to A6, and bumping up all of my shocks quite a bit from where I run them with the A6's.

4) They wore just as fast as A6's, so no improvement there either.

I think in a cooler climate (sub 80 degree weather) with what I outlined above, they *might* be somewhat competitive with the 710/A6, but since they are just as expensive and don't wear any better, there's no point IMO.

Dave G.

Brent Dalton

I saw that the GRM test showed the Goodyear's slower than the Hoosier A6. Personally, I don't think I'd switch to Goodyear regardless. I've been happy with Hoosier, their support, and the very generous contingency they provide to us grassroots racer wannabes . I do appreciate other companies trying to open up other options for us as well as create a stickier tire. It keeps hoosier pushing the envelope as well.

Solofast

At $1300/set Hoosier can afford to be generous... I'd like to see some real competition in terms of price.

With Hoosier's dominance in speed, they can (and obviously do) charge as much as the traffic will bear. If there were two or more tires that had equal performance we would see some price competition and that would be a good thing.

I'm not saying that Corvette tires ever were or should be cheap, but $250/tire would be a lot more like it. Either that or a lot more tire life. Hoosiers are expensive, and on top of that they don't last very long. Going through 3 sets of tires in a season can get expensive. I'd like to be able to get more than 60 runs off of a set of tires, that's all.

Alludc

60 runs is all you get? good lord. I was hoping for 70-80 on the fronts and around 100 on the rear. what kinda camber you runnin?

talon95

Tire durability is influenced by several factors. One of the biggest is the surface(s) you run on. I think that, along with more/less aggressive driving styles, cause some pretty big swings in durability from one person to the next.

I used to get 70-80 runs easily when we ran on a lot of tire friendly surfaces like HPT and Arrowhead in KC, but now that the majority of the surfaces I run on are older concrete sites (like Lincoln) and our local site up near Hutchinson, I only get around 60 runs.

It's QUITE painful. I bought 3 sets this year also including the GY's. I do have a near new set of A6's left with < 10 runs on them, but still I bought about $4000 worth of race rubber this year. Ouch... Then there's the possibility of needing 2 or more sets to be competitive at Lincoln, but that's getting a bit too far off topic...

I don't really expect that to improve. Kumho used to be the cheaper alternative, but a couple of years ago they bumped all of their prices up to match Hoosier. GY also did the same thing.

And after seeing the prices on the larger sizes of those Michelin PSS's, any cheapness people are seeing from running street tires may go away also.

Solofast

My alignment is maxed out for a super stock car (-2.1 in the front), but it doesn't matter, after 60 runs the A6's start to get hard and they go off.

I'm with Talon95, if you want to run with the big dogs you are going to use up probably three sets the first year. The last set will only have Nationals and any other junk events that you go to after that, so you will start next year on them.

Used to be that you bough new tires at Nationals and ran them the first half of the season, then bought a set mid season and a set at Nationals, or if you were really lucky and didn't run aggressive surfaces you could get most of a season on a your leftovers, and then buy new again at Nationals. Max was two sets a year, or sometimes one if you didn't run as much.

Those days are long gone. Autocross used to be inexpensive, it isn't anymore.

Never mind that the Matt was using a new set for each run at Lincon, and yes, I know it was the tar buildup that caused them to do that, but hey, if you want the jacket, you gotta do what you gotta do. Hoosier must be licking their chops at the idea... If somebody figures out how to make a tire that will hook up on roofing tar it's going to get wild out there....

Woody Rogers did a tire talk at the Great Lakes winter meeting and his opinion was that the best of the "street class" tires were getting very very good. Not only did they wear like iron, but the lap time you give up wasn't as much as it used to be. Also, they didn't harden up like A6's and 710's, so that you could get good wear out of them. I'd like to see stock classes adopt a street tire rule. There would always be a hot tire, but at least it would last a lot longer and that would take some of the sting out of the tire situation. JMHO and qualified as such.

drivinhard

for that kinda dough, time to leave the parking lots and cones and air it out on the track

talon95

Interestingly I talked to Matthew after the 2nd day and although he was certain it was an advantage, he thought it was as much about having cool tires as clean tires. Also, although he did have 3 sets, he actually ran 2 runs on one set and switched for the last run that day (west course).

Back closer to on topic. If you or anyone else feels this way (ST tires in a stock class), then you need to get out and support Howard's effort in offering one or more ST PAX classes next year at the Tours/Pros. If that effort falls flat (i.e. low/no participation), then you can kiss any chance of a change goodbye for a long time. This is part of what has got me looking for an ST tire for my car.

Dave G.

Solofast

I'm of the same mind, I'd be interested in doing that and run more locally. I've just got to look at all the plusses and minuses over the winter...

That is an option, for sure...

Another option is to go boat racing...

I'm in the process of restoring a D modified runabout and I've got a motor for it. Total invested in the entire rig is only about $2,500, and I could sell it all for more than I have in it. You've got to freshen the motor each season, but it's really pretty cheap to re-ring a 50 hp outboard. When you look at the cost of running an autocross car for a season, you could buy a pretty decent hydro or runabout for the cost of three sets of tires, and at the end of the day you still have something, compared to watching your bank account disappear into Hoosier shavings.

So there are other things out there that compete for the dollars that we want to spend, and it all comes down to how much you want to spend on your need for speed. Unfortunately, autocrossing doesn't stack as well in the fun/$ ratio as it used to, and the prime reason for that is the high cost of tires.

Gman57