sothpaw2

I was discussing tires with a go-cart racer at my workplace and he mentioned that there were numerous substances that one could paint on a tire to soften up the rubber. Has anyone heard of this --experiences?

I'm really, really, really hesitant to do anything to a tire because it takes it outside manufacturer original design. My co-worker did lend me a durometer to measure the rubber hardness and my older (4 yr) tires seem similar to my 2 year (F1 Supercar). So maybe limiting use & keeping in the garage helps a lot.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Sidney004

I use this on every tire prior to track use. I only buy scrubs and it has worked for me. Useless if you are trying to soften street tires for street use as it has a short half-life.
http://www.formulavtraction.com/

Solofast

In my experience, traction compounds really doesn't work on street tires, the composition is different and they don't soften up like race tires.

ssdeuce

A dirt racer trick is to pour auto transmission fluid on the tires and put them in black plastic bags and let them sit in the sun for a day.

rbl

My "guess" is that Formula V and others are snake oil in a nice package.

Most of the treatments use Toluene, Benzene and sometimes Xylene and it certainly isn't $40/gal. It literally breaks down the rubber so it is soft but it never replaces any of the polymers that a new tire has or that were changed from the heat cycles. If any good at all, it may give you half a second for one heat cycle. Worst case is that the tire may self destruct.

However, as an added bonus, these particular chemicals are rapidly absorbed Thur the skin and lungs and can give you cancer for free.

greendot

I am a strong believer in the skepticism regarding all the snake oils out there. That being said, I tried Formula V MANY years ago on race tires and became a believer in this product. I use it one my race (road race mostly) tires after they have 8 heat cycles and it does improve the traction for a couple of races. I have also tried it on BFG KD's that were used for autocross and am less sure about the effectivness on those but will continue to use it on them because I think there is a little benefit. It is harder to quantify in autocross use than on a known track.
YMMV.

sothpaw2

That's the one I was worried about. Has anyone heard of that happening? If so what compound?

The benzene & ATF were things my co-worker mentioned but there was something else he said he had that I could borrow, he had no need for it.

Thanks for the replies! If I apply anything I'll do it in the open and then I won't store them in the garage until they have out gassed through use.

rbl

I certainly would not use ATF!!!

If you do it you really need to put them in garbage bag to hold the vapor and let it penetrate.

A complete waste of money IMHO.

Borrow his tires instead

Bill Dearborn

There is also some that can be inserted in the air valve. The maker of that product guarantees it cannot be detected during tech inspections in racing groups that don't allow tire softeners.

Not sure how well it all works but you may remember about 10 years ago when Jeff Gordon's crew chief was Ray Evernham that they were challenged by a lot of other teams for using tire softener on right side tires they put on the car with less than 10 laps to go. For some reason those tires had a lot more grip than others including the guys who put on 4 tires.

Bill

Solofast

It isn't snake oil.

If Formual V works with the tires you are putting it on it is a good thing...

On older Yokohamas and on older BFG's as well as on slicks it most definately works and restores old tires to good grip for a while. For autocrossing it was a big time money saver in getting a lot more good life out of a set of tires. I used almost year old Yoko's that were doped with Forumula V and took a second place at the SCCA nationals with them...

I tried it on V710's and it helped, but it didn't make them as good as new. I haven't tried it on Hoosiers, because they typically wear out before they get really hard.

sothpaw2

These are F1 Supercar tires. If it worked on the BF Goodrich I don't see why it wouldn't on the GY.

Has anyone even HEARD of tread separation or other failure due to using Formula V?

94ZR1#444

I know a Ford guy that uses Tiger Paw I believe is the brand name, not sure. He jacks up one side of the car with both wheels off the ground, gets out a plastic container with two skull and crossbones, looks around to see if anyone is watching him and then liberally applies the secret mixture with a paint roller. He then repeats on the other side of the car. I try to stand upwind when he does the application to keep from inhaling the noxious fumes wafting thru the paddock. He's running slicks though and he loves the stuff.

Solofast

I doubt that it will work on the F1 Supercar tires. These are primarily a good street tire and that compound is very different from a racing tire.

The BFG's I am talking about here were the old R1's, and those were basically a racing tire compound that was put onto a street tire carcass...