So im always in my car and never on the outside, i can feel when my tires break loose in 1st but i never hear them. Ive been next to other guys when they spin and its pretty loud squeel but i guess my engine is louder, just have flow master 50 series...

Do some tires just not squeel? Have bf goodrich and they only have like 5k miles on them...

 

some squeel quiter than others, the more you tickle , the louder they squeel

 

A lot has to do with the tire itself. The road temp also makes a difference.

 

Why do you want to wear out your tires? Them suckers are expensive!

 

the wider the tire is the harder is to make noise with them.

 

My Goodyear run flats squeel when they break loose. I have never heard them from the outside, the noise is weather sensitive.

 

Not trying to wear out my tires, but i drive the car like a corvette. Sometimes if the road is cold i give it a little too much gas. If im at the track and i come out of turn 14 and punch it for the straight sometimes they break loose.

Im not mindlessly doing burnouts. Ive never done that with any car. Yes the tires are expensive cant afford the burnout.

 

I realize OP is talking about straight-line acceleration, but this raises an interesting point. I've never had my car to an autocross so I don't know the cornering limits. With smaller width tires on other cars, you get a howl in a tight corner before they break loose. I've taken numerous cloverleaf curves at a good speed with the Vette and never gotten to the point that my tires made noise.

Do I have that warning, or will it let loose without the howl to let me know I'm approaching the limit?

 

You will have warning. I out ran a newer Subaru STI (who was trying, judging by the body roll) on a clover leaf. I came in hot, I mean really hot, the turn gets tighter as you go into it, I had just a bit too much and the car started to under steer. The stock Goodyear GS-C's at 255 width let me know the limit with sound and steering feel. It scrubbed the speed at the nose of the car and continued to turn hard, I got on the throttle easy as I came off the corner, guy in the STI, he was broadside and nearly lost it, Corvette 1, STI 0.

Now my newer 275's at all fours with Kumho Escta SPT's they have much higher limits and the car is WAY more neutral but at an auto-x they ultimately under steer and don't make noise until just before you start to really push the nose of the car. C4's tend to under steer which is safe and do it in a gradual way, no surprises and a very forgiving car to drive a the limit. Unless, your stupid, then it can a handful.

You need to find the handling limits, they are higher than you think, you'll be braced against the door/center console/steering wheel. Passenger will be hanging on for dear life.

FYI, if you want a C4 to handle, put as wide a front tire as you can on it with a matching rear tire. In SCCA BSP class, most C4's run 315's at all fours or 335's.

 

Thanks 93Rubie! At this point I'm not going to get into autocross altho I always said "Someday...." But it's good info to know. I don't drive stupid on the street but I have no problem taking advantage of the Vette's superior (in most cases) performance within legal limits. It's my impression that the car can out-corner a high percentage of the cars out there without reaching its limit.

Last year on a road trip - it may have been coming home from Carlisle - I had a yahoo in a pickup riding my tail for a ways even though I was going about 4 or 5 over the limit and in the right hand lane. He was all hot I guess but I wasn't going to speed up and get a ticket just because he was in a hurry - so I had a mirror full of his grille. We came to a cloverleaf on ramp and I just kept my speed right where it was and turned the wheel. Man, that truck had his hands full for a few seconds as he realized he was over his head! Somehow he managed NOT to hit the barrier or guardrail but he sure dropped back in a hurry! (Of course once we were on the new road he did a fly-by at about 80 to show ME - I guess I was supposed to be impressed!)

 

Now i do get tire squeel if i lock up on the track, didnt think about that. And i can hear it when i oversteer at the track. I guess it is a different speed of movement over the pavement and im not at throttle.

 

I have the GY F1 GS D3s (the ones with the big V grooves), and I've pushed them at the track and on occation in a corner during spirited driving, and Iv'e never heard them squeal on the street or strip.

Speaking of tires giving a "warning": How a tire breaks at the limit of it's traction was an important factor in my choosing the 'D3s. In a nut shell, they broke in a relatively smooth and linear manner. In other words, there was no sudden skating once the limit was reached.

Some of the other tires in that particular test were not so well behaved, i.e., "loosing it" when the traction threashold was reached. And, just because a tire behaved OK on dry was not always true on wet.

The D3s are steet tires, and so they're not the best for drag racing, and serious competators on a road course wouldn't choose them either. But, for a performance street tire, they have been excellent, especially on wet pavement. (Saved my butt one time on a blind hairpin turn where conditions unexpectedly changed: pavement was suddenly wet, and this pickup truck was hanging a tire over into MY LANE )

Uz guyz that track your cars would probably agree...but I think anybody that occationally drives aggressively should first test the tires by pushing them beyond their traction limit, just to know where the limit is, and what to expect beyond that point. Not advocating doing a skid pad test on someone's parking lot, but such a venue or (better yet) an autocross course might shed some light on what to expect; at least give you an idea of where the envelope is for your tires.

Tires...ALWAYS an interesting topic.

P.

 

I also have the Goodyear GS tires and I never hear a peep from them minus a few road surfaces, but it's few and far between. The only time I pushed the tire grip and had the car break loose, it was like floating on air because there was no sound from the tires.

 

Yeah, I've done that too more than once.
I love guys in trucks that tailgate, they think they are "the man" in their pick-up riding my fiberglass @$$, I just drive the speed-limit or mostly 5 over. Then comes a nice corner, he has to slow down, I don't. Hehehehe.... Then they ride my butt some more...

I love it when folks try to accelerate fast beside you when your at a stop light like they want to race. They are like at 5K, when I MIGHT have 1/4 throttle and shifting at 2K. Really, buddy come on....

I just shake my head and grin. I know what I got, no need to prove anything to anyone.