RA-1 Questions
 

I just corded my front tires at the end (by definition) of my last track day, so I need to buy new track tires. These were RA-1s which were unshaved (and so had an uncomfortable amount of tread squirm when new; not horrible, but not a lot of fun, either, until they wore down after two or three track days).

So, this time, I want to shave them, but I also want to optimize tread life. Would shaving to 6/32 do that? Would shaving to 4/32 reduce tread life compared to 6/32? I have a set of unshaved tires for wet days, so I don't care about wet traction at all with these tires.

I've always done 4/32, which is standard. I'd at least try this first if it's for dry only.

how many miles and track days did you get on your unshaved set? are the unshaved rears still good?

I got five track days, at about 180 miles per day, out of the tires which started out unshaved. I'm reasonably fast, but I do overdrive sometimes, so the tires take a beating.

The rears still have two or three track days left in them, I think.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to decide on a strategy for making sure that I don't cord a tire at the start of a track day, thereby killing the whole day. I don't know whether it's best to just bring a new spare, which can be mounted in an hour or so (at least at the local track; don't know about other tracks), or whether I should have a spare set already mounted, so I can just swap them out when one cords.

I've run full treaded RAs and RAs shaved to 4 and 6/32nds and put street and track miles on them. 6/32nds is a good compromise between grip and longevity. I don't like squirmy full tread ones and 4/32nds seem to be gone in no time.

You can also consider running a non-staggered setup (17x9 CE28s, for instance) with 245s or 255s all around and purchase an extra Volk rim and have one of your beat up tires mounted on it just in case OR, easier--typically one tire is going to go before the other, so just watch them closely and swap 'em either 1/2 way through the day or when things look a little thin.

Vilven was good enough to shave mine to 5/32" last time (they nailed it dead on, too -- I measured). Didn't affect overall grip much and gave me another 1.5-2 track days.

they come pretty much shaven to whatever depth they come at. Tires is just a cost of doing bizness and the cost of feeding your track habit :)

I had something like 13 track days out of my 6/32 RA1s last year. (Some of them were in rain, so not so hard on the tires). I've never felt any squirm with either that set or the 6/32 set that I ordered for this year. However, FWIW I was faster on the about-to-cord set at the end of last year than I was on the brand new 6/32 set this year.

If fast matters, then 4/32 or less. They shave to these for racing for a reason (I am sure based on empirical data). If fast doesn't matter then 6/32 or anything else will work.

Richard, how much does fast matter to you? :D