I'm about to buy some tires for my time attack car. I'm sure most of you guys know the format is 5 laps (in, 3 hot, out) best lap counts. This format is pretty far outside my typical racing experience so I am up in the air about what tires to buy. Last year I used R6's for the one race I attended and as you can imagine that was a huge mistake. I think maybe the autox guys might even have a better answer to this question. If you ignore wear and cost all together and take into account that you only have 2 laps to get the tire up to temp what is the best performing tire?

My setup:

F: 18x10 - last tire was a 285/30R18 Hoosier R6
R: 18x11 - last tire was a 315/30R18 Hoosier R6

I'm thinking Hankook F200s in their softest compound (basically impossible to find) or Hoosier A6's but if anyone has any personal experience that would be awesome.

My car weighs a little over 2600 with me in it and is a 50/50 split, with the R6's it was a perfect balance.

 

If <3 laps (2-4 miles weather dependent) ... Hoosier A6. Outside of this they overheat. There is a noticeable difference. I would buy some slightly used A6s (75% life remaining) and try it out first. One of our local track guys does this in a similar format with great success.

 

The SCCA road racers are all swapping over to the A6's for the 30 lap sprint races. Especially for the Runoffs and ARRC. The A6's work well enough on the heavy T1 Corvette's for them to consider doing this. The big difference is that their 30 lap race is one big heat cycle so the tire stays consistent. Its shot after the race however. I think it would work well for your application and would probably last 5-6 heat cycles.

Does Hoosier do contingency for your sanctioning body?


Also - I do not believe the F200 is a DOT tire - is this a requirement you need to watch out for? I've heard good things about the Z214 C71 compound for its resistance to heat cycling and grip similar to the A6 (less turn in bite but close midcorner).

 

DOT is not in the rules.

 

A6. It's a miracle tire on it's first heat cycle, still very fast on it's 2nd but less so, than still slightly slower beyond that and stabilizes until you are down to the last bit of rubber on it. I only have first hand experience with AutoX, but I do have close friends that love the A6 as a qualifying tire for track racing.

 

If you don't have to run a DOT tire I would call Hoosier and see what they recomend in a full race slick.

 

I actually just got an email back from Hoosier and they said the A6 would out perform the R80 slicks in that situation but the R80 would have more grip a few laps later.

Someone needs to make a Redline Time Attack like series that involves real racing.

 

How so? Three lap sprint races, or races that don't require licensing? Both would result in carnage, in my opinion.

 

For Nasa Time Trials this year they created a new 13point tire category
The tires in it are the A6 and: Hankook Z214 (C90 & C91 compounds)

I know a lot of people like the A6 but that might be due a lot to the contingency.

Talking about Redline but more like racing, why don't you come and run time trials? we have open passing and 20minute sessions.

 

I meant more as far as the car rules are concerned, I fully agree that either of those scenarios would be a bad idea. Shops like us are almost forced into RedLine to compete with other big shop cars because there is no wheel to wheel racing that allows such a wide variety of cars and modifications to compete. I used to have a competition license and would love to get back into wheel to wheel racing. I do run some time trials but they don't really get any recognition and still leave a lot to be desired when compared to wheel to wheel.

Honestly if not for the name recognition you can't beat shifter karts for bang for the buck fun. Your ribs might hate you though