What brand are those?

 

I have ran about every tire there is except the new TD and R1S. I tend to be a tire conasure. Or tire whore. I would pick up some scrubs, this, that, and drive the wheels off. From my experience, Buy New tires, dont heat cycle or you will waste the Holly Grail of grip. Use them for about 8-10 sessions, then sell them to someone that is slower than you, or your competion, or somone running wheel to wheel. I love the Hoosier A6, I think Jesus's brother makes them, and gets the Holly Grail of grip formula from Jesus. The R6 is within a half second, the R6 last longer but I think you need to go to a 245 to get the same grip as a 225 A6. I Liked the z214 c71, but they seemed to heat cycle out quickly, and a 245 in the z214 is about the same width as the 225 A6.
When I set the record at Road Atlanta, I removed my A6's and put my R6's back on just to go out and have fun running with Wynn, and ran a time faster than Dan's old record, and within a half second of my new one. The equalizer in any session is the size of your courage. I see a lot of people hear all this about how fast the A6 is, yadda yadda la la la, but most dont realize, it takes balls to push the car to that limit. It allways helps to chase someone faster.
Now if you want a tire that will last a LONG time and perform GREAT - the RA1. Its about 1- 1.5 seconds slower than the A6, but a set of RA1s may last you a season when rotating and flipping them.
I am planning on picking up some BFG R1S soon. I will be running PTC wheel to wheel in my next event and will be looking for the BFG contingency, or whatever class will have enough for tire contingency. It sucks that Hoosier changed their contingency.

 

Don't heat cycle A6's. Just throw them on and go for gold. They will drop off slightly from their sticker run, but not much. A6's tend to cord before they heat cycle out. I wouldn't worry about buying used A6's as long as they have good tread depth, and have a fairly recent build date. I usually sell mine after 1 to 2 race weekends tops - as long as there are enough in class to win a set that weekend. They still have really good grip (able to break records kind of grip) and decent rubber left because I only go out for 3 hot laps before coming in. Also, I use my RA-1's for practice and warm-up to save the A6's as much as possible.

A6's are also better than R6's for you wheel to wheel guys. Sure, they drop off after a few laps, but their grip is still comparable to the R6. They will give you the advantage at the start of the race.

 

Are you saying a set of shaved RA1s might last a season? If so, shaved down to what tread depth? I have the option of buying shaved 255/40/17 RA1s that have a few heat cycles on them for ~$95 shipped per tire. But they were shaved to 3/32nds, and probably have around 2.5/32nds left, so I'm worried they won't last more than a few HPDE track days.

 

Brian, please post a review as soon as you can. I'm considering a set of these.
Nitto NT01 and Toyo RA1s

Yes he was. S2000s really need the RA1s shaved. I made the mistake of running my first set a full depth and I thought something was broken on the car the handling was so "strange." Shaving to 3/32 is the normal tread depth. The RA1s will last for a long freakin' time.

 

Interesting...and I was just considering buying a set at full tread depth since I want them to last a while, and to use if it rains. Were they really so bad at full tread that times would be a couple seconds slow? Maybe I could go 4 or 5 32nds?

 

Thanks for the reply. How many 15-20 minute heat cycles do you think a new RA1 shaved to 3/32nds can do before cording?

If I want to jump from my Hankook RS3s to an R-compound, would you recommend the shaved RA1s with a few heat cycles for $95 per tire, or a new set of NT01s for at least double the price? Both would be for 255/40/17 square. I imagine grip levels would be similar, so my decision would probably come down to which tire will last longer for the money. The NT01s have the benefit of being more streetable (the car is only driven to and from the track on the tires).

 

I don't think theres a whiole lot of difference between the A6 and R6 when its hot - the A6 won't do more than 3 laps before it falls off when its hot especially when its past 8 heat cycles. The a6 is a good bit faster than the R6 when its cold and it gets to temp in a few laps. Old R6's work ok they have about 10 good heat cycles before they drop off I think the continental challenge are rebranded R6's.

Sliding around trying to get the most out of on an old used up tire always helps me get the most out of a new set of tires when I put them on.

I think the tread blocks on RA1's make them squirm a bit when new I had it with RE-11's.. after a few auto-x/sessions that should go away or get them shaved.. I am too cheap to spend more money for people to take rubber off my tires for me!

 

I'd go with the RA1s for that price.

Full tread for me was absolutely terrible. I seriously thought something in the suspension was broken. I highly recommend shaving RA1s. NT01s drive like shaved RA1s.

I've tracked the stock street tire, Pilot Sport Cups, full tread RA1s, shaved RA1s, NT01s, R888s (rain only) and Hoosier R6s. Out of those I prefer NT01s for practice and the R6s for ultimate speed. Next set of practice tires will be shaved RA1s so I have the option to run Honda Challenge 1 with them and for max performance I'm looking at either A6s or R1Ss.

 

Sorry to hijack the thread, but ... Would you choose an NT-01 or an RA1? I loved the RA1, hated the R888. This would be for outright HPDE fun, not TT competition.

If it were between those two?