Longevity of Yokohama A032Rs

Tue May 15 20:22:10 EDT 2001

No, I've never tried the A032's, but If it's any consolation John, I toasted
a set of Kumho V700's in one day at the track.  It was likely due to a
combination of overdriving the tires, non-optimal alignment settings, and
improper heat cycling. I did not have a pyrometer with me that day, but
obviously the outside shoulders on the fronts got so hot that the tread
eventually delaminated.  The rears survived intact, but were quite worn.

First mistake: I heat-cycled the tires myself on the highway. Very likely
they didn't get hot enough to do this properly.
Second mistake: These tires may require more race-optimized alignment
settings, e.g., more negative camber and even some toe-out.   I try to run
-1.5 negative camber all around and zero toe, though sometimes a little
toe-out in the front. (btw, I have a large rear swaybar on the car so
understeer is minimal)  
Third mistake: I didn't take tire temperatures and abused the tires to the
point of destruction. 

After this experience I gave up on the Kumhos, though this is probably an
unfair assessment.  I recall at the track last year,  I was a couple seconds
faster than a Boxster S when we were both on street tires, and the situation
reversed when he switched to Kumhos (albeit much larger ones than I could
ever fit on my car)
If my brakes had been worth a damn that day, I probably could have stayed
with the Boxster even when he was on Kumhos. 

I also think part of the problem, at least in my case (you're likely running
a much larger size on your UrQ) was that a 205/50-15 was simply not enough
tire given the  weight and horsepower of my car. 
I'm content now using 16" P7000 Summers (very soft with rayon-reinforced
sidewalls) for both street and track. 
I've got a total of six mounted and can do a bit of tuning by fitting ones
with different tread depths to different ends of the car.  They are a very
sticky and predictable tire and I've never had a problem with chunking.I
just can't justify $500+ for a set of tires that will last only one weekend
when we're not talking about real racing here.  (At least I got 9000 miles
out of the last set of P7000's)

But I thought the A032's were supposed to last a long time. If they made a
size to fit my car, I'd be willing to give them a try.   Why does noone make
a 40-series R-compound tire?

HTH
Gary Kaklikian
86 4ktq (now with 996calipers & A8 rotors, but in need of UrQ flares)
92 S4

-----Original Message----- 

From: John Corbishley [mailto:jcorbs at gtresort.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 4:39 PM
To: Quattro List; 'urquattro'
Subject: Longevity of Yokohama A032Rs

Fellow Listers:

You might remember my asking for your opinions irt a track tyre for the
Grattan QCUSA event.  Having received all those endorsements for KUMHO, I
promptly went off and got a set of the above.  This was based on the
recommendation of a close and long time friend and also the fact that I'd
seen a number of folks using them at previous events.  The possibility of
rain was also a  factor.

The reason for my post is that my set displayed some inordinately high wear
compared to any of the other participants using the same tyres, and was
wondering whether anyone else had had a similar experience recently.

I was running them on my '85 UrQ which has the Lehman chip but nothing else
in the performance mod category, H&R springs and KONI sport shocks from
Keith Anderson.  The pressures were such that the "roll" on the sidewalls
matched the indicator arrows.  Yet lots of chunking and deterioration.

I'd also had them heat cycled by the Tire Rack when I purchased them.

While I understand that these are much softer than the AVS Intermediates
that I ran at 5 previous events (and still have another 5 events life in
them), I cannot reconcile how mine have deteriorated relative to those of
other QCUSA members in similar cars.

To date the Tire Rack has largely blown my enquiries as to the possibility
of a bad batch off, saying that all they can do is refer the issue to
Yokohama.

I am not looking for any free lunches here.  If I just overdrove the tyres
and toasted them so be it.

I would appreciate any btdts or other insights.

TIA

John Corbs

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