[s-cars] DE Track Tire Question

[tedebearp at yahoo.com]

R compound tires significantly increase grip and stress on your car's suspension bits.

I don't' know how cold your events are, but if you are concerned about the ambient temperatures keeping the tires from warming up, you can run autocross tires, which are softer and designed to work at lower temperatures.

It's true, though, that with R compound tires, they provide significantly more grip when warm, and you'll need 1 or 2 laps for them to warm up.

Manuel Sanchez wrote:
> Mark,
> I'm in the blue group, which I think is at least 15-16 track days.  
> I've had a good time with street tires to date but I am curious about  
> the R compound tires. I would NOT be interested however, if the  
> roughly 1,000 bucks was not going to be a big improvement over street  
> tires at the cooler temperature events I tend to get to (April &  
> November).  If I ran a summer event I think I'd likely make the  
> plunge, besides I have a extra set of rims Rossatoing in the basement.
> Must be an interesting story "not sure the Audi club will have me  
> back at a track event", what did you do?
> Regards,
> -manny
> On Oct 12, 2008, at 3:00 PM, s-car-list-request at audifans.com wrote:
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:12:07 -0400
>> From: "Mark Underwood" <mark at underwoodgroup.com>
>> Subject: [s-cars]  DE Track Tire Question
>> To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
>> Message-ID: <041001c92c85$465a5f10$6501a8c0 at mark>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>>
>> Manuel,
>>
>> I would make my tire choice based on your on-track experience: If  
>> you have a
>> number of events go for the "R" rubber. If you are at an  
>> intermediate or
>> beginner level, save your money and buy a used set of tires and put  
>> a set of
>> brake pads on the car. Don't use your street tires you'll wear them  
>> out
>> especially if they have any tread left in them, you'll probably  
>> either chunk
>> them or flat spot them (I did both at my first track event). Figure on
>> remounting your street tries and changing back to your regular pads  
>> the week
>> after the event. Starting out you will not get anywhere near the  
>> limit of
>> the car, you won't be needing the sticky rubber. Actually you'll  
>> learn more
>> about car control with a little less grip. Plus, the Audi events  
>> are run
>> pretty conservatively anyway and you'll be more than safe. On the  
>> other hand
>> if you are fairly experienced go for the R rated tires, you'll  
>> enjoy the
>> extra grip.
>>
>> I am in Raleigh NC and I was hoping to make the November VIR event  
>> with my
>> recently resurrected S6 but it looks like I'll be working that  
>> weekend and
>> not sure the Audi club will have me back at a track event.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mark Underwood
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