is the verdict in on the new hoosiers yet,, do we go with the old A3S03 215-40-16 or the new A3S04 205-45-16,, hoosier said there almost the same size and the specs look almost the same,, looks like the new one might be happer on the 6 1/2 inch wheel, so they will probably last a little longer,, which would be nice,,, thought some one might of gotten some feedback from last weekend, cheers

 

Whether it means anything to you or not, I don't know. But, I/we will be going with the 205/45 S04's next.
Ideally, I'd like to get one of the 205 04's and 215 03's next to each other for my own confidence.

Brian

 

>>Whether it means anything to you or not, I don't know. But, I/we will be going with the 205/45 S04's next.
>>Ideally, I'd like to get one of the 205 04's and 215 03's next to each other for my own confidence.
>>
>>Brian
my thoughts are there is probably not as much difference between the tires as there is between my runs, so i will probably just go with the 04 and stop worrying about it,, maybe you could put the 04's on one side of the car and the 03's on the other side and see if it went around the left hand corner or the right hand corner faster,, of course you will need to sit in the middle of the car for this to be a fair test,, cheers

 

I put a 205/45 next to a 215/40 16 Hoosier and they are the same height and width. Both tires were mounted on 6.5" rims.
Chris

 

Why am I bringing up this old thread?

Well I just came upon a free set of used A3s03 Hoosiers with only about 28 asphalt runs on them. They appear to have a significant amount of tread left with no cords showing on the outside, or cracks, and damn near full depth in the middle and inside. Ok they are a little hard but not bad considering the age ( My Cooper S is the same age but I am MUCH older!!!).

1. Safe to use?

2. Can these be flipped?

3. What kind of pressures for these vintage skins?

 

1) should be, they won't have the grip of new tires but would be good for local / practice.

2) yes they can be flipped.

3) I never ran s03's but s04's were around 50f / 40-45r on asphalt depending on desired rotation and 55f / 45r on super sticky concrete.

 

Thanks. I was thinking of putting them on the back and new tire on the front.

 

you may not need as much pressure offset in the rear to get rotation, since they are older and won't have as much grip.

 

I am confused. Looking at the specs on the TireRack site it says max pressure for Hoosiers is about 44 psi. Hoosier site says that for cars weighing 2600-3000 pounds proper pressure is 37-41 psi hot. At my last AuotX with RS04 I had to drop the pressure to about 34 (otherwise I was sliding around too much). How are you guys running 45+?

 

How are your tires wearing? At the San Diego Tour (Qualicom) 2 years ago on RS04's I ran 50f/40r with the temps around 60. You need to run much higher than normal pressures to keep the front tires from getting destroyed. Where were you running?

 

SD (Qualcom). The course was about 74 seconds long and the car was co-driven by me and the wife. Total of 22 runs. The wear was pretty even, nothing major. I expect at least another 3-4 similar events (at least) with proper rotation.

 

The lot there is pretty clean, where or when or under what conditions were you sliding? Is your alignment stock?

 

No. Camber plates front -1.8. Rears I believe about -1.0. I was sliding coming out of corners and had to gradually lower the tire pressure through out the day. On my last runs I had to maintain it at 32 psi.

 

I can't explain your problem, except you might be getting too much sidewall flex. You might want to consider trying the higher pressures, they are more on par with what the other G Stock drivers are/were running. On concrete we were running around 55 or so in the fronts. Maybe when Wilcox comes on line he can chime in.

 

I would assume that if your rear alignment settings are different than the "other guys" you're comparing to, you're tire pressures will be different.

I'm guessing that you have a lot more rear toe-out than "JustGo4It". But that's just a guess. Maybe your rear shocks are stiffer or your running a smaller front sway bar. All just guesses, but they would all contribute to what rear tire pressure you'd have to run to keep your car balanced.

Good luck with your tires!

 

How can you legally run cambers plates on a G-Stock car? (or is this a thread hi-jack? hehehehe)

 

we were discussing front pressures. He has wasy more front camber then us stockers.

 

hi jack I'm sure.

 

1. Yes, but they'll be like bricks now.

2. Yes, no problem. Hoosier even stated this in their useage guidelines as long as the tire had been mounted and heat cycled in their proper orientation.

3. A3S03's like right around 40psi. A3S04's liked stupid high pressures, around 50psi and you drove on a razor edge to be fast, or like most of us, simply sucked :( A3S05's no idea, never used 'em. A6's, I think we ran around 30psi +/- at Topeka up front. I didn't pay any attention to what we ran in the rear.

Hope this help,
Graeme

 

I assume your sliding out of corners as in understeering?

Since you do have some front camber, much more than stock, you can get away with lower front pressures since the very very high pressures were simply used to prevent rollover with zero/little camber. I'd probably try to get another .5 degree's front camber if possible with your camber plates up front. Run even front/rear pressures to start. If you see oversteer, soften your rear shocks if possible, if you are on stock shocks, add a slight touch of camber.

Also keep in mind that throughout the day surface grip would have improved, so, your later runs would have felt better due to the extra rubber down on the course rather than the pressure change. I am not sure if this is the case but its very easy to overdrive a fresh course since grip is limited. I'd guess 42-45PSI Front and 42-45PSI rear would be close to optimal since you have camber.

Also keep in mind, there are MANY variables and you cannot base too much on one event. Were the turns that you had understeer on off camber, did you slightly overdrive and just not realize it, do you have LSD, if not, you have to be patient with the throttle out of corners and un-wind the wheel, once wheel spin happens with no LSD, I would always unwind the wheel very quickly to slam the inside front down then back into the smallish arc(you probably just have to see it, its hard to explain, lol). What was the weather like, I assume sunny and probably 70 since its San Diego. Was the course very tight and slowish on the understeer area's?

Anyway, I'll be in SD working, maybe I'll make it to one of your local events, if so, I could come and witness what your car is doing in person and I could give you some good feedback.

Oh, also, on your next set of tires, if you decide to spring for a set, you'll be amazed at how much faster the A6's are. :-) Its very deceiving since they look the same, they are 100% different altogether though.

I guess I should have asked this first, what mods do you have on your Mini? Its obviously not stock, that makes a huge difference. I can tell you my experience with my STX/DSP Mini depending on if you have similar mods. You will want SOFT up front for sure to maximize front grip, then adjust the rear as needed, that may or may not be part of the issue if you have coilovers or adjustable fronts.

 

Don't pay any attention to whats printed on the tires, thats just a legality issue I think. We regularly ran 60 PSI on given surfaces depending on conditions with the old tires. Sometimes, what feels fast isn't always the fastest if you drive it to the potential. Like Graeme said above, its a razors edge and very unforgiving with the high pressures up front. Lower pressures are not as fast and will eat through the sidewall but are possibly a bit more forgiving. The Kumho V710's are very forgiving, but, I don't like the sloppiness that they provide.

 

First of, sorry for the Hi-jack. Didn't see what forum this was in. I was planning on more camber at that event, but stripped one of the bolts and wasn't able to adjust. The car was balanced over all. Very little over or under steer. And I do have the LSD, but I was still breaking the tires loose at will. Interestingly enough, I spoke to some other drivers at the end of the day and they all said the course got worse as the day progressed. And I hear you on the MANY variables issues. It wasn't one of my best personal outings. Not as smooth as I would like, just about blew every run in my second practice session, etc.

Anyway, if you are in SD, come on out. I could always use some expert advice.

 

The goal is to get better rotation. I figure if I always use old(er) skins in the back they should grip less and keep buying new pair for the front only.

The only concern is predictability with new tires on front and old tires on back.

As far as pressures....we will just have to see what happpens at the next T&T day. If they have little grip at all, I'll just keep dropping the pressures until they heat up i guess.

The whole R comp tires thing is new to me going from ST class to Stock. Should be fun.