I haven’t run the RRs. I was trying to make a comparison of my experience going from RA1 >> R6, which sounds similar to the driving style changes people find necessary when going RA1 >> RR.
Bitching about RR's
philstireservice
#58
[quote=“Fred42” post=72576][quote=“philstireservice” post=72568]
Yes, Im sure. I will say this though. Tire pressure should be set with a tire pyrometer…always.
[/quote]
Any recommendations for target tire temps on the RRs?[/quote]
180-200…across the tread. Take temps in 3 places, outside, middle, inside. Make sure you use a probe type pyrometer. Ideally the inside would be hotter than the outside and the middle would be an average of the two.
mcmmotorsports
#59
Nope, not special air…Lizzy, his pup. She licks every one before they are loaded in the trailer. Her saliva softens the rubber up like tire treatment. :silly:
cosm3os
#60
Talked to a 944S friend last night. FWIW, they are running a wider tire on the same sized rim in a 100lb lighter car.
He says the early tires had a HUGE problem with splitting (75%) it seemed to be limited to their size and just the early tires. The newer tires are better.
He and the others that are competitive with him are also finding that the tires are good for no more than 3 weekends, but he thinks they are fast all the way up to 15+ heat cycles. He suspects proper scrub in (i.e. let them rest for 24 hours or more) might be the key.
Elephant4
#61
This was predictable. You will never get a tire from Toyo like the 2008 RA1, it directly effects their bottom line. People are still buying RA1’s for DEs like its the same tire it used be. “run em to the cords”, “they are fastest before they cord”, “you’ll get 20+ heat cycles out of them”. None of these statements are true anymore. Going back to the RA1 would be a waste of time, its not the same tire. You need to change tires to something that is long lasting and resistant to heat cycles. Basically a pre molded tire with the compound from a high performance street tire. This would create the smallest gap between the money guys who can buy lots of new tires and the guys running junk. Of course good luck getting a tire company to build something that doesn’t wear out quickly. Just another reason why I don’t race anymore. I’m going out to the garage to beat myself with some expired seat belts and window nets :). Good luck.
EdP
#63
I have to wonder how much of the “old RA1” is real vs urban legend. The longevity I can believe, but being “fastest before they cord” and seemingly impervious to heat cycles is difficult to swallow. PS, I have no firsthand experience with the old tires on a SpecE30 … just sayin.
priapism
#64
I just think the RA1s are more fun than the RRs because you have to drive them with so much slip angle. I’m happy you don’t have to shave them anymore.
Is anyone out there shaving RRs down further? I’m not sure there would be a benefit.
Steve_Ferrario
#65
Edp–not an urban legend…The old RA1 was absolutely the fastest just prior to chording.
Elephant4
#66
I have experience with these tires since around 2000. Multiple sets over multiple years. They were fine till the R888 came out. Then the R888 sucked and the RA1 that we went back to sucked like the R888. When I say sucked they sucked in relation to the original RA1, they were fine in relation to other R-compound tires.
FARTBREF
#67
I ran 2004 RA1’s at CMP a couple of weeks ago…full treads with 3 cycles on them ran mid pack till the RTAB’s came loose…Lap times on Sunday were not that much better on RR’s…one of the 2004 tires developed a sidewall bubble.
Al
mcmmotorsports
#68
[quote=“RRhodes” post=72604]General Exclaim UHPs for the great unwashed masses!
Sign me up
philstireservice
#69
there’s several reasons why the pros don’t race on street tires anymore…
Street tires don’t like to get hot
Street tires are terrible in the rain on a track with rubber on it
The way a street tire is designed is not advantageous for consistent aggressive driving, or over driving…
Ranger
#70
Just to show that once again there’s never any consensue in this sport…I disagree. I was one of the few guys that was religiously using a durometer to monitor my RA1’s. This was because my first couple years I was racing on used RA1s I was buying off of ebay. Since I didn’t know the history of the tires, I used the durometer evaluate the several dozen that I had. I tracked their hardness weekend after weekend…I was doing a race weekend and a DE weekend each month. At a certain hardness I would retire them from racing to DE. Then at another threshold I would retire them. Sometimes I’d get to the cords first and sometimes not.
What I can tell you for certain tho is that shaved RA1s behaved as you’d expect…they were fastest new and got steadily harder and slower. No laws of physics nor chemistry were broken. Move along…nothing to see here.
There’s long been anecdotes about guys driving their fastest laps on well worn RA1s. Fine. But that doesn’t mean that their RA1s were at their stickiest. If they’d been using a durometer they’d have found that their tires had gotten pretty hard.
victorhall
#71
Getting the car ready for the Robert Grace bounty and am re-reading the rules after being out for a while. Do I understand correctly, that my stock 14" wheels (and tires) are now unusable? Or rather the wheels are allowed, but not the tires, because Toyo no longer makes a tire that fits?
-Vic
Ranger
#72
Yes. Not usable. No 14" tires anymore 
Vic, you making a triumphant return to SpecE30? That’d be awesome.
victorhall
#73
Thanks Ranger
As soon as I swallow this Toyo RR pill, yes, I’ll be back at it, at least for a couple races here and there. Whether it’s triumphant…well, we’ll just have to see
-Vic
BigKeyserSoze
#74
Personally, I like the RR. I hate shaving tires, I think these tires grip well and mine wear pretty well, also. I run mine hot at 35 pounds of air, too. I found that higher was not better. Just my perspective…
victorhall
#75
Have you taken tire temps to validate? I always thought the magic number was 40 with the RA-1’s.
-Vic