Front tire options for the stock rim

[tmcphail]

My front tires are about to expire right now what are good slightly wider options.

I run the hoosiers R6's out back she pushes like a greased cart in the rain right now in the corners as you can imagine.

 

[BlackICE]

My front tires are about to expire right now what are good slightly wider options.

I run the hoosiers R6's out back she pushes like a greased cart in the rain right now in the corners as you can imagine.

Run matching Hoosiers on the front. Ed Sims posted the sizes he is running.

 

[STORMCAT]

Run matching Hoosiers on the front. Ed Sims posted the sizes he is running.

I rode in Ed's car. Hoosiers front and rear sticks pretty good. I'm thinking of doing this and having some additional tread cut in for the Florida rain. Ed lives in So Cal . Not much rain there. There is a picture in one of the fire suppression system threads of a GT with additional tread cut Hoosiers..

 

[tmcphail]

I rode in Ed's car. Hoosiers front and rear sticks pretty good. I'm thinking of doing this and having some additional tread cut in for the Florida rain. Ed lives in So Cal . Not much rain there. There is a picture in one of the fire suppression system threads of a GT with additional tread cut Hoosiers..

Those are the radial wet :

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Hoosier&tireModel=Radial+Wet

 

[BlackICE]

I rode in Ed's car. Hoosiers front and rear sticks pretty good. I'm thinking of doing this and having some additional tread cut in for the Florida rain. Ed lives in So Cal . Not much rain there. There is a picture in one of the fire suppression system threads of a GT with additional tread cut Hoosiers..

Ed's in Sacramento, CA capital, NorCal. Where do you go to get the rain grooves cut?

 

[cobrar1339]

Ed is running the same R6 you have on the back. He says he is getting about 5,000 out of a set including a few track weekends.

I met Ed at Buttonwillow raceway a couple months ago. He had driven about 350 miles on the R6's to the track. I was skeptical that you could drive these on the street for very long. Since you are running the R6 you know it is not as bad as most think.

I tested them with a duraometer to see how the compound compared to my Nitto R2 about a year old, New RA1 toyo and the stock goodyears.

I don't have the exact reading with me, but they came out similar to this on a 1 - 10 scale, 10 being softest.

Goodyears 8
Nitto R2 a year old 6.5
Toyo RA1 Fresh 5.5
Hoosier with over 1,000 street miles and several cycles 5.0
Fresh Hoosiers from another car 4.0

I conculed that the heat cycles made them a tad harder and more suitable for street driving. You can also see the difference in the R2's Vs. the RA1's, they are both the same compound.

What really blew me away is that hey were not full of rocks and showed no signs of trashing the paint ( he does have clear bra). They did heat up nicely at the track though and did show cling as they should after a hot session.

If you checked his car at the rally, he had driven from Sacramento to Newport on them.


I don't think the wets are available in our size. But if you drive in the rain, cold or damp, these are not for you. But it will work for us desert rats that don't drive our cars in the rain anyway.

 

[tmcphail]

I get 5-7k out of my R6's as it stands

 

[STORMCAT]

Ed's in Sacramento, CA capital, NorCal. Where do you go to get the rain grooves cut?

Ed uses the standard tire that has two wear bar groves. I'm talking about the ones in this post.

http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=64865&postcount=12

I think they were cut by a race shop ?

 

[tmcphail]

Gotcha

 

[Fyr-FtrGT]

Ed uses the standard tire that has two wear bar groves. I'm talking about the ones in this post.

http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=64865&postcount=12

I think they were cut by a race shop ?

STORMCAT

This is a picture of my car. The tires were purchased at Roger Kraus Tire in Castro Valley, CA 510 582-5031, who also cut the treads in them. Total price for all four tires, with tread cuts and road force balanced was $1810.

 

[STORMCAT]

STORMCAT

This is a picture of my car. The tires were purchased at Roger Kraus Tire in Castro Valley, CA 510 582-5031, who also cut the treads in them. Total price for all four tires, with tread cuts and road force balanced was $1810.

Thanks for providing the info !!! :thumbsup

 

[BlackICE]

Also thanks for the info. It is about 40 miles from me.

Here is the web site.

http://www.rogerkrausracing.com/

 

[Gulf GT]

What are the pros & cons of grooving the Hoosiers? Does it degrade the rubber surface in any way that might alter the perfromance or shorten the life of the tire?

 

[tmcphail]

Whats the best size R6 for the front ?

 

[Fyr-FtrGT]

What are the pros & cons of grooving the Hoosiers? Does it degrade the rubber surface in any way that might alter the perfromance or shorten the life of the tire?

Grooving a race tire can't be good for it. I did it because I am running these tires all the time, and the local gestapo does not like to see slicks on a street car. Also found out that most of the ZOs and Vipers do the same thing if they use these tires on the street. After loosing control of my GT several times on the stock tires, I switched to the Hoosiers. Haven't had a problem since in this regard.

 

[Gulf GT]

Grooving a race tire can't be good for it.

Yeah, but they sure look BAD-ASS grooved! I was the one that caught you on the phone while you were at SafeCraft one day a couple months ago, and now I finally got around to installing them. Can't wait to drive it and see how it hooks up now. Put in the extinguisher system today as well, and if I remember right you were involved in the design. Thank you.

 

[STORMCAT]

What are the pros & cons of grooving the Hoosiers? Does it degrade the rubber surface in any way that might alter the performance or shorten the life of the tire?

If you look at their website they cut grooves in may types of racing slicks so it must be a safe for the tire.
This would be my practical analysis of the additional grooves. The Hoosier tires come with two complete circumference wear bar grooves so having grooves does not make the tire unsafe. Additional grooves probably don't affect the lateral stability of the contact patch too much because the tread depth is not that great.
You obviously have less rubber in square area but the groves are not that wide and a spaced so far apart the loss of traction due to the less rubber per square area has to be minimal.

The only real safety issues that come to mind is picking up debris. Some have expressed concerns that the tires are so sticky they would pick up everything, rocks, screws, nails etc. But after seeing Ed Sims car and talking to him these do not seem to be a real issue. He's in So Cal where rain is sparse. He runs the straight Hoosiers, the two wear bars pass the DOT requirement so your okay there.

The reduced tread thickness where the grooves are would be my only concern. I would be nice to see a cross sectional view of the Hoosier and the Goodyear to see how thick the carcass of the tire is in the area where there is no tread. I think I read here that the Hoosier is lighter. Is it lighter because it has less tread height or because the carcass is thinner?
I'll be replacing my stock tires soon and the Hoosiers are on the list. I'm in So Fl so it would be wise to get some tread cut.

Oh for the record I am not a tire Engineer or a rocket scientist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express on the way home from the rally !!

 

[cobrar1339]

Torrie 245/40/18 is what hoosier set up for the car in front. If you call them they will tell you all about it. I heard that when Goodyear decided not to build a sticky tire for our cars, Hoosier stepped in. The combo was actually tested and refined. Alex @ T/A may be able to share some more details. The size combo was specifically chosen for the GT.

 

[tmcphail]

Thank you ! :cheers:cheers

Torrie 245/40/18 is what hoosier set up for the car in front. If you call them they will tell you all about it. I heard that when Goodyear decided not to build a sticky tire for our cars, Hoosier stepped in. The combo was actually tested and refined. Alex @ T/A may be able to share some more details. The size combo was specifically chosen for the GT.

 

[S592R]

I have a goodyear tire with less than 2k on it if you want to cut it to see the thickness. I can tell you they are very thin. I am not a fan of the F1 SC tire. Im looking at PSC 2's and Pirelli as option for street tires. Just don't think that the Hoosier is a good tire for the street on a driver car. A car that sees limited miles might be ok ... but .. not for me. Also wet traction is hell on them ... the SC is bad enough.

S