Racing slicks on street?

If you used slicks on the road in England you'd probably end up either arrested or if it was raining stuffed into a tree or brick wall, much easier and safer to get a roof rack or some other way of hauling your slicks to the track and keeping normal road tyres on for street use

 

I did this twice on my 928 S4 with Goodyears a few years ago , driving from the Bay Area up hwy. 5 to Thunderhill in Nor. Cal. and people said I was crazy....but , you know , it worked out great. 100 mi. each way , ground the hell out of them all day in 90 degree heat , and drove them home and changed em'. Drove to work Monday morning like nothing ever happened . Did this twice on the one set and definately could have gone again if I had wanted to...Transforms the car , but puts that much more load on everything - mostly brakes though . I know that we should not encourage breaking the law , but no harm no fowl...it's probably at worst a fix -it for most situations unless you really piss Johnny off. Potentially they have the right to ground the car on-the-spot and could probably even impound you , insisting an unsafe vehicle . I suspect that most of us , if we were to do something like this , would use MUCH discretion in our driving habits though....If Racing was outlawed , Only outlaws would race....Have fun and watch for puddles. Jim.

 

You won't have any problems provided you don't hit rainy conditions.

Be aware that slicks need to be hot before they will grip, so go easy on the twisty canyon carving before you get the tires up to temperature.

You might also consider soft compound performance tires such as Michelin's Pilot Sport Cups. More durable than Hoosiers and not too much slower. The Sport Cups are a very nice compromise between street and track. Kumho's Ecsta V700s are also a good choice.

 

Slicks are simply not meant for street use. Take a freeway offramp at normal speed and go through some sprinkler puddles, and it could ruin your day. On a prepped track they're great, but not on public roads. You need to get them warmed up properly, or else they're worse than street tires.
Get some track capable street tires, and you'll be able to use thier full potential at all times.

 

i've done something similar before. doesn't work so well on wet roads. i wouldn't think about it unless you are willing to switch wheels/tires when the weather changes.

john

 

Another vote against. Why not use R-compound tires? Kumho, Yoko, Michelin, Pirelli all make 6/32" tread depth tires.

 

I'm using Yoko AO48 DOTs on mine. You won't find anybody who can run with you on the street, and decent on the track-you won't be embarrassed by the guys on slicks. The new tech in DOT tires comes real close to evening the playing field on the track. The compound is a little harder than slicks, but a lot softer than street tires. Go for it!

 

glad i don't live in england. can't imagine being locked up for the tires on my car.

 

Couple of things to consider -

1. They are very fragile. Much easier to damage by curbing or running over debris than a street tire.

2. They are subject to heat cycle limitations. I think this is a bigger problem than the wear factor, which is probably not that big a deal since there a little to no side load issues. But Hoosiers definitely "die" after a certain number of heat cycles, and even with tread remaining you might as well throw them away, they are slower than streets at that point.

3. When they are cold, they are slippier than a street tire.

Gary

 

Everything Gary said.

 

They will throw a lot of debris up on cars behind you, not to mention the sides and rear valance of your car will get trashed. Other than that, if you take it easy and be careful, you will do fine. Take bail money just in case, and don't forget your tow hook.

 

what about just shaving down high performance street tires like Goodyear F-1's, not the same crazy, but kinda close to crazy.

 

You will not wear them out much driving them on the street.

Extended freeway driving will not have much effect on them.

(Note that they are more prone to punctures than street tires.)

They will work fine in the twisties provided that you heat them up first.

 

They can't take street abouse like nial/lumber etc.. It is over 100 degrees in the valley. You will get a flat without a spare and be sitting by the freeway at 105 degrees waiting for the tow truck. How embarassing. Or how about you get into an accident and they charge you and you get sued because you have improper illegal equipment on your car?

 

I hate to say it, but it sounds more like something I would have done in my college/20's days. Now I understand why you're thinking of it, but I like to think that, somewhere right around turning 30 I got better sense. I started thinking "Wouldn't I feel stupid IF?" when I started considering harebrained schemes like this (I hope you can roll with calling it that, it's not meant as a jab, I have lots of harebrained ideas, some of which I carry out!)

P.S.-of course that didn't stop me from getting that monster thorn in my foot yesterday while trimming thorny trees in sandals....

 

I sometimes do it when I'm too lazy to change wheels for a track day and have had no issues to date. My current "street" tyres are the DOT spec Hoosier's and I use Michelin slicks on the track.

 

The set-up I used was a street alignment; not a lot of tow out in front and I just ran 38 psi and bled them at the track. I figured it would be better to run them higher and get them onto the crown a bit for the drive and to keep the heat down....but this would only be for straight hwy. driving , NO monkey business , no canyon work . Then I just used the air at the track at the end of the day and put them back up for the trip home . I found that Vaseline on the body just rearward from the tires made the end-of-day clean-up a breeze! Hint : When you first come off the track pay attention to where you drive so as not to drive right through gravel or other really undesirable stuff if you can....these things are like fly paper when they're hot! As far as wear , it was not bad as far as I can recall ; as mentioned elsewear , I think the heat cycling and wear would just about coincide to finish them off , and that would be the limiting factor here.

Like I said , I did this twice , starting w/ new slicks and I believe I would have done it 1 more time - maybe two. These were all day runs in high heat conditions w/ average laps of 84 mph on that configuration, the 928 isn't a light car and I loved to slide the thing - just a big German Nascar to me!

Hope this helps you to make your decision. Above all , be safe. Jim.

 

Copy That.....What track would you be going to , maybe I'll dust off the S4.....

 

Can't really recommend that, Pen. The few layers of nylon belt provide no impact protection, there is no sidewall rib for protection and the Hoosier and Goodyear stock car slicks that might be robust enough are way too big for Bill's old car. Sure you don't want to use the 6-series Hoosier DOT's? They might as well be slicks with only two circumfrential grooves on 'em!

-Peter (BTDT, since I was in my 20's! <grin>)

 

I will second that , the Hoosiers are very good - and much safer from that perspective....Pretty sticky for a " street tire " , Jim.