Shark Racer

I just installed a set of Firehawk Indy 500s as recently noted, and have started the flogging process. Obviously, I want to see how they handle compared to the old Rad T/As.

I'm more than a little disappointed- they seem to squawk way earlier in corners. I can't help but wonder if this is due to the newness of the tread. The tires have maybe 30 miles on them now? I managed to get all the factory markings off, but a lot of the little nubby things are still present in the tread. The car also seems bouncier and a little more erratic when reacting to bumps.

Ride quality has improved, and wet traction has VASTLY improved. My old tires were about 40% life up front, and probably less than 5% in the rear. I expected much better handling... perhaps the newness of the tires has indicated flaws in my suspension?
-Steve

PrarieShark

I've heard it takes a bit to break in new tires and get that smooth finish off the tread.

Les

Steve,
It could take some miles to get to the good rubber. That trip to Monterey should help :cheers:

You might look into upping your tire pressure a bit too.

Shark Racer

28 front, 32 rear.
Pulled spare tire today.. .the "easy" way.
In this case, the easy way is removing the frame attachment at the front.
I'm gonna kill my back before I ever get up to Monterey! *sigh* Step 2 of 3 is tomorrow morning. Pictures will be ready...
And these tires are about even w/ the rad TAs, just noisier as is. If they end up being better as they wear down- excellent. :) Just a little disappointed. First time I've ever run brand new tires all around on a car.

-Steve

UKPaul

Steve,
Go easy on those new tires. They do need "breaking in" (you find these things out fairly quickly on a M/cycle! :lol: ). I find that about 100 miles is a safe distance to break them in over.
:cheers:

tsw71

Hey Steve, I saw the post with pics the other day. Looks very good. I agree with the others. Give those tires a little more time before you give up on them. Also, I run mine at 38 PSI front and back. The very reason I bought the Firehawks was for the higher pressure rating. The higher pressure will stiffen them up and eliminate the noisy sidewall deflection in the turns. Play around with the tire pressure and I think you will be happy.

Tom

fauxrs

Generally depending on how deep the tread is on passenger car tire - added to other factors I am sure I dont know about - you could be experiencing a little bit of tread squirm. This is literally when the blocks of rubber that form the tread squirm around under cornering pressures.

This is one reason why shaved tires are preferred over regular tires when auto-xing (there are other reasons too however)

This squirm is very very small and probably only occurs at higher cornering loads.

Are you going to the Historics or the big cruise up in monterey? I leave at the butt-crack-of-dawn tommorrow for monterey so i can get through all of LA county before anyone else wakes up. :lol:


[Modified by fauxrs, 7:53 AM 8/14/2002]

Shark Racer

UKPaul- But I wanna go fast now! :) They seem to do decently, coming out of a switchback and giving hard throttle at the apex in 2nd gear, they hooked nicely (and noisily).

Tom- I'll let these babies warm up, then I'll give the new air pressure a shot. These tires do seem way too bouncy. My back still hurts, man! (I haven't been going easy on it, though. Monday, installed the new tires, yesterday I tried to fix the bolt on the spare tire carrier to no avail. Frozen stiff, need to remove the thing and give it a good long soaking. Perhaps in hot lava AKA Terminator 2. Of course, this involved much bench pressing of the spare as well as creative wrenching, cursing, and getting up/down/adjusting oneself for leverage, until I realized how helpful a jack would be at that point! Oops. :) )

Fauxrs- The cruise for sure, and the historics more than likely. I hope you're gonna be there! I'd absolutely love to see your vette in person. I've admired your car in secret for a long time. :)

UKPaul

I had new rear tires fitted to my daily driver last week. Going around a bend (at a sensible speed!) the tyres lost all grip & I ended up going sideways (the GF was less than impressed!). The cars in front & behind of me had no problems going round the bend at the same speed, so when I got home I did a few burn outs & got the tires scrubbed. They hold the road much better now (I can even keep up with the rest of the traffic on bends :lol: ), but I'm not sure if it's the best way to break tires in ;)
:cheers:

ddecart

Those two statements are big clues and are related. If you improve ride quality by going from one tire to another, you are almost definitely going to reduce the cornering ability of the car. Generally speaking, tires that ride better handle worse and vise-versa.

Also, the tread pattern makes a big difference. Some tread patterns are more prone to squealing in corners than others are. And it's quite possible to have a tire that has better cornering properties at lower g levels and worse properties at higher g levels than another tire. However, without knowing the cornering coefficients of the two tires I can't tell you anything for sure about how they compare.

Have you checked on tire rack or discount tire...whichever one gives survey ratings, to see how the tires compared subjectively?

Dave

fauxrs

I wont be at the cruise but I will be at all 3 days of the historics in the turn 5 paddock on saturday. The cars a little less impressive with the big paint chip on teh nose from a recent incident - still its not too big - my spoiler is also really beat from curb strikes

I would love to see your car as well.


[Modified by fauxrs, 10:40 AM 8/14/2002]

PrarieShark

Thats not early enough. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

fauxrs

3 AM should be fine :lol: