Barbara_S

Hi - I've got a decision to make about skipping heat cycling.

I ordered wheels with v710's mounted. Tirerack says the tires are in one facility, wheels in another so logistics don't work for them to get the tires heat cycled, and then sent to where the wheels are to mount/balance without a lot of extra work and shipping charges.

I only autocross - but the track is long and fast (1 1/2 miles), so I'm not sure if skipping heat cycling is that bad.


Any strong opinions on heat cycling v710s' for autocrossing?

thanks a whole lot for any replies.

gonzalezfj

Save your money. I never had my 710s heat cycled and they grip and last just fine.

Frank Gonzalez

96LT1

Everyone has an opinion and they are normally different.

I've gone through two sets of 710s in the last year. The first ones I heat cycled with a 20 minute track session (slowly building up to temps) I let them cool for a week before they were used again. The fronts had huge chunks out of them and the rears were splitting within two weekends. The tread isn't even down to the wear bars yet.

The 2nd set I had Tire Rack heat cycle. I'm getting ready to do the 5th weekend on them (3 days) and they should last the entire weekend. No wear issues, no chunking, no splitting.

If the lot you are autocrossing on is rough and hard on tires, do yourself a favor and get them heat cycled. If not keep the temps and the pressure down.

wtknght1

The heat cycle that Tire Rack does is worthless. It's simply not the same and you are wasting your money. There was another thread on this a while ago... I'm sure they appreciate your money though.

tigerdrvr

I've never heat cycled any of my Kumhos and the most recent set of V710s just went over 100 runs...of course, about 26 of those runs were short, 30 second Pro Solo, but it's still amazing that they wear so well!

gonzalezfj

Kumho had some defective tires earlier this year. Could that have been the reason why you had tread separation?

Frank Gonzalez

Bill Dearborn

I had the same thing happen with a set of 710s I bought last year. Everywhere I got stones in the tread at my last track event last year I now have chunking. Even though I cleaned the tires when I took them off the car I remember the indentations left by the stones and when I did my first autocross this year those were the spots that opened up.

By the way the Tire Rack heat cycling is far better than most of us can do on the highway. We do not have the luxury of heat cycling a set of tires and letting them sit around a week or a day before using them. The Tire Rack process gets the tread temp up high enough to do something. There is no way that we can get the tire temp up to the required temperature driving at speeds less than 40 to 60 mph over the speed limit. I tried 10 miles of some back roads with speeds approaching 80 mph and plenty of turns (especially blind ones). The highest tread temp I could get on a VR700 full tread tire was 130 degrees. That is no where near hot enough to heat cycle the tire.

Bill

GrantR

My first set of V710s for my SS class '03 Z06 lasted me about 250 runs (probably average run length of 50-55 seconds, but mostly on good smooth low abrasion asphalt), and were still pax competitive when I finally switched them off. The grooves had just worn away, but there was still no sign of cording. That's some pretty incredible value for money

Apparently the new Hoosier A6's are a hint faster, but it's probably going to be another 12-16 months before I finally wear this newish (a mere 43 runs so far) set of V710s to death before having to make another tire decision.

I never heat cycled either set of V710s. No signs of significant performance loss over time or tread wear problems. Just makes sure to flip them inside-out on the rims at 80 runs or so, to keep the outer tread wear even.

They're a little slippery for the first 3-4 runs but once you've worn through to fresh rubber they come in really nicely.