darguy

Hey Gang,

I'm putting a fresh set of Nitto NT05's on my 99 FRC next week prior to a 2-day Track Event. I've not used these tires before, but have been warned about heat cycling & break-in, and that if I run the risk of seriously deminishing the life of the tire if I do this wrong. The car is my DD, and will see probably 6 Track Days this year and possibly a few Auto-X events - I may move to a dedicated set of wheels/tires for next year if things go well.

Any suggestions?

ssdeuce

NT-05's are street tires you can track them and DD. Have fun and post how they did. I'm looking at these tires also.

beerkat

Question:

Did you look at the NT 555 RII. If you did why did you choose the NT05 over them. I ask because I just brought the RII do use as my Track/DD tire.

darguy

2 reasons:

Treadwear: the car is my DD, and will see probably 6 Track Days this year and possibly a few Auto-X events.

Rain: the 555RII's don't compair to the NT05's in the wet. It rains a lot in Vancouver...

Anyone have any break-in/heat cycling advice?

Charley Hoyt

I have a set of the NT-05s on an extra set of rims that I only use for autocross and track events. I have been using them for almost a year with good results. I didn't do any heat cycling and they have been fine.

SouthernSon

For long life and good adhesion for the life, it is usually suggested (I say usually since nothing in this life is absolute) to heat cylcle the tire up to temperature such as a 20 or 30 minute track day session and then remove them from the car for at least a couple of days. (take the weight off of them). If you can do this, fine. If not, you can still have fun for several track days but your tires will lose a percentage of life and adhesion.

beerkat

I know that Discount Tires offer heat cycling when you buy some tires. maybe you can find a tire shop that has the ability to heat cycle them for you.

L98Terror

I had no idea you should heat cycle a street tire, I doubt there is any noticable difference

SouthernSon

To follow up, I found a thread/link to hoosier tire....

I realize not all tires are the same but I would follow this procedure if able and not worry about it....

https://www.hoosiertire.com/rrtire.htm

link to Tire Info (on left menu) and then Tire Care Tips.......

darguy

Thanks for the feedback, Guys!



I won't be able to take the tires off to let them rest after the first run, and unfortunately there are no Discount Tires in Canada - I just saw that they offered the service when doing a Google search on this the other day. If I loose a percent or two, I can live with that - it's a compromise already (although a pretty good one, I hope) between DD/rain use and the track. If I get a set of dedicated track tires next year, I'll look into getting them cycled.

I think I'll be ok with bringing them up to full temp over a few cycles. I'll have three half-hour commutes on them before getting on the track. And then, it's a training course and we won't be getting the cars up to full speed until the second day.



Edit: I just read the Hoosier info - good stuff. I think I'd need a second set to follow that to the letter.

Armycop

I'm with Ken on this one. Street tires don't need heat cycling in the sense that track tires (hoosier for instance) do. And unless your 3 hour commute involves sustained 120+ speeds, you aren't going to generate enough heat in the tires to reach the tipover point of curing the rubber. At least that's what the Hoosier guys told me when I bought a set three weeks ago.

Oh, Ken!!

Bahnzii

As (most) everyone else has said, no heat cycling on the NT-05's...

I put them on brand new last year, drove 100 miles to ThunderHill and did a track day on them without any problems.

You will notice the first session they seem a little greasy (to me) but the rest of sessions they had great stick for a 200 rated street tire.

Mount them up and go have some fun

geerookie

Just drive on them. They work great!

SouthernSon

But this is sort of the point here. Darguy is planning on running sustained speed at the track. Since the tire will get up to high temperature, why not cure it? Anyone see a downside to cycling it? I don't....

L98Terror

Yeah but is there an upside for the effort involved? I going to bet he will never notice any difference whether or not he does it.

Hell I don't notice the difference when I heat cycle my hossiers or if I don't

darguy

So, I got the NT05's mounted up on Friday afternoon, and had about 100 km on them before hitting the track on Saturday. They did seem a little greasy for the first bit, but got nice and sticky. Saturday was warmish, it got up to 20C and both me and my instructor were impressed with the grip as we got the speeds up over the day. Sunday it rained like crazy and there was not really any opportunity to push the cornering speeds and get any more heat into them. They held up pretty well in the wet - with a big torquey car like this in those conditions, it was all about exploring the thresholds. If it weren't for the straight-away speeds I'd have been smoked by the smaller cars. On the last session on Sunday ("simulated race" with rolling pace-car start and point-to-pass zones), the track started to dry out - and it really started to hook-up again. I had my work cut out for me to keep close to the C6Z. Great weekend, and met some cool people. Can't wait for the fist SoloSprint event...