vinniemc

....and the other two are in pretty good shape. I'm autocrossing this weekend and need to know where the bald tires should be: front or rear??

Last time, the bald tires were on the back. The back end was all over the place, so after the event I put the good tires in the rear, and the bad ones up front ('92, square setup). Me being the stupid n00b that I am didn't realize that I'd probably get understeer now... and from what I understand, that is quite bad when it comes to autocross.

These are the options I was thinking:

1. Put the good tires on the front
2. Leave the tires where they are, but remove some shims from the front upper control arms in an effort to get more camber so I have some grip.
3. Do both!
4. Do nothing?

I would buy new tires, but I'm in college and have no money Thanks in advance for the help, I'm obviously a novice so go easy on me!

Jawnathin

I'd recommend waiting for the course map to be sent out and depending on the layout, decide to put the worn tires on the left side or right side.

Just kidding.

I'm lazy and neither are ideal, so I'd probably just leave it where it is and try to work around it. If the car gets pushy (understeers) I'd try to use the throttle to force some rotation. If that doesn't work, then you'd just need to drive a little slower.

Supercharged111

You could just grab a higher gear too, I find that pedalling out of a corner yields the same acceleration at times as just holding a higher gear, but it's much easier to pedal a higher gear.

vinniemc

Thanks for the help. I'll probably leave it as is and see what happens

TheKomoman

Just something to keep in mind for your personal knowledge base, the fact that the tires are bald has nothing to do with the lack of grip when autocrossing on a dry track. Tread is for pumping water - bald tires should give MORE grip because you have more rubber in contact with the asphalt. If the bald tires are producing less grip it's because the rubber has heated & cooled so many times it has become hard and you can't get enough heat into them to soften up.

Regardless of cause, the result is the same obviously - no grip - but I think understanding what is happening with the tires is important. Keeping track of how many auto-x days you have on a set of tires moving forward might help you in the future to know when your tires are reaching the point of no longer being effective.

vinniemc

Good point. These tires probably have 30,000 road miles on them (almost all of that was on the rear) and one autocross, I realize they need to go but I can't afford new ones right now so I'll just see what happens. Compared to the newer tires, they feel hard.

froggy47

When I have a significant difference in grip I simply use the event as a car control clinic and practice balancing on that edge of grip/no grip. Don't try for fast times, it won't happen on dead tires.

vinniemc

I removed all the shims and adjusted the tie rods to the best of my ability, the camber is quite noticeable and after hours of adjusting the toe looks decent. The car certainly drives well, even smoother than before I removed the shims. I can't wait to test out the cornering!

Thomasmoto

I ran into this very scenario last weekend. I got 2 new tires. I wasn't gonna risk it.

93Rubie

I'll say this, last year, I ran 4 old hard (03 production) BFG Comp G-Force tires 275/40/17 at all fours. Equally old and worn. I learned A LOT about car control and being smooth. They forced me to be smooth to even get decent times.

It payed off, new Dunlap Dizeera ZII's and a Z07 spring/bar swap later, tired them out my first two auto-x events. Placed 3rd overall on a wet/cold Saturday. ON a the warmer Sunday I ran 2nd overall. Lost to a C5Z06 on Hoosiers for FTD. He was a 40.9 I ran a 41.9 during competition runs. We do non-comps. he didn't run but my last run and smoothest was a 41.1.

Please keep in mind last year I did just ok. I was not even a threat for FTD, this year definitely a threat. My driving should improve too, EVO school on May the 4th.

Tires make a difference but so does learning to be smooth from driving with NO grip.

vinniemc

I definitely agree with you Rubie, after just one autocross I've gained so much confidence with driving my car. Having the terrible tires on the rear taught me a lot! It was also fun to have the back end all over the place

Yesterday I adjusted my front camber and toe, I removed all of the shims on the upper control arms and WOW, the handling difference is noticeable! Even with the bad tires up front it still stuck much greater than before. I'm so excited to test it out Saturday!