I hope Rob will chime in on this thread. Has anyone ever had a set of tires seem to fall off a cliff in performance? I hear things like in F1 where a driver did not like a set of tires. I'm thinking the tire is the tire how can there be any difference in a one new set vs. another new set? I have been racing on Hoosier A6's and A7's in SCCA T2 for years. But I'm new to mustangs the biggest heaviest tire killer I have ever raced. I'm still trying to figure out tire pressures and alignment settings to max out wear and performance.
That said I had a new set of A7's I ran at autoclub speedway for a weekend for racing. No problems in fact I kept getting faster all weekend running higher pressures than we ever ran on the corvettes which were some 300lbs lighter. That's 1 qualy and 2 races on that set. I took that same of young tires to CoTA which I have not been to in about 3 years. I have no practice and just go right to qualy. I'm not trying real hard but trying to put a decent time in and re-learn the track. I set my fastest time of the weekend and I have traction control ON. I often leave TC on mt 1st session out or in the rain. I'll then take TC off the rest of the weekend and gain 1 sec just because of that. Strangely, My times got progressively worse as each session went by. The mustang was a handful sliding all over the track understeering into corners over steering out of corners as I sawed the wheel every turn. It was like grossly overinflated tires or slick track surface. I rarely spin a car but I did that on Saturday. Sunday The hoosier guy sold my the new tires out from under me when the schedule got messed up and I was on track Sunday qualy when he tried to get a hold of me. So I was forced to run the bad tires in sunday's race. I dropped out a good bit of pressure closer to what we ran the corvettes hot trying to find some semblance of grip. I have run those lower pressures before at the expense of tire life but grip was good. Tires continued to fall off and I wasn't racing, I was surviving. I was off a full 10sec per lap slower than my 1st session out when I was trying to remember the track with traction control on. Wow! I have never experienced this bad a fall off in performance. Corded tires would have performed better. I still have good tread on the bad set of tires but when my car gets to BRP this weekend you can bet those tires are going right to the trash. Has anyone ever experienced tire fall off before? I was skeptical that tire falloff was a real thing. I suck as a driver but not that bad. My 2012 times in the rain at CoTA in my T2 vette were faster.
That said I had a new set of A7's I ran at autoclub speedway for a weekend for racing. No problems in fact I kept getting faster all weekend running higher pressures than we ever ran on the corvettes which were some 300lbs lighter. That's 1 qualy and 2 races on that set. I took that same of young tires to CoTA which I have not been to in about 3 years. I have no practice and just go right to qualy. I'm not trying real hard but trying to put a decent time in and re-learn the track. I set my fastest time of the weekend and I have traction control ON. I often leave TC on mt 1st session out or in the rain. I'll then take TC off the rest of the weekend and gain 1 sec just because of that. Strangely, My times got progressively worse as each session went by. The mustang was a handful sliding all over the track understeering into corners over steering out of corners as I sawed the wheel every turn. It was like grossly overinflated tires or slick track surface. I rarely spin a car but I did that on Saturday. Sunday The hoosier guy sold my the new tires out from under me when the schedule got messed up and I was on track Sunday qualy when he tried to get a hold of me. So I was forced to run the bad tires in sunday's race. I dropped out a good bit of pressure closer to what we ran the corvettes hot trying to find some semblance of grip. I have run those lower pressures before at the expense of tire life but grip was good. Tires continued to fall off and I wasn't racing, I was surviving. I was off a full 10sec per lap slower than my 1st session out when I was trying to remember the track with traction control on. Wow! I have never experienced this bad a fall off in performance. Corded tires would have performed better. I still have good tread on the bad set of tires but when my car gets to BRP this weekend you can bet those tires are going right to the trash. Has anyone ever experienced tire fall off before? I was skeptical that tire falloff was a real thing. I suck as a driver but not that bad. My 2012 times in the rain at CoTA in my T2 vette were faster.