Semi-slicks for road use
Discussion
C70R said:
Couldn't agree more with most of the advice here.
I swapped between R888Rs and PS4s on my old track car (wet/dry), and once drove an hour home from the track on my R888Rs because I was too tired to change them.
Two things immediately became apparent:
1. The noise. If you'd told me I had 4 wheel bearings out, I would have easily believed you.
2. The grip. As others have pointed out, without heat and/or on damp roads they behaved like Linglongs.
I immediately swapped them back, and I can't imagine any world where I'd want to run that kind of tyre regularly on the road.
This. When I had the i30N I ran semi slicks on track, they were fantastic, coped well in damp too but driving on the road with them was awful. When doing local tracks within about 30 miles I'd put them on at home and drive to the track, 50+ miles to the track and I'd take them with me and swap them at the track. I swapped between R888Rs and PS4s on my old track car (wet/dry), and once drove an hour home from the track on my R888Rs because I was too tired to change them.
Two things immediately became apparent:
1. The noise. If you'd told me I had 4 wheel bearings out, I would have easily believed you.
2. The grip. As others have pointed out, without heat and/or on damp roads they behaved like Linglongs.
I immediately swapped them back, and I can't imagine any world where I'd want to run that kind of tyre regularly on the road.
As others have said, I expect they are actually worse for grip on the road too. Mine would need a good couple of hard warmup laps before they got into their groove. had plenty of 1st lap out of the pits sliding about when not really pushing on with the tyres cold, much more of a liability on the road. Stiffness of them may make them worse on the road too.
I expect a lot of people using them on kit cars or track cars just dont really drive hard enough on the road to notice the difference, or actually enjoy the lack of grip as it makes the cars more playful and people think it is just the car like that rather than being on rock hard cold tyres.
ian_uk1975 said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Putting the power down in a RWD car with 800bhp is quite a challenge, hence why I began thinking about semi-slicks.
They'll probably provide less traction up until you have turned them on and kept them on which may not be that easy on the open road.RB Will said:
This. When I had the i30N I ran semi slicks on track, they were fantastic, coped well in damp too but driving on the road with them was awful. When doing local tracks within about 30 miles I'd put them on at home and drive to the track, 50+ miles to the track and I'd take them with me and swap them at the track.
As others have said, I expect they are actually worse for grip on the road too. Mine would need a good couple of hard warmup laps before they got into their groove. had plenty of 1st lap out of the pits sliding about when not really pushing on with the tyres cold, much more of a liability on the road. Stiffness of them may make them worse on the road too.
I expect a lot of people using them on kit cars or track cars just dont really drive hard enough on the road to notice the difference, or actually enjoy the lack of grip as it makes the cars more playful and people think it is just the car like that rather than being on rock hard cold tyres.
I don't quite agree with this, so I guess they affect different cars differently.As others have said, I expect they are actually worse for grip on the road too. Mine would need a good couple of hard warmup laps before they got into their groove. had plenty of 1st lap out of the pits sliding about when not really pushing on with the tyres cold, much more of a liability on the road. Stiffness of them may make them worse on the road too.
I expect a lot of people using them on kit cars or track cars just dont really drive hard enough on the road to notice the difference, or actually enjoy the lack of grip as it makes the cars more playful and people think it is just the car like that rather than being on rock hard cold tyres.
My 1100 kg TVR warmed the R888s and R888Rs up within 1 lap, no alarming sliding about, and were fine for the drive to the track unless I got caught in a cloudburst. I couldn't fit 4 wheels and tyres in the car anyway, without marking the seats, so didn't really have a choice until I finally bought a trailer for the longer distances.
I did however find that a proper set up of the car's suspension, especially about an extra degree of negative camber at the front, made a lot of difference to how the car handled.
I have often heard other owners describe their cars as "trying to kill me".
After 11 years of ownership I put that down to a combination of poor tyre choice and poor wheel alignment/suspension set up.
braddo said:
Michelin cup2 would be the best option in the dry - grip near a track tyre but no noise and able to cope with cold and wet to a reasonable level.
I do wonder how close the latest greatest conti 7 is to the dry grip of the cup2 while offering far superior wet grip.
The data demonstrates that the gap result isn't as big as is often suggested. I think this is another scenario where 'because racecar' tends to guide people's decisions.I do wonder how close the latest greatest conti 7 is to the dry grip of the cup2 while offering far superior wet grip.
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2020-UHP-UUHP-...
nickfrog said:
The delta is normally not that great over the first 2 laps but obviously the semi will stay there for another few while the road tyre starts melting.
Isn't this the real point - on a track day having tyres that can handle 15-20 minute sessions without melting is preferable to ultimate grip/laptime. It's not fun sitting in the pits waiting for your tyres to cool down._Neal_ said:
nickfrog said:
The delta is normally not that great over the first 2 laps but obviously the semi will stay there for another few while the road tyre starts melting.
Isn't this the real point - on a track day having tyres that can handle 15-20 minute sessions without melting is preferable to ultimate grip/laptime. It's not fun sitting in the pits waiting for your tyres to cool down.I am confident that my NS2Rs were slower than the first laps on PS4S. But I could do a 10 lap stint on them where their temp plateaued (is that a verb?) after 2 and stayed there for the whole stint.
nickfrog said:
_Neal_ said:
nickfrog said:
The delta is normally not that great over the first 2 laps but obviously the semi will stay there for another few while the road tyre starts melting.
Isn't this the real point - on a track day having tyres that can handle 15-20 minute sessions without melting is preferable to ultimate grip/laptime. It's not fun sitting in the pits waiting for your tyres to cool down.I am confident that my NS2Rs were slower than the first laps on PS4S. But I could do a 10 lap stint on them where their temp plateaued (is that a verb?) after 2 and stayed there for the whole stint.
For those of us driving our cars to the circuit, I genuinely believe there's too much influence from the "oh yeah mate, I've done two sets of pads by lunchtime" crowd in the decisions we make.
C70R said:
But then I do 8-lap sessions on my Eagle F1s without them "melting".
For those of us driving our cars to the circuit, I genuinely believe there's too much influence from the "oh yeah mate, I've done two sets of pads by lunchtime" crowd in the decisions we make.
Thank God I have never met anyone from that crowd For those of us driving our cars to the circuit, I genuinely believe there's too much influence from the "oh yeah mate, I've done two sets of pads by lunchtime" crowd in the decisions we make.
I am sure it's possible to run road tyres on track days, I have done it. You were with me!
But I am well aware of their limits, particularly on a very hot day and on a demanding circuit with long sweeping corners in a not so light car...
Edited by nickfrog on Wednesday 22 November 18:46
nickfrog said:
Thank God I have never met anyone from that crowd ??.
I am sure it's possible to run road tyres on track days, I have done it. You were with me!
But I am well aware of their limits, particularly on a very hot day and on a demanding circuit with long sweeping corners in a not so light car...
I don't think I've met anyone from that crowd either, and I've always driven my cars to trackdays. I am sure it's possible to run road tyres on track days, I have done it. You were with me!
But I am well aware of their limits, particularly on a very hot day and on a demanding circuit with long sweeping corners in a not so light car...
bigothunter said:
Tye Green said:
C70R said:
......and I can't imagine any world where I'd want to run that kind of tyre regularly on the road..
as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
Tye Green said:
better grip due to more suitable compound & better handling due to stiffer walls. in my experience only those rare kit car owners who use their cars for gentle Sunday drives would wear 'road' tyres and the great majority of such folk prioritise performance and accordingly wear more suitable semi-slick rubber .
as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
Have you driven fast on race circuits? as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
bigothunter said:
_Neal_ said:
I don't think I've met anyone from that crowd either, and I've always driven my cars to trackdays.
Which is fine providing you can drive them home again 
I found NS2R to be surprisingly good when near the wear markers and driven with some purpose on the slightly glistening/sparkling road surfaces of early evening in winter, but only to the extent that slow inputs and loading them up worked - needing to make a fast input for any reason would feel like they were very quickly over that grip/slip boundary.
They were noisy/rumbly as hell on the road, though - as noted above with a different tyre, I thought my wheel bearings had failed after I put them on.
They were noisy/rumbly as hell on the road, though - as noted above with a different tyre, I thought my wheel bearings had failed after I put them on.
RSTurboPaul said:
I found NS2R to be surprisingly good when near the wear markers and driven with some purpose on the slightly glistening/sparkling road surfaces of early evening in winter, but only to the extent that slow inputs and loading them up worked - needing to make a fast input for any reason would feel like they were very quickly over that grip/slip boundary.
They were noisy/rumbly as hell on the road, though - as noted above with a different tyre, I thought my wheel bearings had failed after I put them on.
Here's the reason why:They were noisy/rumbly as hell on the road, though - as noted above with a different tyre, I thought my wheel bearings had failed after I put them on.
bigothunter said:
Tye Green said:
better grip due to more suitable compound & better handling due to stiffer walls. in my experience only those rare kit car owners who use their cars for gentle Sunday drives would wear 'road' tyres and the great majority of such folk prioritise performance and accordingly wear more suitable semi-slick rubber .
as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
Have you driven fast on race circuits? as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
Tye Green said:
bigothunter said:
Tye Green said:
better grip due to more suitable compound & better handling due to stiffer walls. in my experience only those rare kit car owners who use their cars for gentle Sunday drives would wear 'road' tyres and the great majority of such folk prioritise performance and accordingly wear more suitable semi-slick rubber .
as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
Have you driven fast on race circuits? as said earlier, these are folk who use their cars on dry and warm days and they can't all be wrong. check out Blat Chat or WSCC etc if you're not sure.
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