Quote:
Originally Posted by swamp2
Most of the experienced track nuts I spoke to over the weekend suggested that street compound and r-compound tires will behave opposite as far as extreme depth wear vs. traction. It might be an interesting experiment to compare the traction of a good street tire such as a PS2 that was work very quickly vs. one worn slowly. However, such a test is almost for sure a luxury we won't be able to get access to.
In the end my advise for anyone heading to a track day with well worn street tires will be to seriously consider the tradeoffs of limited traction when you really want it vs. cost of new tires.
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With regard to the street compound vs r compound tires performance at low tread depth:
Most street tires are not built with different compound layers within their usable tread depth.*
The big difference is probably age/heat cycles. For a street tire to wear down to 2/32nds or so will take much longer due to its comparatively hard compound. So it spends a long time (often years) out in the weather, and undergoes hundreds of heat cycles.
A track tire is in use for maybe 2 years at most. Most of that time is spent in a garage, and it undergoes only a fraction of the number of heat cycles. It wears down from a maximum depth of 6/32nds at most, and often 4/32nds rather than a max depth of 10/32nds or more on a street tire. So even though the race compound is much more sensitive to heat cycles and weather, they could still be relatively more effective at 2/32nds than a street tire.
Anyway, sorry that your street tires worked out so poorly on the track. It is unusual to see the balance of handling thrown off that much, although the lower overall grip level would not be so unusual.
*Footnote for the sake of completeness:
They sometimes lay different compounds next to each other, and Bridgestone tires with UniT AQ II technology expose a greater amount of a HIGHER grip compound as they wear down but there is nobody I know of who builds a performance tire with a lesser traction compound at lower depth.