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Tire wear at Iowa Speedway- Star Spec content


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Interested to know what others experienced with this tire at Iowa Speedway. We experienced significant chunking of the outer edge of the left front tire on the oval. I recall seeing a number of star specs in the garage with a similar pattern and would like to hear from others. I saw a number of Falken Azenis that did not have such severe degradation (at least from what I saw). We are starting think about next year and any input would be greatly appreciated.

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We went through every tire we had, two new sets of specs, a somewhat worn practice set, and two additional tires that I'm not even sure why I kept, but glad I did. corded and chunked. We couldn't afford to race there very often. And now we need to buy two sets for Nelson Ledges. :(

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Guest Slugworks

Do you mean front right?

We set the car up to get as much negative camber on the right front as we could, and take out as much as we could on the front left. Final numbers were RF: -1.7, LF: -2.3,

Star Specs were fantastic for us. Probably could have run the whole event on the same set if we rotated them. some fo them are just down to the beginning of the wear bar.

I purchased a set of the Azenis RT-615K after being told they handled heat better than star specs. about 35 minutes into the beginning Sunday I started to get a vibration, and it only got worse. The pic below is less than 45 minutes of use.

IMG_2330%252520%252528Large%252529.JPG

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We run a Civic on Falkens and had 4 degrees negative camber on both sides in the front. We had one tire blister like in the photo above during the Sunday oval session but that tire had been on the car from the start of the race on Saturday (in all 4 different position on the car due to rotation at pit stops). We had a couple other small blisters show up but made the entire length of the race on 8 tires. My guess is less than 4 degrees negative was not enough camber and that was making your tire problem worse.

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I wasnt there, but that was one thing I was worried about if I did go. My worry was more the LF inside edge, not RF. Being that it was a combined road course and oval really makes it difficult to setup correct. When considering going, I was tempted to go with max negative RF camber, and something near zero on the LF. Then again I went through RR tires(only) at rockingham.

As said, a good heatcyclyed tire would be great help. Also, for those doing ovals in the future, weight removal is for the most part free, eliminate as much weight from high up in the car as possible, small gains, but free and keeps car from rolling as much. Also, if within budget, springs or sway bar, but if not within budget, get some spring rubbers. And one other thing is to use ducting to aid tire cooling. Much like brake ducts but as close the the tire as possible without touching the tire at speed or during the travel or turning of the wheel. Again, it wont fix issues, but can help reduce tire temps.

Also, static camber isnt always the best way to see what you have. Remember as the suspension travels in bump(car rolls over) you can/may gain camber. Things to be aware of, as car rolls over to the right, the chassis/suspension points take away some of your negative camber compared to earth. Estimated math here:So if your RF starts with 4 degrees negative(static camber) and the the car rolls say 1.5 degrees(about 2" for 75" track width) to that side your current camber(at the RF tire) to earth would be negative 2.5 degrees, PLUS whatever (neg)camber gain you get with 2" wheel travel(bump). Some cars get more or less. But say your car only gains 0.5 negative degrees camber in 2" bump. That means your RF tire is actually at negative 3 degrees when it counts. There is a lot more to it than that and other issues can arise from making changes like bump steer problems.

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Guest Camshaft

A budddie of a cousins uncle told me that one of the series that races on that track runs -6 d on the r/f and -15 d on the l/f. :o:o:o

Not in a chump car you dont.

Take it for what it is worth.

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Guest weaksauce

we ran all season nittos and never had a problem chunking them. i think the chunking is 95% tire pressure.

we went away from the star specs and falken tires because of price. we can buy a full set of tires for under $300 and get 2 races out of a set. not too bad i guess. we ran 33.2 on the oval with 5 out of 6 cylinders and 1.02 with the same broken motor

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After eating Star Specs at Nashville faster than my kids at a pizza buffet, we spent a lot of time working on pressures at Topeka and the Friday T&T at Iowa.

We did overheat the RF on Sunday morning but quickly adjusted pressures on the replacement tire and had better wear with the second driver.

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What were people setting for tire pressures cold, on what brand tire, and did you have chunking?

All RT615K's, both new and used. Triumph TR6 (RWD, ~2200 lbs). Ranged from 27 to 30 psi, depending on tire position (we did a lot of work during the test day with a pyrometer to get the right pressures). No chunking at all...wore inside in rear (typical with TR6 IRS), outside RF and inside LF were worst areas but still fairly level across tire.

We tried Star Specs vs. RT615K's at Rockingham earlier this year (new set of each to start each day). Dunlops stuck slightly better when new but corded before 7 hrs. and fell off dramatically. RT615K's cost us about 1/2-sec. per lap at start but stayed much more consistent throughout day.

I was surprised at the grip the RT615K's gave us in the wet...I had heard bad things but they worked well for us.

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I'd take it back to Sears and tell them that they really screwed up on your alignment!

In all seriousness... that's a set-up issue. No tire is going to wear like that if the alignment and set-up were "close." Something was terribly amiss in your suspension. As you said in your earlier post on this thread, your team went through every tire you brought. I know of two Top-10 teams that went through 1 set for the weekend. If your car chewed up tires that badly, that quickly... well, it wasn't the track.

I agree. The problem is we are all oval virgins and not a single one of us knows how to setup a car for ovals. :(

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Gawd... I HATE the movie... but the quote is right"

Tires win races.

Reminded of the first Southern 500 -- the winner was running a small, light business coupe on *truck* tires; he never changed tires the whole race, while everyone around him was blowing tires left and right (mostly right, I expect :) ).

This is why I wonder at the sanity of people who bring '70s American Iron to events -- weight is The Enemy....

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