Heat cycling.....tyre.

[Richard Knight]

Hi Folks
Well after a truely wonderful 2000kms run
to Le Mans and back , I am considering the purchase of
some serious dry weather only, rubber for the car. The
Goodyear Eagle F1's are a fantastic allround tyre,
giving amazing wet weather grip but are not as good in
the dry as my old P Zero asimetrics.

The new Michelin pilot sports look
interesting, i.e the ones that look alittle bit like
the tread pattern of the conti sports II's . But
after reading in CAR this month that the latest Noble
is shod with P Zero Corsa's , it has got me thinking
again.

Has anybody run their car on either of the
following for daily road use ( hot dry weather only)

P zero Corsa's
Michelin Pilot cup sport

On the "Tire Rack" web site from the U.S, they
offer 3 Types of Michelin Pilot cup sports, Shaved,
non-shaved and non-shaved "heat cycled". I can make
and educated guess but what does Heat cycling do and
are there any benefits??

Cheers Richard.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Funny, I've only ever seen this on US websites myself...

Here is a quick explaination --->LINK<---, but a Google search should throw a few more up!

 

[Richard Knight]

Mark
Well that link explains it perfectly. I am surprised this is a process we haven't heard of more. It sounds to me as though all track/road tyres should undergo this process.

Cheers Richard.

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Richard Knight

Hi Folks
Well after a truely wonderful 2000kms run
to Le Mans and back , I am considering the purchase of
some serious dry weather only, rubber for the car. The
Goodyear Eagle F1's are a fantastic allround tyre,
giving amazing wet weather grip but are not as good in
the dry as my old P Zero asimetrics.

The new Michelin pilot sports look
interesting, i.e the ones that look alittle bit like
the tread pattern of the conti sports II's . But
after reading in CAR this month that the latest Noble
is shod with P Zero Corsa's , it has got me thinking
again.

Has anybody run their car on either of the
following for daily road use ( hot dry weather only)

P zero Corsa's
Michelin Pilot cup sport

On the "Tire Rack" web site from the U.S, they
offer 3 Types of Michelin Pilot cup sports, Shaved,
non-shaved and non-shaved "heat cycled". I can make
and educated guess but what does Heat cycling do and
are there any benefits??

Cheers Richard.

Not Corsa's or Cup Sports, but of late I have run PZeroCs (basically replaced by the Corsa and very similar to the Cup Sport) and Dunlop DO1Js as summer and track day tyres. Even with little tread left the Cs were great even in the rain - just beware that aquaplaning is a very real possibility given that these tyres have much less grooving than a road tyre. I found that the fronts started to skip accross the water at around 90mph - spooky. Tyres like DO1Js (ie AO32R Yokos and maybe Corsas) have even less tread and are noisy because of the tread pattern.

Otherwise, just watch the wear. For road driving any extreme negative camber will wear the insides of an r-compound tyre very quickly. You will probably get no more than 3-5,000 miles from a set. Ironically, an r-compound often lasts longer on track as they tend not to overheat as much as full tread road tyres and also (generally) slide less.

While heat cycling is of some benefit, many people do an approximate heat cycle with the tyres on the car. For racing you can just run the new tyres for 10 laps at the start of practice then revert to other tyres. Come race day your scrubbed and heat cycled tyres are ready for use. Even easier, just use your tyres for road driving before heading for the track. You get most of the benefit of proper heat cycling for zero cost and you also get a feel for driving on r-compound tyres which is not to be undersetimated if you are not used to them.

HTH
Richard

 

[Richard Knight]

Thanks Richard
3-5000 miles on a set is a bit of an OUCH !! But as with most of my decisions regarding the car I will be thinking with my heart and not my head, so guess I better get a set of Corsa's on order then !!

Cheers Richard.