Quote:
Originally Posted by CurtEgerer
R-Compound tires have no UV protection. Why would they, they're designed to be used for short periods of time and thrown out.
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Carbon black is added to rubber as a UV protectant. Natural rubber is white.
That being said:
Racing tires are not designed for lifespan. I have never had a set of R compound tires last 2 years. And with the very large mass of rubber on a ralley tire I suspect it would be more prone to heat build up in the carcass that could lead to separation. I would be interested in the tire pressures and operating conditions before the failure.
More so, after having 2 failures of this type I would seriously try and corner a tire engineer at an automotive event. They probably wouldn't respond to an email (
because of liability issues with putting something in writing involving a failure) but if you get one talking in a casual setting they can probably shed a lot of light on the failure.
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BTW - On the 911 I have run nothing but R compound tires on the street since 2000. I've used Yokahama A032s & A048s, Kuhmo Victoracers, and Nitto NT-01s.
Even when cycled out they produce better traction then the '
high performance' offerings. The Nittos are my favorites but they have serious issues with anything but dry roads. Their resistance to cycling out and to getting greasy when over heated is great.
I personally found that an ultra high performance street tire had such low grip compared to the R compound tires that I ended up sliding around and just wore out the higher mileage tires. (
Your mileage may vary) Tires are the largest single contributor to handling. Less then wonderful doesn't make sense on a 911 to me...
Also...
I have only had one "
sticky rubber" related failure: I had the 'sticky' of the front tire pick up a 6" snap-off type utility knife blade and throw it into the rear tire. It was driven completely into the rear tire with out breaking at any of the snap-off points. It left a 1" wide cut right through the middle of the tire right through the steel belt!
The tire went down in a couple seconds and when it was dismounted the complete blade was found inside. Completely freaky.