RA1 Log - From new to worn out - Does this seem reasonable?

LeeH · 04-12-2008, 02:20 PM

I bought my RA1s at the end of 2006. They were not shaved. Since then I attended seven autocrosses and four track events. The tires were used to drive to and from events on the street, but the track is only 10 minutes from my house and the autocross location is about a 20 minute drive each way. Total miles from new to chord showing was about 1600 with an estimated 600 of those miles being on the street. Does this seem reasonable?

poc533 · poc533's Garage

7 Autocrosses and 4 track events on unshaved RA-1's? In my opinion you received your monies worth on those tires. I've run Kumhos for years and have recently switched to shaved RA-1's nice tires, but I don;t expect more than 2 maybe 3 weekends out of a set (unfortunately..)

rlane · 04-12-2008, 04:07 PM

Yep,pretty much what I have experienced on my 73 RS clone...also very sensitive to camber and track configuration

jester911 · jester911's Garage

Make sure you rotate them often. The direction of tread only matters if driving in wet conditions.

Jack Olsen · 04-12-2008, 06:26 PM

I get 32-36 big heat cycles out of them. That's about 8 track days. But you might very well need to flip them side to side halfway through their lifespan. Are they showing cord on the inside/outside or both? Is the wear the same left and right? Front and rear?

Also: what camber and toe settings are you running? How much does your car weigh?

LeeH · 04-12-2008, 07:53 PM

I did flip these. I thought it was around half way through their life, but now I know it was quite a ways past that point. As far as wear... the fronts are wearing fairly evenly and at a slightly slower pace than the rears. Left rear showed slightly more wear than the right (I think every autocross on these tires was run in a clockwise direction and track events were counterclockwise). The rears are wearing more on the inside, but there was an odd lumpiness on the outer edge as they wore down. The cord was showing on the outer edge between the lumps. Funny, but only after putting on brand new RA1s did I realize how much the old tires were worn.

I don't remember the actual numbers on the alignment. Based in info here the rear was set to max negative camber with the front 1/2 a degree less than the rear. Rear was set to 1/16 toe in with front at zero toe. Castor was set to max.

I posted this recently on another thread: