I have been told that S02's are a bad track tire for more than one use. Apparently the compound does not respond well to heat cycling. I do a lot of HPDE's and have noticed my tires stickyness completely diasaapear despite a fair amount of remaing tread. Before I order a new set of S02's for next season's track events, can anyone tell me if this is true?

Thanks.

 

I *think* I've noticed the same thing. After one track event, and several autoXs, I thought I was running low on tread. I realized I still have plenty of tread but at least one other person has said they feel 'harder' than they should. He suggested using a rasp to rough them up. Any thoughts?

 

AFAIK, it's due to the tread compound being in two layers. The top layer seems to be the stickiest while the bottom layer is probably aimed at working with reduced tread depth and water (just a SWAG). You can actually see the difference in the color of the rubber if you catch it at the point where it's wearing away, exposing the lower layer of rubber.

I doubt seriously that it's due to heat cycling since these are street tires, exposed to lots of heat cycles over their lives. I'd strongly recommend getting a second set of wheels (they're relatively cheap these days) and putting on some dedicated tires. If you're after just having fun, the Toyo RA1s seem to be the way to go since they'll last a long time and give you decent grip. If you have to have the ultimate grip you need to look at Kumhos or Hoosiers. And then there's the racing slicks...

 

I ran S02's at the track for two years. While they do get a little more slippery as their life goes on I found it enjoyable and it didn't hurt my laptimes too much. What became a bigger problem as I became faster is that the S02's are good for novice to intermediate drivers but once you actually become pretty fast on the track they start chunking. I've been running RA-1's ever since.