3 replies to this topic

[Cy Peake]

Does it last?  Does it stick?  How many heat cycles can it take before it's toast/off the pace?  I'm looking for a competitive regional perspective on the tire.  National drivers swap to new tires too much.  I was getting 12-15 good heat cycles from the Toyo RR last season before they began to fall off significantly.

[CruzanTom]

Here is my post from another thread after last weekend:

 

Based upon my experiences at Palm Beach, I found that SM7s did not fall off during a race like the SM6s did.

 

I did an initial heat cycle during warm up on Saturday by scrubbing (back and forth) the tires at relatively slow speed and intermittently braking hard to raise temps. I ran faster and faster laps (about 8/10s) for about 4 laps and 1 lap at 9/10s and stopped and put the tires away until Sunday (24 hours). Danny Steyn and Forrest Landy also did this so they can report their experiences.

 

During the Sunday 40 minute race, the tires held their grip much better than my experience with SM6s. This was particularly good because the Palm Beach track usually eats tires up fast. I look forward to using the SM7s the rest of the year.

 

Sebring's Sunday race only had a few hot laps (see forum posts and videos elsewhere) and I used those tires for the Saturday Palm Beach (30 Minute) race because they had cured all week. They held up OK but still fell off a bit more than I thought the SM7s did during the 40 minute race the next day. Also, FWIW, I pushed the tires harder Sunday because I ran faster.

[Danny Steyn]

Not sure this post will help as I cannot report anything conclusive yet.

 

Alex Bolanos certainly appeared to get amazing life out of his SM7's. He raced them at Sebring, tested and qualified with them at PBIR and then raced them in Race 1 when they were almost bald (6 heat cycles IIRC). At the end of Race 1 they were DONE. He then used stickers in Race 2 and still cleaned out clocks!!

 

At Sebring I raced my left over SM6's in Race 1, and used i heat cycle (24 hour cured) SM 7's for Race 2. We only used them for the 4-5 laps off racing we got in before the FCY, and then we ran 7 or so laps under FCY, before we had the checkers or wreckers last lap dash, so I cannot telly how they fall off there.

 

At PBIR I used both SM6 (Race 1) and SM7 (Race 2) tires specifically to do a back to back comparison

 

• In Race 1, my SM6's fell off at around the 10 - 12 minute mark, something I have consistently observed for the past 2 years. I did try and drive well within myself early on but the tires just went away on the abrasive PBIR surface.  
• In Race 2 we had made some setup changes that improved the car, and this time i did everything I could to drive very well within myself in the opening 10 laps (as the video I posted on this site will attest). Despite that the SM7's tires still fell off at PBIR, in a similar way to the SM6's.

 

Personally I am not going to place too much stock in the PBIR tire results as this track is really abrasive and kills tires, but nevertheless I did not see a dramatic change in tire life compared to the SM6's. I will post on this again when I have more to report

[JRHille]

My experience at Sebring:

 

1st heat cycle, qualifying 2 - Tires felt great on the first lap, but the grip seemed to fall off after lap 3 or 4.  Didn't do any scrubbing and curing.  Just went out there did a half lap "warming up" tires then went for it. 

 

2nd heat cycle, morning warmup - Ran fastest laps fwiw (it was early and cold) but the grip to me felt much better and more consistent than the stickers. 

 

3rd heat cycle, race 1 - Tires still felt great, took a lap or two to come in, but grip was consistent throughout the 10 lap race.  Ran fastest lap late race. 

 

4th heat cycle, race 2 - Again, consistent for me the first 5 laps, no noticable "tires are going away" feeling, but then a long caution.  the last green lap they felt horrible, but could have been just from running under caution for 25 minutes. 

 

I don't have much experience with the SM6, so this is ALL new to me.  This might skew all of my "data"s credibility, but I thought the 6 heat cycle SM6 at sebring felt OK.  was only .5 slower than sticker SM7's, but was also learning the track....while the times differed the grip felt similar to me..