I've still got significant tread life left on my stock bridgestones with 15k miles on them. Over the last few months, I've had the feeling that it is getting easier to break them loose when driving hard.

In particular, there is a new neighboorhood down the road from me where the developer had the money to put the new roads and sewers in, but not to build houses. The result? A RACE COURSE!

There is one loop I've probably got over a hundred miles on (in 15 minute increments...dont want to be there when the cops get there <g>).

But it seems like the back end is getting squirly.

Granted, these tires arent new anymore....but they arent ready for the recycle bin yet either.

Bob in Indy

 

Sounds fun.

I hate driving my 8 in traffic. espically with the imbeciles & old ppl that come out around lunch hour.

Are you rotating your tires?

 

Has the weather been warmer lately? I have noticed that the Brigstones get mighty slippery when hot. You also might have too many heat cycles in them. Because of autocrossing I have yet to get a set of tires below half tread before the heat cycles kill them and they get hard. :p

 

Also, the more rubber you leave on the road in your "personal race course" (grin!) the slicker the corners will become. Rubber left on the road surface = rubber sliding on rubber instead of asphalt.

 

Re rotation, yes I've been doing that. One time and due for another right now.

re rubber on my "course", I suppose it could be that, but I've been noticing the lack of stickyness on other fun roads I know of (all safe....at least for the inocent).

Re the weather, I live in Indianapolis (Westfield/Noblesville actualy) and we have had the mildest summer I can ever remember. Not much in the way of tempertuar extremes. Tho lately, we havent had much humidity at all the last few weeks. And it has been cooling down a bit with highs in the 70's and low 80's...make life VERY good since my other pasion is Trail Running.

But by "heat cycles" do you mean heating the tires up a lot via agressive cornering then cooling to "normal" driving, then having fun again, etc? You might have something there. I usualy hit this "course" at least once a week. And at 15 minutes a crack, that is probably enough time to get them warmed up quite a bit. And this is a 2nd gear (6sp manual) route not much below 40mph except one corner is 1st gear.

The bad news is that some fool bank must have give the developer more money. Friday early evening I noticed fancy street lights are starting to go up. I fear the masses cant be far behind

But it has been fun while it is lasting! Even if I've got to buy a new set of tires a bit early.

Any local Indy folks looking for this, it is west of Little Chicago Road about half way between Hwy 32 & 38. Even has a large traffic circle at the entrance to warm up the tires on when starting! <VBG>!

If anybody is still bitching about thier gas milage, find a closed course like this and your worrys will go away! You'll gladly open your wallet at the gas station after only getting 8-10mpg!!

Bob in Indy, loving my 8 and soon to be getting "RX EIGHT" liscense plates!

 

Youre right. Repeated cold to hot and back will eventually kill your tires. You should be able to get your tires really hot in a 15 minute run. You can overheat a set of tires in a 60 second auto-x run! And the hotter you get them the fewer heat cycles you can put in them before they start hardening and get slick. Some tire compounds handle heat cycles better then others. The longest lasting auto-x tire (ST class) that I have run were Michelin Pilot Sports that lasted almost 2 seasons. The tires with the most grip I have used are Falken Azenis Sports but they were getting hard in less then one full season with almost half of the tread left.

 

Im at 19000 miles now and all 4 of my OEM Bridgestones are well below 4/32 seconds. Theyll be just about finished somewhere around 20000 - 21000 miles. Ive nevertaken mine out onto the track since I have an automatic and not a manual. Additionally for that samereason Ive only peeled out onceor twice andthe tires never even screeched for morethan 2 seconds soits not like I putthem through the type of abuse a lot of manual owners do to get those perfect launches. Whats even worse is that I had these bastard tires rotated every 3000 miles sinceI live down here in hot *** Florida and look whata difference that wasted cash made.

If someone onhere w/Bridgestones tires makes it to 25000 miles Ill be impressed.

 

When I was at the track there was a guy with an Auto RX8....sure looked like his smile was just as large as everybody elses! Yea, it probably took him a second longer to get there, but he was having a blast.

Dont let your Auto transmision stop you from going to the track!

And I dont think I've ever so much as chirped my tires when launching...except at an auto cross event....but that doesnt count.

Perhaps you should try both...track and autox! Remind you of how much car you really have! Of course, at the track you'll only get about 8mpg. Aint it GREAT!! <VBG>

Bob in Indy