Hoosier Race (DOT legal) Tires

[Ron Earp]

Lynn and I were at VIR for the race this past weekend and spent some time kicking around the Hoosier tire trailer. we use Hoosier DOT race tires on our race cars and they are flat out awesome.

However, we discovered they have some very nice sizes for GT40s as well. In 16" wheel size they have some 275s that would be fantastic, larger than anything else I've seen from other makers. I'm thinking about using a set for my 40 when it arrives. They will work fine in light rain, although they'll be very slick, but won't be worth a damn in standing water. I'm not going to be out in rain so it should be just fine.

Anyone considered or run a set of these on their 40? The grip level of these over the best road tires is phenominal, but of course you pay for that with a short tire lifetime. They do have a DOT number so they'll pass inspection in most states, although they also clearly say "Not recommended for street use" as well.

 

[Neal]

I ran DOT Hoosier radials on a street/track cobra replica for a while. While they are terrific on the track they proved to be less so on the street. They sandblasted the car with road grit as they were so sticky and lasted about 2000 miles. Though I didn't experience any failures I worried about sidewall strength and was very cautious on rough roads. Based on my experience I wouldn't recommend going this route unless you are 90/10 track/street. Too bad as there are virutally no 15" performance tires suitable for use on a 40. I'm planning on another set of wheels/tires for the track and sticking with 15" road tires.

 

[colin artus]

I ran the Hoosiers on a race car for a while which was for street legal (had to be registered and taxed for street use). They are crossplies ( Street TDs) as I recall and work well on track once up to temp. I once drove the car to a race, but I only ever tried it once; it was the scariest thing ever! They made the car follow every rut and groove in the road regardless of where I put the steering wheel.
I remember a friend who had a similar car also Hoosier shod sharing it one year with Stirling Moss at the Coys Festival. In deference to His Greatness he let Moss practise first. He came in after one lap and was all for getting out of the car saying it was undrivable; he was told to get the tyres warm and not to be such a wuss!
You could really do all sorts of heroic stuff once warmed up but they weren't quite as fast as a radial (Yokos). More fun though.

Colin Artus

 

[Tim Kay]

Hoosiers are the only way to go /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

For the relative minimal miles I log driving on the street I prefer more "smiles" than miles /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

As far as I'm concerned the Hoosier has the best fit for a GT40. Less than 26" diameter, fits the wheel well terrific, allows the car to sit a bit lower and the handling is superb. My only concern is, as Neal says, the sticky compound picks up lots of rocks and could potentially cause "spider" dings in the fiberglass /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Ron Earp]

I think I might use them too, I've changed my projected usage pattern to a lot of track use and this would be helpful to NOT having another set of wheels lying around the house.

Colin, not sure about them not being as fast as Yoko radials - we've tried just about everything available over the last 10 months for stick and nothing produces faster lap times that Hoosier race DOT tires, anywhere. The downside as mentioned above is short life. They are a lot like crack cocaine of the racing world, once you use them you can't accept a less sticky tire and keep coming back for more.

 

[colin artus]

Its quite possible that the compound supplied to the UK was harder than what you are using.

Colin Artus

 

[John W]

or substantially lower track temps here...

 

[Ron Earp]

They well might be different - temps and compounds.

I've heard people sometimes commenting on compounds from previous seasons and how they were different than current compounds, so maybe that is the case. Also, to eliminate confusion, I'm not speaking about any street tires here - only race tires. The Hoosiers, Toyos, Yokos, and Goodyears we've messed around with are all race only tires, even though a couple of them carry DOT certification, they are not recommended for street use. To compare race rubber with street compounds is definitely an apples to oranges comparison.

 

[Jools]

Those were the tyres I used last season.
245 on the fronts and 275 rear.
If you take a look at the tech data on the tyres you'll notice that although the rears are " only" 275's their actual tread width is 10.1"(on 15" rim's, 10.3 on 16") . That's larger than many of the "wider" sizes!!
Compound seems good even with our less than sunny climate and low track temps, but guy's at hoosier stressed the importance of scrubbing the tyres in and heat cycling them prior to use to get the best performance and wear rate from them.
The Avon slicks that most of us competing also use , definately get stickier quicker and for longer before going off, but are less convincing road tyres if your caught popping down to the shops by the boys in blue! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Ron Earp]

Jools, they are definitely wider than their section width indicates. We've got this group that puts tires on that will somehow fit 225/50-13 Hoosier (for the Jensen Healey) tires onto 6 inch wide wheels - it looks sort of funny but gets a huge tire on a car that normally would be stuck with something much smaller.

They do need heat cycles and a good scrubbing to work. We're trying a set of Goodyear GS-CS compound tires that are reportedly as sticky as Hoosiers but will last longer - we'll see, still checking that theory out. $800 experiment that might not have good results.

R