Heat Cycling for DE Track Tires

[Jittsl]

Originally Posted by kcpaz

The point that I was trying to make, was that if all you are doing is DE (which is defined as driver's education and not a competition in any way) then what's the point of running an R-Comp tire? You're not competing against anybody, there's no contingency programs, and a lot of clubs won't even record lap times, so unless you have your own lap timer, you have no idea how fast you're going anyway. If your goal is to try and turn the fastest lap time possible, then move up to time trials and make your effort actually mean something. Why not? If you've got a lap timer in your car during your DE run and you're trying to compare your lap times against your fellow DE drivers, then you aren't using DE for it's intended purpose. I can't imagine being satisfied for 10 years just doing DE and never moving up to any sort of competitive group.

Also, the O.P. stated that he was going to be using the R-Comps on a stock Boxster. Seems like there should be about 4-5 other suspension modifications that I would consider first before moving up to a better tire.

KC, wouldn't the logical conclusion of your argument be that we should all do our DEs in VWs rather than choose a high performance vehicles? I've got no issue with the adoption of R compound tires as part of the learning process. The faster your car travels (which should be the result of using better tires) the faster you have to think and react and and that is part of the learning of DEing.

I used my DE experience (along with a number of weekends with Dennis Macchio at Bertil Roos) as a way of getting my skills to a level required to allow me to race however I've known lots of DEers who had no intention of ever going racing. They just liked the opportunity to drive their car in the conditions that it was designed to enjoy. No competition in it. Just fun, learning and safety improvement. I have no problem with that.

I do however fully agree that R compounds used with stock suspension settings are somewhat wasted. And since we are talking about the order of things, I hope the first money spent was on getting all of the safety gear up to the highest possible standard.