sacmiata

I hear RA-1's are great towards the end of there life -and I can get 6 for 200that are looking like they are getting there. They all look more or less like this. I have never bought or ran with r-comps but it seems like a decent deal (mounting an balancing is another 100 for four tires). About how many days you think I could push with these at the track (4 or 5?). These would be either stretched on some 15x8's (6ul's) or I will find some cheap 15x7's...this is on a naturally asperated car.

curly

iTrader: (25)

I local shop will mount race take offs (1-5 heat cycles) for the price of mounting and balancing (~$100, like you said). So it's not the BEST deal, but if you can't find a shop that will give you a deal like that, it might be your best bet. RA-1's do indeed last quite a while, unfortunately I don't have any direct experience with them to tell you how much life is left in those. And technically speaking the original owner is the only one that can tell you in terms of how many heat cycles are in them.

ScottFW

iTrader: (4)

Everyone I've ever talked to about RA1s says they can handle a bunch of heat cycles without a severe degradation in performance. Unless you're racing and you need every last bit of grip, they should still be fine from that standpoint. However, three of those are pretty significantly into the wear bars. I think 4-5 track days is a bit much to expect, but you'd probably get a weekend out of them before cording. Six tires for $200, round down to $30/tire = $120/set plus $100 for mount & balance = $220+ for tires that might last 2 maybe 3 track days. Doesn't seem like a great deal. If you're actually spending money for race take-offs they should have more tread life left. If you know a shop that will give them to you for free, then with that much tread they are worth the price of mounting & balancing. JMHO.

This time of year around here we tend to get t-storms in the afternoons. With that little tread (about zero) I would not drive those tires on the street at all. Do you have a tire trailer for getting them to the track?

crashnscar

iTrader: (9)

Those tires have tons of life left in them. Are they someone's old SM tires? I'd probably put them on your 8s, might be stretched a little but will work well.
$100 is a lot for mounting/balancing. I pay $50.

As long as you don't slide the car a lot and don't spin the tires, those should last 4-5 days pretty easily. They are good until you see cords, and sometimes a while after that. :-)

Will you be driving on them to the track? Everything I said was for trailering and not driving to the track.

Edit: That 3rd tire in is about the most tread I would run on an RA-1. Probably about 4/32. Otherwise they get tread squirm and extra heat builds up. Bad.

boileralum

iTrader: (8)

It really depends on how hard you are on them. If you are new to running your car on the track, you will probably be a bit timid and not push the car or tires all that hard, and might get a few days out of them. I wouldn't count on "4-5" though.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

I agree with everything. When you get down to just 2-stripes that means the tire is ready to hook and you have like 6-hours left in that tire...which is about 3-track events for me naturally aspirated.

From what I understand the 205's on 8's work the same as 225's on 9's...just enough stretch to get the perfect contact patch and enough stretch to make response wunderbar. buy them.

sacmiata

Yeah these are from a local SM guy. He is going to r888's I guess.
The other two have alittle more tread, unfortunately Ive been looking and havent found any SM guys or shops that have take-offs for anything close to this. All the locals I know just end up tracking the hell out of there take off's so it seems the market out here is limited.

The UL's have RS-2's that have alot of life in em so I hate to pull them off (probably just end up selling the RS-2's).....but I'll be faster with the r-comps regardless. I will be trailering the tires to and from the track. Thanks for all the input.

...the only downside is once you cross the line to r-comps is that you wont go back to performance street tires.