How to heat cycle race tires
 

From here: http://www.teamhankook.com/heat.html


> First outing on the new tires - throw the first 3 laps away (or a first practice session). I ALWAYS bring the tires up to temperature slowly. Meaning, the first lap go 50%? in the turns and over the next 3 laps total bring the tires up to 85% corner. I usually continue this for the rest of the session (85%) until the last couple of laps - I give it 100% for a lap or two. Then I bring the tires back down for a lap or two not pushing them hard in the turns.

> Next session - Again, don't go out of the box 100%. Use the first lap at 70%, the second lap at 80% and then go for it on the 3rd lap, etc. Use the cool down lap to bring the tires back down in temp (unless you are serious about tire temps)

> After each session, I'm ---- about this, but I let the car sit in a pit stall till the tires come down in temperature (enough to easily hold your hand on them so they won't pickup debris)

After your session, inspect the tires. If you have heat cycled them properly, you will have a nice smooth tire. If you pushed the tire too hard this first session, you will see micro "pock" marks on the edge of the tire. That means you brought the tire up to temperature too quickly the first time. If this occurs, you have a couple of choices. Rotate the tire to the less stressed position on the car (to the back if you are driving a front wheel drive car for example) or you can flip the tire on the rim (Special note - read below)

One of the most common questions I am asked is the directional arrow or "this side out" markings on the tires. Special Note: The directional arrow or mount this side out ONLY pertains to the tire when new and running through your first 2 heat cycles. Once the tire has been heat cycled, it does not matter which direction the tire is mounted.

If you treat the tires good in the beginning, they will repay you race after race. We have found consistantly that our fastest times are ALWAYS at the end of each race (the tire gets better and better).

I don't follow this, and I would say it is a bit different for AutoX compound vs. road race compound as operating temp is different.

For this current set. I just took them to a practice event, ran them 3 good laps, then I pushed it. Took them home bagged then and used them the next day.

Another friend of mine puts his on his bimmer, does a couple of hard runs and un-mounts them (in a parking lot).

yeah, best way is to let them heat up, and then let it sit for like 2 days in a garage unmounted (or with car jacked up) but it doesnt work for me so i will be using that method posted above

I run them quick the first lap (85%) and hard the rest until my cool down lap. So far 5 heat cycles and still holding great (street tires though)

what tires are you running urban?

just buy 'em from tire rack and they arrive heat-cycled :D

Hoosier A6's do not require ehat cycling nor shaving, just give em hell and they love it.
Now a track tire, that's not my cup of tea yet, but i would wanna talk to someone very experienced with this. So far what I have gathered is that you wanna get them up to temp quick, and then let them cool down quick, if you do this they will preform better and last longer. Not sure how true that is, I never had race tires.

Urban. Thanks for that link and info. I got my closeout Kooks and haven't gotten them on the track yet. My car is still at BEGI. Good to know that Hankook doesn't recommend get em hot and leave them a day or two to cure!

Did you get some of those closeout tires from tamparacing I put up here? The 205/50/15 z214 for $85 in the hard compound is still available from Tampa or Frisby tire. The Z211 older model is also still out there at $80 for 205/50/15 hard and 225/50/16 in hard and medium compounds. Hell of a deal for anyone running track days!

cueball1, ive got a set of z214s in medium compound from there also and thats the info they gave me when i asked about shaving and heat cycling ;)

i asked several of my friends who race professionally and they said its complete opposite :)

you want to heat them up gradually and let them sit for few days unmounted (if you have time for that). otherwise you want to do what was said in original post ;)

I don't understand the concept of heat cycling yet as I haven't really looked into it yet, but I can see how it could go either way...once I looking into this thoroughly I will make my decision then, but feel free to send me as much info to bookmark for when I'm ready to tackle this task.

Zabac,

Heat cycling is done only with R-compound rubber. It is completely different from street compound tires. The rubber changes it's consistency when heated and cooled. The idea of heat cycling is to heat the tires up on the track or in an oven without significantly wearing the tires. After reaching operating temperature and then allowing the tire to cool and rest for a day or two the rubber changes. It is more resistant to wear, chunking, marbling and more consistent at the track. This concept is unique to racing compound rubber. Some newer racing compounds do not require this.

Autocrossers often ignore this because of the short run time. The tires never really heat up that much.

Different racing tires also react to repeated heat cycling differently. Figure every track session or race counts as a heat cycle. Some tires can be cycled over and over, like the RA1, and not go away or suffer obviously. Some tires start to get to hard after after just 5 or 6 cycles of heating and cooling. In my research it looks like the fastest tires tend to stand up less cycles. Tires like the Toyo RA1 aren't the fastest tire out there but it is durable and more consistent over it's life. That's one reason it's been so popular as a spec racing series tire and for HPDE use.

For those of us not rich enough to devote money to multiple sets of r-compound tires and wheels for track use, the method Urban put up is a short cut. Not the ideal method but helpful to those that can't run part of one track session on your new tires and then swap on your 2nd set for the rest of the day to let them rest.

For people running street compound tires heat cycling isn't a consideration. Completely different material used.

yeap. street tires dont need to be heat cycled (read: azenis, rs2, etc)