225/45/15 Continental Slicks
 

I got my hands on a set of 225/45/15 Continental Slicks. They look like Hoosier R80/R100 slicks. In talking with a friend who runs the series they are suppose to be the new Hoosier R7 compound on a slick carcass.

Does anyone know more about these tires?

They're made by Hoosier for Continental Tire Street Touring in Grand Am.

I have a track day on some. What do you want to know?

I think Hustler and Spoolin2bars have ran Conti's before.

BTDT. Slower than a 205/50 SM6. Mine were 3 scrubs and a sticker, so as fresh as they get unless you own a GrandAm team. Great for track days but not worth anything for racing.

I thought they were the SM7 compound on a slick carcase. So it would make sense if they were slightly slower than SM6s but easier to drive.

I guess it would be more correct to say that the SM7 is going to have the conti compound.

I can't wait for the R7 to be slower than the R6. I still have a sticker set of SM6s that will be worth thousands when it comes time to run at RA this summer :party:

The R7 is supposed to be faster than the R6, the SM7 is supposed to be slower than the SM6 but easier to drive and longer lasting. The R7 and SM7 dont have the same compound, hoosier is making a tire that is better for SM, while also hoping that they free loaders that were buying SM6's to get cheap R6's will go away.

Great info thanks guys!

Is the SM6 THAT fast? I thought conti slicks were pretty serious...

SM6's are that fast. Conti slicks are a very hard compound.

From Jim Drago "All Hoosier R compounds will be the 7 compound next year.. Hoosier believes the 7 is a better tire and wanted SM on their best tire."

Biggest difference seems to be that the SM7 no longer has the "magic lap" that the SM6 had, usually lap 2. If so, this will reduce tire costs a bit. In an SCCA double national or NASA weekend, you needed two sets of stickers to get that last bit of speed. Roll out in qual on stickers and get it done on the 2nd lap, cool them off and race them. Same thing on Sunday. If the magic lap is gone, one could conceivably run competitively on the same set for th whole weekend. They'll still be fastest for the first 4-6 cycles but stickers may no longer be a requirement for pole in a competitive class.

Would be nicer still to be able to qualify and race up front for two weekends but only the RR's do that I think. The Maxxis RC-1 does it for 3 weekends but it's 2-3s slower than Hoosiers.

This goes with what spoolin2bars noticed. When he went to the R6 in the same size he dropped several seconds on a 2 minute track. I think its something like this RS3<NT01<Conti<R6

Can't compare to the sm6. But I went from sticker continental 225's to 205 a6 and went over 5 seconds quicker at Sebring. And the a6's had a few heat cycles and a flat spot on the right front. Haha

The Conti compound is a slightly modified R3 compound (heresay from a guy on our team that has a good realtionship with Hoosier), it's at least two generations older than the r7/sm7 compound.

ie as far as I have heard, the R7 and the conti compounds have very little in common, and I don't think anyone on the planet would want the R7/sm7 to be made from the conti compound.

NOW, I haven't heard anything about the 2014 Conti tire, so maybe they are changing it? Everything I've heard is that it's just carryover from last year. If they are changing the conti compound to be more like the R7 than all of the Grand AM CTSCC track records are going to get smashed...

What I was told by the hoosier rep I asked. SM7 will be slower than SM6 (but longer lasting and easier to drive), R7 will be a lot faster than R6. And the A7 isnt going to be a significant change over the A6.

Note what I heard from Jeff Speer at Hoosier.

SM7/R7 are the same compound as each other.


SM6 compound discontinued. Whether the SM7 is faster or not I don't know. A recent tire test conducted by Hoosier with the top Spec Miata drivers in the country seems to indicate the SM7's don't have the magic lap the SM6's had and are even easier to drive, but no faster.