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200tw tires for Track use

sibanez

New member
Location
Camp Hill, PA
Car(s)
2006 Audi A3 3.2
I’ve yet to have tire rack heat cycle a set of tires for me and I don’t have an extra track set. I’ll give it a try next time
You can heat cycle them yourself. Put the tires on and find an empty parking lot . . . do several figure 8s in each direction, stop hard a few times . . . put your hand on the tires and stop when they are hot to the touch. Go home, jack the car up to get all four wheels off the ground and let them rest for 24 hours.
 
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GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
You can heat cycle them yourself. Put the cars on and find an empty parking lot . . . do several figure 8s in each direction, stop hard a few times . . . put your hand on the tires and stop when they are hot to the touch. Go home, jack the car up to get all four wheels off the ground and let them rest for 24 hours.
It's almost impossible to get enough heat in the rears.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
I took my rears off after getting home from the track and found the same failure on both tires. Unfortunately that means all 4 suffered from this failure to various degrees. I've now talked to two guys that had this seam come apart at speed on track. Waiting to hear back from TireRack before contacting Falken.
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Wow, that rules the RT660 out for me, as I use my 200tw tires for both track and autocross.

I used to track on the 615's and never had any issues with either of my STIs.

That's kind of crazy.
 

krs

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Car(s)
MKVIIS R
Everyone I talked to that runs the RT660 over the weekend said yep, they have a similar seem showing.
 

jmblur

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
2017 Golf R
Is it crazy to think my r-s4s are heat cycling out after ~100x 70 second runs (plus 45 highway miles each way to and from 12 events)? Felt like I drove well, took a couple instructors with me who both said I had some small things to work on but was driving well, but I was down at least a couple seconds more than usual. I did set up suspension slightly softer than last time and the car felt great (if maybe a touch tight) but just felt like I couldn't push them any more.

Obviously they still have a ton of tread because R-S4.

Either that or I just wasn't driving as well as I thought, which is always possible!
 

SouthFL_Mk7.5

Autocross Champion
Location
South Florida
Car(s)
2019 GTI S
Just ordered a set of V730 for my ILX. My sons GTI is on 660’s. Although the cars aren’t the same, they are set up very similarly in terms of alignment settings and suspension mods….. Will be interesting to feel the comparison between the two tires next autocross.
They just arrived. Sure look nice!

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GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
Is it crazy to think my r-s4s are heat cycling out after ~100x 70 second runs (plus 45 highway miles each way to and from 12 events)? Felt like I drove well, took a couple instructors with me who both said I had some small things to work on but was driving well, but I was down at least a couple seconds more than usual. I did set up suspension slightly softer than last time and the car felt great (if maybe a touch tight) but just felt like I couldn't push them any more.

Obviously they still have a ton of tread because R-S4.

Either that or I just wasn't driving as well as I thought, which is always possible!
Tires can and do great cycle out.

I was tracking my Miata on MSS back in the day and they heat cycled out with 50% tread left.
 

DerHase

Autocross Champion
Location
Hampton Roads, VA
Car(s)
2019 GTI Rabbit
Didn't bother taking super in depth measurements, but took a friend's 235/40R18 RT660s off to install 245/40R18 RT660s on his 18x8 Enkei whatevers.

I have some 245/40R17 RT660s on 17x9 Apex wheels so lined some up for comparison purposes. Main takeaway is wider wheel = more effective contact patch all else being equal. My 245/40R17s are obviously worn from 4 days at VIR, but I suspect the corner profile would be noticeably more square vs new 245s pinched on an 8 in wheel.

245/40R18 on 18x8 vs
235/40R18 on 18x8
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235/40R18 on 18x8 vs
245/40R17 on 17x9

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245/40R18 on 18x8 vs
245/40R17 on 17x9

793C26D9-FFD3-4EE4-9F0E-7A01E5A98567.jpeg

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69D38CDA-AA5E-44EB-97DD-4F9A42DE580D.jpeg

Stack of (4) 245/40R18 RT660 on 18x8 is 39mm shorter overall vs (4) 245/40R17 RT660 on 17x9 wheels.


No real scientific reason for posting, but figure it may be useful for fitment purposes to someone.

Realistically more tire is almost always better within reason, and same with wheel width. Run as much as you're limited to. I'd run a bit more tire than wheel for autocross depending on class, and more wheel vs tire for HPDE due to sidewall support giving improved tire (sidewall) wear. And of course these are generalities until you do specific testing.
 
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SouthFL_Mk7.5

Autocross Champion
Location
South Florida
Car(s)
2019 GTI S
Just taking off the 660’s from their second day of autocross use.

Wearing nice and even for the most part. I have a set of 5 wheels and 660s. One is a spare which gets rotated in per event.

Four of the five wearing superbly.
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Found what might be the horizontal gash beginning to emerge on the fifth. Or maybe we just ran over a bit of debris on the course. Either way, gonna keep my eye on it.

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Overall these tires are just incredible. I started years ago with ZI and ZII Star Specs, S-02’s, etc. Fast forward to RT615K more recently. Now the 660’s outshine them all (as they should, since development of tires has come a long way over the past couple decades!). These 660’s have great turn in, Overal Grip and predictable break away. They just take what you throw at them in stride. Makes it easy for one to concentrate on the technical aspects of the course instead of having tires that quit on you while you’re trying to perfect your skills!
 
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MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
That gash has been seen by a number of users on here. Looks like it's a manufacturing defect
 
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