I have a DE at ThunderHill in 1.5weeks and was hoping to swap wheels/tires at the event to my GT2 wheels with Hankook Ventus TD semi slicks. I used these tires for the first time at Infineon last month- incredible grip! My street tires are Hankook V12s (fine for street but not ideal for track!).

My alignment isn't that aggressive so my question is how much damage or heat cycle count would it be to drive with these tires on the car?

 

1 heat cycle is when you get them up to full temp and then they cool down. You will only do 1 heat cycle to thill and 1 heat cycle back from thill. Drive on them there, if you do not have a support vehicle.

 

I'm thinking this is the right answer. It's only a rubber- might as well burn'em down!

You still going to Nevada F1?

 

Are the tires DOT rated for road/highway use? If not, and you have an accident your insurance probably is invalid.

John in Vancouver

 

Yes they are DOT and Hankook said to go for it- so swapping wheels this weekend ahead of traveling up.

 

Yes I'm going should be fun. I'm trailing the car up Fri and coming back Sun.

 

Good call. I regularly drive to THill with my R888s on the car, vice swapping them out when I get up there. A little road noise, but not harmful to the track tires

 

Yah these are a bit louder as well.

Hankook said to start with 32/40 psi for ride ip then adjust down for tracking so good to go. I pity anyone behind me though as these pick up every little rock on the road!

 

Have a great time F1 and try to get some video of the track and your exhaust at full attack up there.

 

I do a drive about this long to the track on my Toyo Proxes R888. I wouldn't want to get stuck in a heavy rain and would definitely pull over and wait that out, but otherwise it's fine. You're not truly heat cycling the tires with a drive on the street to the track since the tires don't reach a high enough temp for it to be considered a heat cycle as long as you're not driving like a nut cornering really hard and/or at very high speeds.

The road noise is definitely a lot more than with regular street tires, but nothing the radio doesn't get rid of at even a relatively low volume.