I purchased the A3S03 Hoosiers last March. I ran about 12 events on them. I always drive them to the AX, but it's only 3-4 miles away. They are always stored in a dark unheated/cooled space.

Anyway, the tires just seem dead. Don't have their ol' get up and hold...

Since they never get really hot at an AX, like they would at a track, I would think the lack of "heat cycling" would keep them lively until they're corded. Well, actually I just noticed that one has a dime size cord patch.

Are they gone? Am I in denial?

After seeing the picture of JP's car, I don't think I will believe you AX guys when you say your tires don't really get very hot.
I think you're in denial. But I really have no AX experience. I just know you can't tell when a Hoosier is done by looking at it unless you flat spotted it. Personally, I don't like driving my car with Hoosiers just the two blocks from my garage to the trailer and I don't go over 25 mph.

You pretty much nailed it -- when they don't "stick" anymore, they're done...

I have a set on my car now that is nowhere near corded and in fact still has visible grooving, but they don't stick worth a darn. Relatively speaking...they're still better than 90% of street tires and probably many -R tires too. I'll keep 'em until they're -completely- toasted, for DE's and "play" events, since I have 2 other sets of wheels.

They're horrible to drive on the streets. Wears your arms out with steering corrections just idling down the neighborhood lane. Makes you feel like an old time racer! I actually do about two miles of old rough freeway at 60-70mph traveling to the AX site. With the Hoosiers, when you cross a concrete section, the car continually kinda suddenly jumps like it was tugged on by God, or someone.

I just don't want to budget for the Hoosier boutique anymore. I need more play for my pay. I see some Kumho Victoracers in my future. I can take the 219.00 savings and go do a couple of track days! And still have more rubber left. Damn, I'm cheap.

Any other tires to consider?

I use Toyo Proxes RA1 on the 2.0. Sticky, seem to wear well (for a 40 treadwear rating). Huts the thumbs, elbows and such and ride like shit.

Putting the street 195/65 15's back on turns the car into a little limo. No kickback, 3.2K rather than 4K rpm to run with freeway traffic. And they hang the tail out better

May run them at the next short track event just to see how much difference they really make.

Hi Joseph,

For what it's worth, I think the heat cycles get to them in auto-x also but it takes longer. 12 events is pretty good longevity for AS03's judging by what others say where I'm at.

We run Hoosier/Goodyear slicks in the softest compound at auto-x's and we get usually 5 events out of them with a 2 driver car. We usually have 8 runs each so that is 16 per day X 5 days = 80 runs. The auto-x compounds like an AS03 are softer than the road race slicks and go away quicker as they are made to get up to operating temperature on an auto-x course.

We run the slicks for cost savings as much as anything else. We're running more track events, so we use them for 8 heat cycles at the track then retire them to auto-x and wear 'em out!

Personally, before we put the 6 in the 914 we ran the Victoracers in the 205/50/15 size on the stock bodied car and they really lasted a long time, much longer than the AS03's or the slicks. For auto-x I think they are a very budgetary way to go. The only downside for the Victoracers I see is that while the Hoosiers seem to go away in a linear fashion, I was at Thunderhill when the V-Racers decided they were done and you can feel the drop-off in performance each turn in a lap. For me, as they went away, they went away fast and felt very greasy.

Just my limited experience.

Bill P.

That was part of the problem.
It was a cool foggy morning and them R3S03s like "some" heat. After my 5th run, I could lay my hand on em' and feel they were warm. The 6th run was best...traction wise....the sun was coming out.
Highest temps I've measured was 135 at the rear on a 90 deg day last summer.

Guys in the second session had warm asphalt and it showed in their times.....gud excuse # 437

12 events, eh? that sux.

I have prolly close to 200 passes on these Hoosiers and 150 minutes of track time. I'm told the new R3S04s are softer ....so the first run isn't a throwaway. Dunno bout longevity.

When they get old in Indiana?

If you're sliding, the rubber is at it's melting point - hence the black marks left on the madcam. Now that's accelerated heat cycling in my opinion

RA1's are awesome in terms of grip/wear/price quotient. Especially on lightweight cars. My housemate and I ran an entire season of sprints and a six hour enduro (in 104 deg heat in reno) with a Honda Challenge prepped crx (similar weight to a 914) on 6 shaved RA1's. Got 23.5 hours of non-stop driving on one set of full treads last december too. would have made it all 25 hours on them but someone spun into us and put us out of the race.

Bill,

I did twelve events and always run two classes, 4 runs each, which totals 96 runs. Since the AX compound is softer than your race compound I guess that's not so bad.

I'm not concerned about the Victoraces going away suddenly since I'm just autocrossing, although I can see how you would be since you're on a track doing multiple high speed laps.

RocknRollFrenzy: The Toyo RA1's sound interesting. TireRack doesn't carry Toyo. Anyone have a URL for another dealer?

Sometimes it's all about the money. I need a bling bling icon.