Tires Question (LO206)

As a practice day tire, that would make sense in X30, I cannot see you being able to use one race old tires in a second race in X30 and expect to be at the front

Nope but if an lo206 guy bought them after my race day, he’d be a speed demon. I am guessing.

Kevin from full tilt threw some mg reds on a rental kart once and it was hilarious. No lifting at etown.

1 Like

So many times people toss out their tires after X30 races, do you think I could just walk up to someone whos done with their X30 tires and then use them in a LO206 race and be competitive?

Nearly every series would have the 206 on a different spec tire than an X30, so they probably wouldn’t be legal to run in 206.

Dang it, I thought I had unlocked the secret to discovering the mystery of cheap tires

Sadly not. However no one is stopping you from hanging around the track at the end of the day… I used to see plenty of good tires in the trash. Well, OK tires.

More grip isn’t always faster in 206. Many times, it’s the opposite.

Well doesn’t a lot of it depend on the track conditions, like if the track is hot and grippy, then tires with less grip is better, whereas if the track is colder or more slippery, then tires with more grip are better?

That’s a very in-depth discussion that can be had. Most of the time, I’m fighting to get rid of grip in the chassis to free the kart up. I’ve never ran into a situation outside of rain or ridiculous cold where I needed more grip in a 206.

We have a street racing series with open tire compound in 206. The majority of us stick with the tires that read close to the normal club racing spec tire on the durometer. Sometimes we even use old tires that we leave sitting outside for a year, because less grip.

Local track, new tires were often slower than old tires last year. We wanted tires with like 100 laps on them to be fast.

Whoa that’s completely different to what I had in mind, how come tires with less grip are better than tires with grip in your experiences?

Generally:

More grip comes from having a softer compound of tire, which wears away faster. Also the “softness” is from oils/chemicals that are more volatile, so as they dissipate the drop of performance tends to be greater.

So the drop in performance is quicker when the tires are newer? That would make sense, but I still have trouble understanding why new tires are slower than old tires, like @CrocIndy mentioned that 100 lap old tires were better. I understand that older tires can be quicker than new ones because they’re able to scrub onto the surface better than new ones, but I thought 100 lap old tires were really old and wouldn’t be still to pull the same lap times as before, let alone faster lap times

Me and @KartingIsLife are talking about different things, I believe.

It’s super hard to explain what I’m talking about.

When talking about 206, it’s a completely different discussion about tires because it’s so polar opposite of anything with power. Less grip = freer kart = faster laps in a 206. Older tires = less grip. Grip = bind and scrub.

1 Like

And there is a point where said tires will heat cycle/wear out and need to be replaced, because they will lose all available grip.

I feel like I’m making things more confusing the more I talk. :man_shrugging:t2:

Ok I can understand this, but how come this doesn’t apply to faster karts?

You have power to use the grip.

So basically the reason why you use older tires in LO206 is to free the kart, which isn’t necessary in faster karts because they use the higher power to free up their kart? I’m guessing if that’s the case, they use grippier newer tires to balance to engine power whereas the LO206 doesn’t need to do that

We run Hoosier 60B tires at OVKA/G&J kartway. We generally get around 5 race days (2 morning warm-ups, Qualifying, Pre-Final and Finals) before you will see a change in performance from the tires.

Some people stretch that to 7 races and still run up front. I have seen people run all 14 races on the same set and run mid pack but they also usually run mid pack. I have found after 5 I’m putting on a new sticker set for morning warm-ups so 3 sets a year.

On my 420cc kart I get 2 races and they are corded and at Whiteland I corded them the same day.

Can you unpack this? In my mind your comparing MG Reds vs. MG Yellows, but I’m infering and I’m not sure that is what you mean . . .

I was merely comparing higher grip tires vs lower grip tires. No specific compounds in mind, just generalization.