Anyone has Hoosiors on for both street and track use?

[GTED]

My Yoko A048s are about ready for retirement, and I'm considering replacing them with the A6s.  If i do 4-6 trackdays a year and some fun drive on the back roads on some weekends, how many miles will I get from the A6s?  Thx

GTED

[Lane]

I have Hoosier A6 tires on a 2nd set of wheels and I had intended to swap them on just for track events (HPDE, auto-x) in place of my R888 street tires.  What has happened is that the Hoosiers tend to stay on for street driving now too.  Aside from how much better the Hoosiers are on the track than the R88s, their grip on the street that much better as well (even without the Hoosiers being hot).  I find it hard to take them off.  They do so much better when it comes time to give someone else their first ride in the passenger seat.

As you'd expect, they don't like anything more than a light rain.  Highway speeds in an unanticipated downpour with them is a white-knuckled ordeal.  And another big drawback is that they will pick up small stones and throw them at the car behind you.  I had a buddy behind me when I was in the Atom, and he was driving my Exige.  I put a nice stone chip or two in the windshield of the Exige during that drive.   I can't imagine how someone in traffic would hate me if those stone chips had happened to someone else.

On a positive note, the Hoosiers are lasting forever.  I've had them on for 2 years, done 8 or 9 track events with them and a good bit of street driving, and they still look to be at 80% tread.  Now this probably wouldn't be a good use for them for someone who wants to use them for competition as they'd probably say I'm going to heat cycle them out prematurely.  But with the light weight of our cars, I tend to think the tires only get close to their optimum temperature when run extremely hard on the track and just stay near ambient temp during street driving.  So I doubt that street use is shortening their useful life that much, if any.  Time will tell.

The Atom offers a lot for performance and these tires allow me to use more of it.  I love 'em and have come to view most of the other tires I've tried as putting an artificial limit on the car's capabilities.  A good analogy would be buying a high-end audio system and using an average set of speakers with it.  It all may sound fine, but it's not allowing everything to operate to its potential.

[FourFather]

Lane, Excellent post, and pretty much mirrors my experience all the way around.

Thanks for posting!

Eddie

[GTED]

Lane and Eddie

Great to hear your input!  So, no concern about the construction of the A6s for road debris to potentially cause a flat tire? 

As for rain, I'm not to bothered by it, since I only take the Atom out during good weather, plus, if I were to get the A6s (which with you input, I'm heavily leaning towards doing), I'd have the shop to add a few "rain grooves" on the tires.

GTED

[Lane]

[quote="GTED"]
So, no concern about the construction of the A6s for road debris to potentially cause a flat tire? 
[/quote]

No more concern than I have with a normal street tire - probably because where I live, typical road debris is mainly tree branches and roadkill.

[atomaker]

As a Hoosier dealer TMI wants to advise that A6/R6 tires are "Not For Highway Use".  Accordingly, Hoosier & TMI most strongly recommend that these tires never be used for any road use on any Ariel Atom, or other vehicle.  The "DOT" designation doesn't mean that any road use is approved or recommended.  It's only a relative Hoosier performance rating & designation.  Forewarned is forearmed.
Regards,
TMI AutoTech, Inc. 

[Maxime06]

[quote="atomaker"]
As a Hoosier dealer TMI wants to advise that A6/R6 tires are "Not For Highway Use".  Accordingly, Hoosier & TMI most strongly recommend that these tires never be used for any road use on any Ariel Atom, or other vehicle.  The "DOT" designation doesn't mean that any road use is approved or recommended.  It's only a relative Hoosier performance rating & designation.  Forewarned is forearmed.
Regards,
TMI AutoTech, Inc.
[/quote]

Does this means that those tyre are not street legal (here in the UK?)
Thanks

[Lane]

That's a very good point.  My "highway use" is, at most, 30 minutes of driving around town where I live, or a trip to the next town over for a car show, track event, etc.  I would definitely not have these tires on the car for my next 3000 mile trip across the country, nor would I feel comfortable doing so.

[quote="atomaker"]
As a Hoosier dealer TMI wants to advise that A6/R6 tires are "Not For Highway Use".  Accordingly, Hoosier & TMI most strongly recommend that these tires never be used for any road use on any Ariel Atom, or other vehicle.  The "DOT" designation doesn't mean that any road use is approved or recommended.  It's only a relative Hoosier performance rating & designation.  Forewarned is forearmed.
Regards,
TMI AutoTech, Inc.
[/quote]

[atomaker]

We're unable to speak to any UK regs that may apply to the use of such off-road tires, but we'd suspect that the same applies as here in North America?  Regardless, our own/Hoosier's strongest possible recommendation against using them on the road would certainly apply.
Regards,
TMI AutoTech, Inc.