So at what speed do you finally get traction?

[Junkyard Dog]

I goofed off today. A car stopped ahead of me to turn left into a parking lot. I stopped. The road was arrow straight ahead and nobody else was coming the other way. There was a wide bridge, flat as a board, with rough concrete, which I thought would provide traction. I have Trofeo RS tires, and they were already up to temperature.

I switched to Drag Mode. When the car turned left, I rolled into the gas so as not to spin the wheels and was already moving along quite well before I put the pedal to the floor. The car got crooked anyway. Instead of lifting, I stayed in it and steered. The car straightened, but when it shifted gears, it got squirrely again, and even after it straightened it would slip some. I did not look at the speedometer, so as to pay attention to my direction and keeping the car straight, but it was moving pretty quickly at this point.

So does Drag Mode just allow the car to fishtail and slide?

How fast do you have to go before the tires will grab confidently?

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[smurfslayer]

The Trofeos stick like glue when they’re HOT like on a track after a warm up lap, but at street temps, even in the summer, you still need to have them hotter than you think for them to really grab. Even then, they’re not a drag racing tire.

The Pilot 4s isn’t “better” in this regard, but they do seem to have more available traction at lower temperatures and stay even with the Trofeos until we get to really dedicated track temps. Further, they don’t fall off the cliff traction wise after a few thousand miles. Mine had easily another 5k miles of tread, but I could spin them at 60mph.

So first, how many miles are on your Mustang’s trofeos? if more than about 1500-2000, they’re probably cooked if you do any kind of spirited driving.

Street surfaces never yield the same available traction as a road course or drag track. At track attack I was spinning through most of 1st and 2nd on their PS4S - an excellent surface, but not “prepped”. My Dark Horse on the street is much more of a handful to launch, mostly due to really poor quality pavement, especially the stuff that’s been worn to near smooth. That’s just an exercise in frustration.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

2800 miles but only one track day

 

[smurfslayer]

2800 miles but only one track day

My bet is, they’re shagged.

 

[Saphire]

Seems we'll never find the proper street tires.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

My bet is, they’re shagged.

Damn. I was hoping I would get at least another track day out of them . . .

 

[smurfslayer]

Floor it from 40-45, let the downshift’s happen normally. if you spin... they’re going or gone. Like I said, I was able to spin at 60; I410 around San Antonio passing a semi.

 

[Starship Enterprise]

The key word I picked up on was CONCRETE. I just watched a video of Dale Jr. talking about how much NASCAR drivers hate racing at Dover because the concrete track is slick and they can’t get traction.

Without considering any other factors, try accelerating on asphalt.

 

[robvas]

The key word I picked up on was CONCRETE. I just watched a video of Dale Jr. talking about how much NASCAR drivers hate racing at Dover because the concrete track is slick and they can’t get traction.

Without considering any other factors, try accelerating on asphalt.

Concrete has way more traction than asphalt

 

[Junkyard Dog]

The key word I picked up on was CONCRETE. I just watched a video of Dale Jr. talking about how much NASCAR drivers hate racing at Dover because the concrete track is slick and they can’t get traction.

Without considering any other factors, try accelerating on asphalt.

Concrete has way more traction than asphalt

LOL, I did not mean to start a fight. I just assumed the concrete would have more traction, and as a plus it was arrow straight and flat and empty, but, yeah, I was skidding around like I was on ice.

Maybe I'll try it again on asphalt and report back.

 

[Starship Enterprise]

Concrete has way more traction than asphalt

Dale Earnhart Jr. seems to differ with you….lol.

 

[JohnWimsey]

I goofed off today. A car stopped ahead of me to turn left into a parking lot. I stopped. The road was arrow straight ahead and nobody else was coming the other way. There was a wide bridge, flat as a board, with rough concrete, which I thought would provide traction. I have Trofeo RS tires, and they were already up to temperature.

I switched to Drag Mode. When the car turned left, I rolled into the gas so as not to spin the wheels and was already moving along quite well before I put the pedal to the floor. The car got crooked anyway. Instead of lifting, I stayed in it and steered. The car straightened, but when it shifted gears, it got squirrely again, and even after it straightened it would slip some. I did not look at the speedometer, so as to pay attention to my direction and keeping the car straight, but it was moving pretty quickly at this point.

So does Drag Mode just allow the car to fishtail and slide?

How fast do you have to go before the tires will grab confidently?

Zero

 

[robvas]

Dale Earnhart Jr. seems to differ with you….lol.

He never says "asphalt has more traction than concrete"

Because it doesn't.

Dover is one of the only concrete tracks. They wear tires out faster. They take rubber (from the cars going around the track) differently than asphalt. The cars are set up for asphalt. Goodyear actually just came out with a new tire just for the track at Dover.

You're comparing apples to oranges for a street car and a 200mph oval track car.

Take your car out on concrete and see how much better it grips than asphalt. Especially when it gets hot out and all the oils come out to the surface. Asphalt gets hotter than concrete in the sun as well.

Drag strips are made of concrete btw. Go ask any racer what they want to launch on. Especially no-prep guys.

But both NASCAR and drag racers want a ton of rubber on the track for grip. Neither of them want a bare surface.

 

[smurfslayer]

https://buildingspeed.org/2012/09/28/dover-cement-vs-asphalt/

prepped concrete that is ‘run in’ may have more available traction, but on the street, abrasive asphalt is likely more ‘sticky’.

 

[robvas]

https://buildingspeed.org/2012/09/28/dover-cement-vs-asphalt/

prepped concrete that is ‘run in’ may have more available traction, but on the street, abrasive asphalt is likely more ‘sticky’.

It's definitely worse for drag racing.

Your article talks about most of the things I said.

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