Well (i'm sure you know)the BFG's run about a half inch wider than the Hoosiers.

 

The 265/35 is actually about the same height as a 285/30 I think.

 

According to TireRack it's actually 0.1" taller. The section width looks right but the tread width appears narrower than the 285's. Unfortunately it was measured on a 9.5" wheel while the 285's were done on a 10" wheel. So YMMV.

 

Yup, 0.1" sounds a lot like "about the same". Haha

 

If the ET pro is anything like the SD tour that will be the end of our BFG test. I'm pretty happy with the data I have so far from el toro, but we'll find out soon enough.

we'll be at the lincoln pro in SM. you should join us, unless you want to get beat by the CSP cars in S1.

 

so any comments about how the tires worked at mineral wells?

 

Yes.

I'm not going to do a formal write up on the College Station Tour last month. Suffice it to say, these tires NEED lots of heat to be effective. If the weather is anything below 70 degrees, don't even waste your time. Run something else.

Mineral Wells Pro-Solo was this past weekend. Late entries were a little light, so I offered my car up to be dual driven in another class in order to bolster the numbers. Luke Oxner (former STU Evo driver) and Mike Brausen (current FP Evo driver) jumped at the chance and ran my car together in F-Prepared. Which was bumped into R2 with the rest of the prepared classes.

I ran in ASP with my co-driver Blanton, we were grouped in S1 with SSP, ASP and CSP. The SCCA is trying some new class bumping combos in order to make complete classes. Not sure how I feel about this. As SSP, ASP and CSP all have completely different vehicles which means course dependencies now become a big factor.

Anyway, we ran 1st and R2 (Luke and Mike) ran 6th group or last.

I took the early lead after both AM, and PM sessions on Saturday. But Chris Ramey in the SSP C6 Z06 was just over a tenth behind me. Luke also took the lead over R2 with Troy Acosta in the FP "Strelniks" Boxster about a tenth back also.

Sunday AM Luke and I both slipped to 2nd place. But qualified for the Super Challenge.

I made it into the 3rd bracket or 8th qualifier but lost to eventual winner Mark Wortham. It wasn't until these runs that I really noticed the tires were greasy.

Long story short, my take on the BFG's thus far. Horrible in the cold. Even in warm weather they will need at least one if not two runs to come up to temp. After that, they will heat soak quickly and it will be tough to keep them in their narrow temp range. I have not taken pyrometer readings. But based on my experience I would say somewhere between 100-120 degrees is optimum.

They wear like iron. Granted, we had two set of wheels and tires to work with. They absolutely took the beating we gave them like a champ. Including challenge rounds we put 56 runs. If this had been a set of hooisers they would have been completely toast.

Now keep in mind that all of these sets were used when we got them. Since we are walking away with two free BFG's. I am going to go ahead and test a fresh set. But I don't expect the characteristics to be any different. Just hoping the grip is better. Either way, I do not plan to run BFG's at anything but Pro's. Throwing away runs at a Tour or Nationals is just not an option to me.

We will be testing both BFG's and hooisers at Spring Nats next.

Shot of Mike running the car and my fav shot from the weeknd.

 

Hmm...now I want to hear Marshall's take on them. Since they may or may not have been running them at the El Toro Pro.

 

i figured our el toro pax results and coned scratch times would have said enough. I suspect we might have had been able to do a 44.5 before the diff broke.

I think we'll stick with them at least through the end of the year just to see how they do but so far they seem to be ok.

 

Having run them in cooler weather mostly. I was really excited to see how much faster they go as they got heat into them. I figured they would just be an awesome summer tire. However, during the 80+ degree heat during challenge rounds I have no doubt they were over heated even with spraying.

 

we have not had any issues with the compound over heating. The hottest we've measured them with a needle pyrometer is 170*F. but we are still learning.

 

I don't think mine have gotten that hot. Heck, the highest I've ever seen a hooiser was in the 140's. But that was with a IR pyrometer.

So you're telling me your tires have never gotten greasy? Where do you think they are happy at exactly then?

 

yep. I think they need to be 100+ to start working. they tend to run in the 140-150 range but that is more a function of time between runs than anything else. we haven't had to spray them at all, but we also haven't run them at a hot day yet (~80* is as hot as it's been) so perhaps my opinion will change. Any of the times they have sucked for us they have sucked from the first run.

 

I grabbed a set when they were >$200 a tire. If my R6's cord out next weekend i'll be mounting these Sunday to be used in racing conditions and report in. Should be hot as s*it with lots of fast cars so i'll be pushing them for 30+ mins on Sebring's concrete/pavement.

 

^^^ ??? ^^^