Yea I know it seems obvious but competition tyres are still made in crossply.

My problem is I'm getting conflicting advice from some very respectable people.

Advice 1 is go for radials because crossplies cannot cope with more than 280hp

Advice 2 is go for crossplys because they are a taller tyre and hence give better traction and braking and will cope with oodles of HP

Both sets of advice from manufacturers main agents!

What should I do?

Whatever you do don't do this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c23MFIKiVdE

At lower power levels, crossplys are fun and drift much more smoothly than radials as they don’t snatch the same way when grip returns. I had a set on the Falcon for a while and in the dry they were a right laugh on the twisty far north Scotish roads but in the wet grip was less than impressive, also give a more jarring ride. Originally bought simply cos they filled the arches better than the radials. I was actually going to fit the beetle out in them, note though getting the right size is not very easy as they have a funny sizing system.

I'd say they were really for cheap thrills on something that wasn't up to pushing radials hard enough. Play tyres if you will



[Edited on 3/12/08 by Mr Whippy]

Just my observations from preparing a Radical for racing. We always used kevlar reinforced cross ply slicks from Avon. Very light and grippy tires and very easy to slide on track as they did some amount of warning before loosing grip. However if you want a tredded tyre eg for wet conditions then steel reinforced radials every time.

I think your main problem will be trying to find a good all round tyre in the competition crossply range,the one thats most common is the Avon acb10,great in the dry,but not so great in the wet,and very expensive,particularly in the wider size you will require for a big V8,my choice would be the toyo r888,good in wet,and great in the dry,can be used for both road and track,and less than 1/2 the price of acb10

quote:

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Whatever you do don't do this:

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Yea the wimp! Down to slow reactions if you ask me.

Thanks for all the advice chaps I got a U2U on the subject as follows

"Generally a crossply will have it's peak grip at a higher slip angle than a radial, this should make it easier to drive on. The tyre side force basically is at 90deg to the tyre meaning a drag force of side force x sin slip angle. This has two effects: the drag force heats the tyre which means it gets up to temp more quickly (good for short events) but also slows the car down which can be a problem when the drag force approximates the drive force (low power and/or high cornering speed). Hopefully this explains why crossplys are still popular for speed events.
With aero cars the high downforce should load the tyres and generate heat. If the driver is good enough the radial should be quicker.
One other consideration is camber sensitivity, crossplies tend to be more camber sensitive ie more camber thrust per degree. Radials will run hapily with a lot of camber and tolerate more variation."

So there you go i think he has summarised all your input quite well.

Crossplies it is for me!

I was going to say that a lot of the hillclimb cars still run them because they heat up quicker.... however you've covered that so i shall return to my hole.