Azenis and Tire Shaving?

[Project S13]

Just looking for the wisdom of more experienced drivers here. I drive in STS and so far the only tires worth having were the old falken azenis.

Now that the new azenis 615s are out, does anyone think the old ones are better than the new ones? A few people on my local scca forum suggested so.

On to the real reason for the post: does anyone have experience with shaving azenis? I thought tire shaving was typically restricted to race tires but if the same priciples apply it might be worth looking into. Anyone have experience in this area?

[nismofly]

will you be using them on the street at all? im willing to be you know that you dont drive on the street with shaved tires, unless youll never even drive through a puddle...but i guess its not hard

as for the tires, im getting a set of 615s this summer, 1 you cant get the 215s anymore and 2 ive heard the 615s handle heat much better, to the point that some people arent even shaving 615s, yet 215s i saw quite a few chunking problems if no shaving was done

one guy actually had his wheel fall off because the chunking wore out the lugs and the mounting pad from the vibration

[Project S13]

I have track only rims as well as street rims, so the shaving is no problem. More of a question of is it worth it on anything other than slicks. Also I still know people who know a few people who have hoarded the old azenis so technically I could still get a set. =p

I was suprised when I heard people on my local scca forum saying the old ones were better. I guess you can't really trust falken's marketing, but I should think the 615's would be as good as the old ones, minimum.

[nismofly]

it would get you better grip but youll go through sets like its your job

more the reason people i know were shaving is because theyre a popular tire for track days, like i said i plan on getting a set this summer, and the shaving prevented the tires from chunking from the heat which was causing big problems

like i said though ive heard the heat capacity issue was resolved with the 615s from several people, but i dont have experience with them yet myself

i agree though about the marketing, everything in there said the 615 was going to be above and beyond anything the 215 could have dreamed of

but yes to answer your question about shaving you can shave the azenis, as far as i know...you might contact a race tire shop to be 100% on that though, if you dont know any ive got a couple places that prep race tires you can ask if you want contact info

i know im one of those people that always likes to be 110% confident with everything i do with my car

[Looneybomber]

I know of people on the miata forum that shave their 615's among others.

[InsanityInc]

You've gotta have pretty deep pockets to shave azenis. The tread is so soft, unless you're professionally racing or something you might as well just run them a few times to lower the tread.

[240marcuSX]

You dont need to shave them. And they are supposed to be better than the 215's, but they still have the worst issue from the 215's, the heat issue.

[nismofly]

you mean they still chunk when they get too hot? thats the problem i always heard people speaking of with 215s, and shaving solves that

if you mean they get slick, well i dont know many if any non r-comp tires that dont get slick after you spend a while on the track with them

[Looneybomber]

You've gotta have pretty deep pockets to shave azenis. The tread is so soft, unless you're professionally racing or something you might as well just run them a few times to lower the tread.

I've heard they're done anyway before they run out of tread. With that said, I have no problems with people shaving their tires, but I'm not going through the effort to do it/have it done.

[Project S13]

I've heard they're done anyway before they run out of tread. With that said, I have no problems with people shaving their tires, but I'm not going through the effort to do it/have it done.

By "done", do you mean they lose a competitive level of grip before they run out of tread? The only-so-many heat cycles issue?

[zukitek]

I used last years Azenis last year for 2 events and learned that it was no match for a R- compound tire to the tune of 2-3 seconds off the pace.The hoosier was the fastest ,the kumho v710 was 2nd ,and the avontechr was 3rd.I chose the Avon tech r .It was the cheepest and had the best /longest wear,I subsequently bought a second set of the techr when they went on clearance at the tire rack for 108 each for a 205 55 16.Azeniz became my street tire wich chopped out very quickly and lasted essentially 4 months ,or about 10k miles till they bald in the middle,this was the not available now azenis.It was a phenominal grip tire for the street and a non r compound tire class ,but was no match for a r tire.

Ricky

[nismofly]

^^^what you listed are competition tires

r-comps are like the toyo ra-1

[Project S13]

yes clearly a street tire wouldn't be comparable in performance to an R compound tire. Fortunately there is the soloII class STS (street tire sport...or something like that) in which no r-compounds are permitted and azenis are widely considered the best choice available.

just fyi

[nismofly]

yep

i think its street touring sport maybe?

but yeah, tires have to have a wear rating of 200, coincidentally thats what azenzis are rated, so they work great for sts

[j-rho]

Minimum treadwear rating for Street Touring Classes (STS, STS2, STX, STU) is 140.

Shaving the Azenis is worth 2-4 tenths at most, not worth it for most people.

[nismofly]

thats right, i just thought it was 200 because of the azenzis...

[zukitek]

my bad ,I didnt realize that some classes didnt allow r compound tires such as the tires I mentioned .In my class (GS) ,if you show up with an azenis ...youre going home tail tucked .Is STS an exception ?

Ricky

[Project S13]

Yeah STS is definitely the exception, azenis are about the best you can run, so if your car has some mods to it it's cheaper running STS, STX, STU etc. You have a chance of being competetive without breaking the bank as hoosiers and victoracers are pretty expensive. I ran in G stock when I first autocrossed a few years ago. I wasn't trying to be competetive, just learning more about the car, but in every other class aside from ST_ (listed above by j-rhu) r compounds are no doubt the one and only choice.

[SimpleEnigma]

Quick question. What exactly is tire shaving, and what is the point of it?

[Nismo_Freak]

Quick question. What exactly is tire shaving, and what is the point of it?

You shave the tire tread down from 6 / 32 down to 4 or 3 / 32. It reduces the tread squirm (increasing tire response) and helps to promote a more uniform performance life of the tire.