Tyre manufacturers produce tyres to suit a wide range of applications, and most of us are familiar with the type of tyre fitted to most road cars.

2. Semi Slick Competition
Tyres

3. Tyre manufacturers
produce tyres to suit a wide range of
applications, and most of us are
familiar with the type of tyre fitted to
most road cars.

4. These are generally designed with a
very fine tread pattern that is
designed to be quiet in operation as
well as having a very good ability to
pump water out from between the
tyre and road surface.

5. They are also designed to provide
good grip on most types of road
surface. This means that they are all
about compromise, providing, grip,
comfort and low noise while still
being hard wearing so as to last for
many thousands of kilometres. Some
of these tyres

6. have slightly more aggressive tread
patterns and use a softer rubber
compound, providing more dry
weather grip, but losing out on
performance in the wet. This also
means that they will not last as long
and will probably create more road
noise while driving.

7. These tyres are usually sold as
performance tyres. The next step up
from that is the ultra high
performance tyre, and here we see
even softer compounds, larger tread
blocks and are often directional as
well.

8. This means that they are designed to
rotate in one direction in order to
get the high levels of grip required to
safely drive at speeds well in excess
of 200kph.

9. Even more road noise and shorter
life spans mean that these tyres are
usually only considered for high
performance cars or for drivers that
like to push their car a little harder
than the average driver. Another big
disadvantage of this type of tyre is
that

10. they are prone to aquaplane on wet
roads, so that although they give
better roadholding grip on dry
tarmac, when driving in wet or even
dusty condition, extreme care needs
to be taken.

11. If you own a performance car that
you like to take for an occasional
track day, these are probably the
compromise tyre that will give good
every day driving life and handle the
loads created by extreme driving.

12. For many classes of motorsport or
regular track days, a SEMI SLICK tyre
is the best option. These are usually
made using a different
manufacturing technique using a
much softer and therefore stickier
rubber compound.

13. Due to having extremely large tread
blocks, and less tread depth, so
create a huge amount of tyre noise
on the road and may only last less
than 1500 kilometres

14. if driven as an everyday tyre on the
road. Most of these tyres are legal to
drive on the highway, although some
may be marked for competition use
only.

15. Semi slick tyres are also prone to
“heat cycling”, which means that as
they get hot through use and then
cool down the compound of the
rubber alters and they lose some of
their grip performance after as few
as 4 or 5 cycles, depending on the
grade or tread wear rating.

17. Tread wear rating in a number that
indicates how soft the rubber
compound is and the lower the tread
wear rating is, the less heat cycles
the tyre will take before a drastic
drop off in grip. Typical wear rating
figures in semi slick tyres are
between 60 & 120, although some
manufacturers go as high as 180-
200.

18. The very high tread wear tyres are
often used in motorsport disciplines
like drifting, where the tyre need to
break traction easily, but still needs
to provided consistent road holding
abilities while spinning across the
bitumen.

19. This wheel spin creates extreme tyre
temperatures as well so these tyres
need to cope with more heat cycles
that the track racing tyres
experience. Once again because of
their tread design, these tyres are
very prone to aquaplaning, and
really should not be used on wet
road surfaces wherever possible.

20. Due to the production methods, and
limited markets, semi slick tyres can
often cost 3 to 4 times that of
comparable size road tyres.
Nangkang tyres have 2 designs of
semi slick tyre. Their NS2R has been
in production for a while now and is
made in a wide range of sizes to suit
from 13″ to 18″ wheels.

21. They make a track version in a 120
wear rate compound and a
drift/street version in 180. These
tyre provide great grip, well in
advance of most street tyres and
with a tread design that will provide
reasonable wet weather grip too,
although I have found them to be
very noisy on the road.

22. Recently Nangkang have released
their AR-1 tyre which has a much
more aggressive tread pattern, that
although legal for road use, would
probably see you receive quite a deal
of interest from the authorities if you
used them on the highway regularly,
not to mention

23. the fact that with an 80 wear rate,
you would be replacing them very
regularly. At this early stage there
are only a limited selection of sizes
available in 15, 17 & 18 inch but the
plans are to have a size similar to the
NS2R by the end of 2016.

24. These tyres provide incredible grip
at an extremely competitive price,
much lower than equivalent sizes in
other brands. Viva Auto repair have
stock of the 15″ sizes, and can order
all other available sizes as
required. Ring and talk to Marque
to discuss your best option.

28. For more details
Visit us @
http://vivaautorepairs.com.au/