I've run the A6's at home (Waterford), but ran the R's at Mid-O... inadvertently got a perfect opportunity to benchmark the A's vs. the R's at last year's ARRC when we ended up with an A6 on the LF, R's the rest of the way around! Can only blame the tire guy, not to mention ourselves for not catching that! grrr...

Anyway, yes, those A's really are quick at the get-go, but do fade a good bit after a little while - how long depending on where you're running. I figured they're really suck at Mid-O, at the IT-Fest, with such long races - I prefer my car to be at its best at the end of the race, when the driver's at his worst!!! You could probably do OK to qualify on the A's anywhere. I do notice them falling off in the last few laps of a 15-minute sprint at Waterford, our usual race length, though Waterford is admittedly hard on tires, never any cool-down time mid-lap. The added cool-down time might help them at a larger track for maybe a 10-lapper, but I still wouldn't bother with them for anything longer.

Then there's the question of wear rates; they seem to only wear slightly quicker than the R's at Waterford... getting 3 weekends there (12 heat cycles) seems to be a dicey proposition with A's, more readily achievable with R's.

Can't really compare speed definitively, as I haven't been pushing them all that hard at Waterford this year since Doug dropped off the ITB map...