when are tires "dead"?

[dfhotlm33c]

I have a pair of AR44 BT (one is a LSW) that have been around for quite a while. I purchased them a season ago, and ran them for at least five or six nights. They were used when I got them. I have ran them twice this year.They still somehow have 8/32 of tread on them, but they punch about 50 cold. They have been grooved and siped. I just can't tell if they are firing properly or not. I scrub and grind them every week. The other guys in the feature last night really got ahead of me quickly. It took like three laps before I was finally running fast enough for the field to not pull away. Would tires that old really not work well and cause that much of an issue? Or do I just suck that bad at driving? The other drivers were running the same compounds (44s and 1300s for Hoosiers).

[4bangerhotrod]

right now were running ar tires that are atleast 12-15 races old and still winning. we are running against top regional drivers that have lucas and big regional wins. we run ar 44's 90% of the time, our front tires are from 07 hard telling how many races they have on them and still work fine even though they punch 45-48. thats the good thing about ar tires they will work till there down to the cords. they might not be quite as fast as a new tire but they will still fire and they still work trough the whole race without giving up or glazing over.

[hpmaster]

I tell all new racers in my area that they need new tires after 3 races and that I will take care of their old ones for them, it's great that the guys coming from pavement all fall for this. that was a joke. Truthfully you can get alot out of tires by grinding and taking care of them.