I wanted to bump this thread in case anyone ran across it.
I think I figured out the threshold for when the Re-71s get eaten quickly, and I believe that is about 95° air temp and sunny, which translated to ~135° tarmac temperature. I was getting really good life out of the set of Re-71s that I got mounted up this year, probably put about 14-16 hours on them with ~50% wear, but then one event that was really hot out just wore them away on the outside edge with about two hours of track time.
So I think my defense of them needs some asterisks above: They seem to wear great for me (and our Champcar team) as long as you're going to be driving a Miata or something light in 90° or less races :)