Minimum tyre tread

[Burgerbob]

Hi everyone

I'm having a dilemma...

I've got a day at Bedford coming up, my front Michelin pilot super sports have approx 3mm tread on the passenger side and 4mm on the drivers side.

Do I put some new PS4S on beforehand and then grimace as I wear them down, or do I leave the super sports on and hope I have enough tread at the end of the day to get home legally?

Car is a 308gti so FWD.

Thanks for your thoughts

[Pericoloso]

Don't think you are going to have much left after a day of tracking with only 3mm now.

Try and find some part worns for the day, with a bit more meat on them ?

Or swap wheels front to back ?

[Cylon2007]

New tyres

[brillomaster]

do you have any idea how many trackdays you'd normally get out of a set of tyres?

i find in my z4 with federal 595 rsrs i can do maybe 8 trackdays. so if i had that much tread, i'd be running them.

alternatively, how much tread is on the rear tyres? maybe swap the tyres around? you arent going to wear out 3mm of tread on the rear unless you're sliding everywhere!

[HustleRussell]

Pericoloso said:

swap wheels front to back ?

And put the one with the least tread on the right rear.

[E-bmw]

Tough one because if you put "brannies" on you will wear them a lot quicker than part-worns unless you do very short stints of just a couple of laps at a time, which is no fun.

The simple answer is part worns on spare ebay cheapie wheels for track use only.

[Burgerbob]

Thanks all. The rear tyres have plenty of tread on them so I think the best answer may be to switch the fronts to the back.

I wasn't keen on doing this as the back wheels are ever so slightly buckled and you can feel a slight vibration through the wheel at high speeds (90mph +) when they are on the front (I swapped them a few months ago to the back). But in many ways it will be a waste to buy new tyres now as there is still life left in the old ones, the new ones will wear quickly on the track so swapping them and dealing with the vibration on the straights may be best.

I only do a couple of track days a year so whilst having dedicated wheels plus tyres is probably the best answer it's not that practical.

Cheers

Rob

[E-bmw]

Burgerbob said:

I only do a couple of track days a year so whilst having dedicated wheels plus tyres is probably the best answer it's not that practical.

Cheers

Rob

You say that but at £80/100 for a set of cheapies with PW tyres is a compelling argument.

[brillomaster]

HustleRussell said:

Pericoloso said:

swap wheels front to back ?

And put the one with the least tread on the right rear.

Left rear surely, bedford runs anticlockwise.

Actually turn in hard enough and the left rear wont be in contact with the ground at all, problem solved!

[RichieG1]

How about buy the new tyres but don't fit them, leave track day at 16.30 and drive to nearest tyre shop for fitting.......hopefully just a few miles on bald tyres - obviously not such a good plan if it rains......

[essIII]

I assume the correct answer isn't "buy a 2nd set of wheels, get them wrapped in Nankang AR1 tyres, drive to the circuit on your Michelins, run the Nankangs on track, drive home on the Michelins"?

[E-bmw]

essIII said:

I assume the correct answer isn't "buy a 2nd set of wheels, get them wrapped in Nankang AR1 tyres, drive to the circuit on your Michelins, run the Nankangs on track, drive home on the Michelins"?

I tried that argument before.

[essIII]

E-bmw said:

essIII said:

I assume the correct answer isn't "buy a 2nd set of wheels, get them wrapped in Nankang AR1 tyres, drive to the circuit on your Michelins, run the Nankangs on track, drive home on the Michelins"?

I tried that argument before.

Ah, my bad, hadn't spotted that. 2nd set of wheels is always the right answer! Buy them 2nd hand, sell them later for very little loss, protect your road tyres from track abuse, use proper track rubber on track.