Road vs Track Tyres

[Pickled Piper]

Hi, I'd appreciate some advice from the long term track junkies. I have a 911 that I use on the road in all weathers and on 4 to 5 trackdays per year. I have so far been using standard road tyres but am wondering about the economics of getting some trackday tyres. A full set of road tyres costs just over £500 for the car and I'm wearing them out after two to three trackdays. Now I'm not overly concerned about shaving tenths of a second from my lap time by using sticky tyres but am approaching it from a purely economic standpoint. Is it worthwhile purchasing a set of track tyres with wheels and just bolting them on for trackdays? thus saving wear on my road tyres. Or should I just continue as I am?

Thoughts, experiences and advice appreciated.

pp

[richardb.jones]

Track tyres are softer and will wear quicker - they will also likely cost more than a set of road tyres. Therefore if you're not after better grip then it makes sense to stick with road tyres IMHO.

PS - Why not go 'semi-track' tyres - have the best of both worlds ? Toyo R888, Kumho KU15 etc

[richad027]

Your road tyres will probably be wearing on the outside edges if you have a standard road setup. Trackday tyres won't change this unless you get a track setup on the car to use them fully, but if you do then you will find that road driving rapidly wears the inside edges and they might only last 2-3 thousand miles on the road. The sad fact is that track days eat your tyres. It really depends on how much road driving you do compared to track days, if you do mainly road driving say 7000+ miles a year then it won't be worth it.

Richard.

[Locoblade]

The other thing to consider is that unless you trailer the car there or design some oddball 911 roofrack / trailer to get your wheels to the circuit, you need to drive to and from the circuit on the tyres you run on track, and because they need to be resembling road legal (at least in theory!), you negate some of the savings anyway because you can't run the tyre until its completely worn out.

[paulg390]

richad027 said:

Your road tyres will probably be wearing on the outside edges if you have a standard road setup. Trackday tyres won't change this unless you get a track setup on the car to use them fully, but if you do then you will find that road driving rapidly wears the inside edges and they might only last 2-3 thousand miles on the road. The sad fact is that track days eat your tyres. It really depends on how much road driving you do compared to track days, if you do mainly road driving say 7000+ miles a year then it won't be worth it.

Richard.

sorry to hijack the thread but we have this problem with our e30, and we thought trackday tyres would solve the premature wear problem.. Even with trackday tyres (yoko a006) we are shredding the outside of the tyres, road tyres get absolutely shredded even quicker... We have fitted uprated, lowered, stiffened suspension all round.. what sort of "setup" would stop this ? Is it one of those castor camber adjustable kits you fit to the strut top ? Just about to try toyo 888 to see if that helps...

[Locoblade]

If its rolling the outside edge of the tyre you generally need more camber (ie the top of the wheel leaning inwards) so the tyre sits flatter when cornering, not over on its outside edge.

How you do this depends on the car as some cars you'll be able to adjust, others you wont without aftermarket suspension arms etc.

[iguana]

paulg390 said:

e30, and we thought trackday tyres would solve the premature wear problem.. Even with trackday tyres (yoko a006) we are shredding the outside of the tyres, road tyres get absolutely shredded even quicker... We have fitted uprated, lowered, stiffened suspension all round.. what sort of "setup" would stop this ? Is it one of those castor camber adjustable kits you fit to the strut top ? Just about to try toyo 888 to see if that helps...

Yip need mega front camber to stop it, the seloc e30 guys run up to 4 degrees negative, can achive via camber plates for ££, or the cheaper method (& Ive not done this so dunno how they do it- tho I can guess, but maybe you could ask on seloc) by re-drilling the top mounts.

However Ive not found front wear excessive on my own e30 yet I must say & not checked the geo yet but it doesnt seem to have much front neg camber, I'll bet its on stock settings.

I've run 1.5 to 2 deg & zero toe on a Mk2 Golf tracker & altho the NSF takes a murdering at most clock wise circuits its still its always the inner edge that wears 1st, tho fwd & diferent dynamics at play, but similar Golfs have run a lot more extreem camber settings & still worn the inner.

[Pickled Piper]

Cheers everyone,

I'll stick with the road tyres.

pp