944 Turbo - Which road/track tyres?

[theturbs]

What tyres should I consider for my 944T? I do the occasional trackday (maybe 4 or 5 a year) and don't want to go for a second set of rims.

So far I have heard that:

Continentals - generally not very good for this car
Bridgestone SO-2/3s - good for road, not sure how they will stand up to track use
Pirelli P6000s - avoid
Pirelli PZero - not sure
Goodyear Eagle F1s - good for road, not so good on track
Toyo Proxes T1-R/S - have heard very good things about these for both road and track

Thanks

[randlemarcus]

Disagree with the Conti Sport Contact 2 assessments. I had mine for around 15K of a bit of everything, and they were jolly good - not too noisy, reasonably long lasting, and only let go when I told them to.

[HAB]

A good alternative are Falken FK451. I do about 5 track days a year,and they are a bit cheaper to replace than the equivalent Conti,Toyo,bridgestone etc.

The wear rate ain't brilliant but they do grip well.Not bad in the wet either imo.

Black circles usually have them at a fair price.

[diver944]

Personally I find it is cheaper and far better to have a second set of wheels with full slicks. Scruffy D90 wheels can be picked up for £100 a set and a set of new 16" slicks at the right time of the season can be had for under £300. The beauty is they last and last and last compared to road tyres, my rears have over 20 days on them and will only be replaced because of age. Handily they also fit in the boot of a 944

Road wise I have used Kumho Ecsta Supras on wet track days and also round the 'Ring and find they are a good compromise for around £300 a set. On dry days they will last about two days IMHO.

I've had no problems with Continentals either, they are very squealy and let you know well in advance when you are running out of grip. Over £400 a set though and again will last about two dry days

[aasc]

Yep Falken 451's (or I guess 452's now) - Micheldever or various others have them at a decent price. No they're not N-rated but neither was anything else when 944's were new, yes they're about half the price of Michelin/Bridgestone/Goodyear, they're possibly only 80% as good, equally they could be 20% better than the bigger brand named ones.

[Big 968 Dave]

Sorry folks, but i TOTALY dissagree on the Continentals.
I think there PANTS....For the 944 / 968 car anyway...

You just need to take a look on the 968 web site for more info on this very make of tyre...One chap rolled his car when driving on Contis....

[aasc]

Big 968 Dave said:

One chap rolled his car when driving on Contis....

Tyres really caused a car to roll (take it you mean roll over rather than roll forwards/backwards)?! Hmmm...

[andy97]

diver944 said:

Personally I find it is cheaper and far better to have a second set of wheels with full slicks. Scruffy D90 wheels can be picked up for £100 a set and a set of new 16" slicks at the right time of the season can be had for under £300. The beauty is they last and last and last compared to road tyres, my rears have over 20 days on them and will only be replaced because of age. Handily they also fit in the boot of a 944

Road wise I have used Kumho Ecsta Supras on wet track days and also round the 'Ring and find they are a good compromise for around £300 a set. On dry days they will last about two days IMHO.

I've had no problems with Continentals either, they are very squealy and let you know well in advance when you are running out of grip. Over £400 a set though and again will last about two dry days

Which make/ type of slicks do you use & where do you get them from? What's the "right time of the season", towards the end? & how old do new bought slicks need to be for them to need replacing because of age?

Final thought, do any of the Porsche Club teams get rid of their used tyres and are these worth trying? I used to use second hand Avon Formula Ford tyres on my Van Dieman Vauxhall Junior single seater and at £10 per tyre (plus fitting) I saved a foetune over buying new and they used to last me about 4 race days.

[cuneus]

Another big vote against the Conti's - squeal like a pig - no grip - mine had 6mm left and they were binned

As Paul has said all road tyres suffer from heat in the dry - I had some S02's on the track (a great road tyre) and after a few laps of Silverstone they were getting seriously slidy

[900T-R]

What kind of mileage? I found myself in the same situation, and have Toyo Trampio R1Rs (a Japanese-spec road/track hybrid with full depth rain thread) on the Saab. Am about halfway through the thread after circa 7,500 miles including four track outings. The difference in outright grip and handling with the best of 100% road biased tyres (say T1-R or similar) is quite significant IMO, with no real downsides in my application at least.

[Fatboy]

Big 968 Dave said:

Sorry folks, but i TOTALY dissagree on the Continentals.
I think there PANTS....For the 944 / 968 car anyway...

You just need to take a look on the 968 web site for more info on this very make of tyre...One chap rolled his car when driving on Contis....

I've got Continental Contisports (or is it Sport Contacts - can't be arsed to check) on my 944 - and they're bloody brilliant. Grip like shit to a blanket - I get some cracking launches off them.....

I can't say I've found them squealy either - but then I don't do trackdays.

Not as good dry grip as the yoko's on my mini, but they last more than 3000 miles of road driving as well

[Big 968 Dave]

Fatboy
You defo need to try the Goodyear GSD 3 then . If you think the Coninentals are "good".??? They [ Goodyears ] REALY stick like s**t to the proverbial...

Seriously though its defo worth getting a second set of rims + rubber for track work...
That way you can have a clean / non cratched set for the road / shows + a scruffy set for the track...
+ youl seriously notice the difference on a set of sticky rubber..Dunlop D01js / Mich pilot CUPs etc....