Dunlop Tires

I got free tires!!!! These are Dunlop Super Sport Race. They are R compound DOT approved. They are designed to compete with Kumhos and Hoosiers. They are targeted for those that track their cars as well as use them for street. They are still in the market testing stage. I won a recent PCA autocross and I though all I would take home were bragging rights and a set of Porsche coasters. The event was also sponsored by Dunlop, and I was approached by their reps to be a test mule for their new tires. All they asked was that I use their tires for the track and the street. I just drove in to my garage, and there were the tires!!! They are the wrong size!!! The rears are 285x30-18, even though I specificaly told them That the C4S comes with 295's <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" /> . Darn rear C4S sizes are so new, they probably don't have them. I'll have to call the reps to see if they have the right size. If they don't have the right size, what would you all do? I am concerned about the viscous coupling for the AWD, the PSM, as well as exposure of the side of the wheels to more curb/pothole rash. I checked Tire Rack for the specs. They don't have the tire listed, of course, so I used the Pirelli specs. There is a difference of 0.1" overall diameter, and 1 revolution/mile. Think that's enough to ruin the viscous coupling?

No it is not enought to ruin the VC. 285's will fit fine. It will also reduce understeer with the slightly narowwer rear tire.(not a bad thing) Dunlop has ALWAYS been my favorite tire. I have had the most luck with Dunlop. I currently have Pirelli P-Zero's

Let us know how they are if you use them. I would love to find a tire I can use on the street and on the track. Currently, I use Hoosiers for DE. I was thinking about the Michelin Pilot sport Cups. Congrats! Mike

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Palting: <strong>These are Dunlop Super Sport Race. They are R compound DOT approved.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I didn't know if these were already available in the US. Where did you buy them from?

What kind of pressures did they tell you to use??? Are they like the MPSC in that you use a high pressure on the street then lower on the track??

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Viken: I didn't know if these were already available in the US. Where did you buy them from?[/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">They are not yet available to consumers. These came direct from the factory, free, to be tested by yours truly. I'm probably one of a gazillion testers. </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Stem: What kind of pressures did they tell you to use??? Are they like the MPSC in that you use a high pressure on the street then lower on the track?? [/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Good question, Stem. I thought they were pulling my leg, and that they were not really going to go through with it. I just gave them name and address and never thought to ask anything. Now the tires just got delivered by UPS with no instructions. I suppose they want me to supply answers for just those questions after I've tried them rather than them givng me the answers now. The more I think about it, so long as the tire sizes are not detrimental to the car, I'm gonna have a whale of a time with those tires. And, according to our own Porsche sales John Murray, they should be fine!! Thanks, Mike. I'll also put in a call to my friendly Porsche service guy to talk about the tire sizes and warrantees. If it's all green light, I'll let you know about the experience.

I'm new to Rennlist and have just recently registered to make my first post. I live in Singapore and drive a MY00 GT3. I've just gone through my first set of Dunlop Super Sport Race tires. They are not readily available over here and I had to import my set from Germany. Extremely happy with the tires. Dry and damp traction was phenomenal. Very drivable in the wet as the tread pattern is deeper than in other R-compound tires that I've seen. For those who are familiar with this part of the world, wet traction is critical as it'll rain 6 out of 7 days. The Dunlops survived 4 track days at the Sepang Formula 1 track in Malaysia - over 100 laps around a very fast 5.5km circuit. 40 or so of those laps were completed on an especially hot day when track temperatures soared to almost 60 degrees Celsius. On top of the track work throw in 3,000km of very high speed highway driving to and from the track to the durability equation. When the tires came off the car yesterday they looked like they still had quite a bit of life left in them although dry grip was beginning to fade a bit. The people at Cargraphic in Germany recommended that I run the Dunlops hot at 32psi (f) - 36psi (r) - similar I believe to recommended Pilot Sport Cup track pressures. As there's a lot of pressure gain under our conditions, I started with cold pressures of 24-28psi. For street use I run OEM cold pressures of 32-39psi. I'm mounting a new set of Pilot Cups (my first set) for this weekend's track day. Car is set up the same so I'll have a good lap time benchmark to compare both sets of tires (provided that the torrential rains stay away). Palting, have fun with the Dunlops - I'm sure you'll enjoy them as I did. Weng.

Welcome to the best Porsche forum, Weng! Thanks for the input. It gives me a starting point for the tire evaluation. '00 GT3, over 100 laps in an F1 race course.....MAN, would I like to be in your shoes!

Just a follow-up, for those who want to try any 285x30-18 tire. I got the green light from Porsche service for that size. No warrantee issues, no car issues. I already had the tires mounted. It does not look appreciably narrower. In fact, for these tires, the sidewall seems to come out more than the P-Zero assims, protecting the rim more. They are fairly quiet, and seem to have more "give" on small road irregularities. I'm going to try them out at an autocross this weekend, and have 4 days of DE coming up. The first DE is sponsored by Kumho. Maybe I'll get Kumhos tires too!!!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Palting: <strong> Maybe I'll get Kumhos tires too!!!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">That'd be a nice rhythm to get into - fresh tires for each upcoming DE! ~you'll just keep on winning! I'm confused on one of your earlier points: I understand the width of the new tire is slightly narrower, but the profile is the same, right? How does 285 vs. 295 effect the tire's overall diameter and related rotational frequency - Wouldn't it stay exactly they same?

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Scott5: <strong>That'd be a nice rhythm to get into - fresh tires for each upcoming DE! ~you'll just keep on winning! I'm confused on one of your earlier points: I understand the width of the new tire is slightly narrower, but the profile is the same, right? How does 285 vs. 295 effect the tire's overall diameter and related rotational frequency - Wouldn't it stay exactly they same?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I wish it were so about new tires each time. I actually don't know how they plan to do it for the DE, since nobody is supposed to "win" at DE. Maybe I just need to make a big show about changing the tire pressures or maybe drop a hint to the Kumho rep that I am evaluating a competitors tire. As for the size. The profile size, in this instance 30, is a ratio of the height to width. You change one number, in this case 295 to 285, then you also have to changee the other part of the equation to mainain a profile of 30, so the height goes down.

Palting, do you have a picture of the tread?

It's a familiar Dunlop pattern in a race compound. <img src="http://members.rennlist.com/palting/Family2003%20044s.JPG" alt=" - " />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Palting: As for the size. The profile size, in this instance 30, is a ratio of the height to width. You change one number, in this case 295 to 285, then you also have to change the other part of the equation to maintain a profile of 30, so the height goes down.[/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Ok - I see - I had always assumed it was just a number that related to the "side-wall" height in some way. Thanks for the info!