Do I have to replace these tires asap or will they last me a bit longer?

Spent all day Friday at the track and had an absolute ball! The track, Carolina Motorsport Par, is notoriously hard on brakes and I expected my stock setup to not last the day. I abused them but they lasted the day with only a touch here or there of fade - pfft to the pccbs However, the weakest link (besides the driver of course) were the tires - Michelin Pilot Sports. Despite dropping the pressure to ~ 36/40psi - they just didn't stick and now I don't know how much longer I can use them on the street. I think they'll be ok for the street, within reason and without freezing rain. However, my other half thinks they need to be changed now. What do you think? Change 'em or leave 'em for a few months. There is a PCA DE coming up in May - can I wait until then? The car is not a daily driver. thanks!! kristap ps - if you're interested in pix from the track

Hmmm.... what's the thread depth?

Leave 'em until May.

Oh, yeah. They are toast. Time to buy R-compounds and track dedicated tires. Definitely. No doubt about it. Plu, you've got half the battle won: the other half actually wants you to get a new set!! The next part you can cover or delete when the other half reads it . Those tires are a long ways away from worn. Unless you did something, like hit a street curb with force sideways, to weaken the sidewalls, they should be good for several more weekend DE's.

The tires look ok, my PS looked even worse when I ran them on the track.

Excellent, thank you! From memory, the tread depth is practically untouched - 1/2 to 3/4" but that's based upon my faulty memory. I really didn't want to have to buy new street tires right now as I'd rather look for an extra set of 'track' wheels and tires. Thanks for help!

Those look really good actually. I've been running my street tires at the track and afterwards they have lots of cuping and built up ridges of rubber running the circumference of the tire. A few street miles and they're ready to hit the track again.

You need new ones. Ship the old ones to Me

Those look fine for a day of tracking on them. I would definitely keep them for street use.

How is it they are toast? The inside edge looks great, you aren't even down to the wear bars on the inside (from what I can see from the pictures provided). If you are concerned with all the blobs of tire stuff, that is just stuff you picked up at the track from those folks using R compounds or slicks. (Which goes away as you drive on them) You will always get that stuff at the track. Your tires look really good for a day at the track.

How many laps of track driving are typically expected from street tires? If normal street life is 15-20,000 miles, my experience has suggested to me that hard track driving is the equivalent of at least 2,000 miles for every 15 laps. This excludes exploratory laps and warm up laps and implies that you are pushing the limits while driving. While we think of our cars as "sports cars", they are quite heavy for track use. Do people get more than 150 laps from one set of street tires? AS

Those are fine! Run on them until the wear-bars are showing. There is plenty of tread-depth remaining on those tires. C.

I've seen my share of "bad" tire wear...yours look good! Head out for a nice highway drive and that will clear off all the rubber blobs.

Why would you drop pressures for track use? You say the tires wouldn't stick? It's probably because you had the pressures too low. Did the car feel like it was "washing out" in corners? Classic low pressure symptom. Next time, raise the pressures a few pounds from your street pressures, check pressures during the day, and adjust accordingly. Aside from that, those tires look like they're in great shape. Keep running them. They just look like they have normal build-up on the sides of the tread blocks from hard use.

SRL - At the track, the tires felt a little ... greasy, I would say. It does have stock susupension which could have muddled my analysis. It wasn't until after 4 or 5 runs that I noticed it but suspect the Am GT cars, which left plenty of rubber all over the track, may have had something to do with it? I only dropped the tire pressures after the second run when they started to heat up with my target being 36/40. Guess that could be a little low but after that second run, I noticed the tires were starting to roll over some (chalk). After dropping the pressure, they didn't do that any more though it could have been too much like you say. Do you have any suggestions on tire pressure? I know it's a subject that's been rehashed over & over again but I'm always willing to listen to advice.

Tires look fine. Let me add a bit to cloud things though. My experience having run streets (SO3's, SO2's, Kumho MXs, Contis) and R comps (Toyos, Kumhos) on track, in several cases to the cords. . . full tread street tires (ie, unshaved) are stickiest in their middle half of their lives. That is, at first they are grippy, but have lots of tread squirm and move too much. At the end, they are so heat cycled that they have little stick. The middle half is the sweet spot. As always YMMV.

Krista, Was that CG-Lock any good? I had been looking at that gadget to tie me over until the day I get better seats. Thanks!

Were you looking for 36/40 hot? If so, that's wayyyy low. That's close to or lower than what Porsche recommends for these tires cold for street use. Not sure I understand the chalk comment, in that you felt the tires were rolling over too much, so you lowered the pressures, and that stopped them rolling over. It's impossible. Lowering the pressures can only make the tire roll over more. A common starting point for street tires/track use is 3-4 lbs. above normal cold street use pressure, then check pressures hot after each session. Figure out which tires are working harder (they will have higher pressures) and lower pressures more in those tire to balance out the pressures. If the track you're at has a long high speed right hand corner, I guarantee the front left tire will generate more pressure if all are started at an equal pressure cold. Then, try to balance the car by raising/lowering rear tire pressures (assuming the fronts are close to optimal) to counter understeer/oversteer as necessary. If you REALLY wanted to get into it like a racer, get a pyrometer with a probe (not an infra-red) and measure tire temps across the tread of each tire. Inside/middle/outside. You want to equalize the temps as close as possible. Way hot on the inside? Too much camber. Hot in the middle? Too much pressure. Hot on the edges, too cool in the middle? Too little pressure. It can give you a wealth of knowledge about your setup. Too much for a driving school though? Probably.

AR - yep, it worked really well. Kinda dinged up the belt cover on my B-pillar but it's easy enough to remove when you dont want that .5lb of steel slapping against your interior. I know about the seat tricks and all to keep you in place, but I think that this was a great compromise. It kept my butt in place and that was the point. SRL - well, guess that was my problem, pressure, like you said. The rumble or curbing, I guess, could account for the chalk marks - just picked the wrong point to make the wrong decision. Had thought about an ir pyro but as am using stock suspension and my only adjustment points are tire pressure, well - not necessary as you pointed out. It always freaked me out in some way to put that probe into my tires so was kinda hoping that the ir would be 'good enough'. But if you're going to do it, you have to do it right. The track day reall reminded me of why I bought the car in the first place and changed up my plans for mods. I mean the Ruf front bumper is wicked pretty but ouch, if tapped something at the track with it - double hit to the wallet. RGT wing - cool but my track speeds (so far) are < 130 and it would go a long ways towards other things. So, less pretty and more safety are the new orders for the day. A spare set of wheels & tires for the track would be nice, maybe a rollbar, and suspension but as I'm just tooling around the track essentially by myself on track days & DEs (no racing) don't need anything too crazy. Well, maybe a little bling in the form of the aero ii kit.

SRL are you certain that for street tires on track the pressure has to be more than porsche recommeneded, I've always found them to be way too high. Oh, yeah that tread looks fine, mine's a few mm. shy of the wear indicators and I am taking it to a 3 day DE, if the rear's wore down it can only cure the understeer

The probe cannot damage the tires. The reason it's better than an IR pyrometer is that it measures temps below the surface. The surface of the tire cools much more rapidly than just below the surface so you get a more accurate measurement. Nope, it's sort of a "your mileage may vary" thing. There are too many variables based on tire mfr/model, age, heat cycles, wear, chassis setup, track temp, ambient temp, wet or dry, driver style/preference etc., etc. What I stated is merely a rule of thumb in that for track use, it's a good idea to start pressures 3-4 lbs. higher than what you use for the street. kristap, I really like your last post. If we had more people investing money in track days and education than "bling", there would be a lot more good drivers on the road today.

There are a lot more of us who think like kristap than perusal of this forum would tend to suggest That said, there is nothing wrong, IMHO, with people using their Porsche the way they see fit. I may not get it, but who am I anyway? Today I ordered a few mods myself. Specifically, I ordered the GT2 foam tray, air pump, tire sealant, first aid kit and carpet cover so that I can get rid of my spare tire. When I take my car to the track, I can just lift the whole tray out rather than having to go to the trouble of removing the spare. Oh yea, I also finally ordered the thicker three spoke steering wheel. That will probably shave seconds off my lap times