Track tire woes...help please!!!

corded a set of victoracers after 5 track days ~ 700 miles. is this usual? facts: 99 996 coupe RoW M030 suspension, euro spec alignment 225/45/17, 255//40/17 significant outer wear on all tires. pressures 38/39-40psi hot. yes, the victoracers were heat cycled before the first use. going to road atlanta this weekend and need new tires ASAP. i've been spinning my head reading all these tire threads and talking to tire people but all i get is mixed advice. one side says that i'm not running enough camber to make use of the victoracers. another says that i'm not running high enough tire pressures. yet another says i should just flip the tires and run the insides on the outer when i see excessive wear. no chance i'll get much more camber with this stock suspension. i've been told (and read) that MPSC's are made to work with stock alignment (ie street alignments) so that solves one of my problems. yet others say that they need 2-3 degrees negative. what kind of R-compounds can i run with a stock alignment? are there any? should i just give up and run street tires? thanks, but i need answers ASAP as i just got back from the track and i'm off to the track again this weekend. Robert

Toyo RA-1's are pretty well known to have a mix of great grip while providing great grip. They won't be as fast as the victo's but they'll be damn close and get you better wear. Nitto just released the sister tire to the RA-1 which is getting very good reviews as well...basically the RA-1 compound with a newer / better tread design. Unfortunatly though race tires are ALL going to want "proper" negative camber for maximum life and will cord much quicker than street tires without this camber. Swapping tires on the wheels will get you some extended life. If you're tracking quite a bit a camber solution while expensive at first will save you quite a bit in rubber bills down the road. Andy

You can check out this thread in the racing forum: LINK

crap. you know, for such a well developed car (the 911) you'd think there would be MANY camber solutions other than just "get coilovers". it annoys me how any other car can get camber bolts and instantly adjust camber or tophats for $200 and adjust on the fly. sorry for the rant, but i'm driving myself crazy trying to find a solution before this weekend. i've heard about the RA1's but i fear they'll suffer the same fate as my last set of tires. someone mentioned something about "flipping" something on the shock?

thanks Palting - i have read the thread and that is one of the ones i'm drawing my information from. one point i am curious about is the part about flipping the spring tops - has anyone heard of this?

Mooty did it with his GT3, I believe. He says most shops that prep Porsches can do it. But it only works with the front. I don't think you need to get so drastic, though. Micheslin recommends a negative camber 0f 1.5 to 3 for the MPSC's. I'm getting a quick fix tomorrow getting ready for a date with Watkins. The car is going in for negative camber of about -1.0 front and -2.0 rear. I understand that is the max for the front, and still some room for the rear. I have been advised that this will wear out the inside of the tires quickly for street drivng. But, I am sick and tired of wearing out the outside of my tires, I actually welcome it if it happens. Realignment can be done quickly, and for some people, is done several times from street to track settings and back. Cheaper than new sets of tires.

The MPSC are best at 3-4 deg negative, on the same level as a slick. The Hoosiers are happy with 2-2.5 neg. Any less than that and you are going to have problems. Also, use a pyrometer to check your tire pressures and play around with them. I think you may be a bit high based on my car, but you could be low too.

well, i went with another set of victoracers cause i couldn't find any other alternatives in time. hopefully these will fair better at the track than my previous set. my only possible leads on why the set was corded may be that i overheated the tires - i almost spun out during a sessions and the car slid through most of a turn - i recovered though, and kept driving till the end of the session. other than that, i can't imagine what else i could've done. tire pressures not right for the car perhaps? i weigh in at around 3100lbs w/ driver.

I run Yokohama AO 48's and find them to be a superb track tire in the dry. Havent tried them in damp conditions.

RA1 on c2: use 275 for rear. it will work, plenty of track nuts use that in CA. i am aware that some 996 get more camber than others just luck of the draw. but if you can't get 1.25 up front, i would find someone better to do alignment. most STOCK cayman, boxster, 996 in my area can aget 1.25 up front. but mpsc does need a lot more than that. i run RA1 on a cayman with just 1.6/2.0. very even tire wear, but i do flip tire on rim. i dont know the wear p atter on your victor racers, but 700 miles isn't too bad. i get 800 miles on my mpsc, they dont cord, but they lose a lot of their orig grip. on 3/32 shaved RA1's, i get 600 miles and it's down to the cord.

hmm...so maybe tire wear wasn't as bad as i was thinking? on the other hand, a "season" for me is about 8 track weekends, or around 20 track days (includes the occasional fridays). so i was imagining a number close to 3-4,000 miles per set of tires. *note to self: must remember to flip tires on the rim when outsides begin wearing excessively.

you are expecting 3-4k of track miles for one set of tires? when you find those rubbers, let me know. i'll pay you a handsome finder's fee. yean, rubber cost is really eating into my kid's education fund.

lol....whoops, i guess i've been misled all this time! so whats the deal with these people who say they make their tires last a whole season? are they only driving the car 5 days out of the year?

you can put 2k on mpsc, but after 800-1000 miles, the grip is reduced significantly. the treads are still there, but i am too scared to drive on mpsc that are over 1200 miles. it just feels hard and greasy all the time.

With PSS9's I got -1.9 to -2.0 in the front.

hmm...i think now, that rather than making projections like "these tires should last me 6 weekends" people should be estimating tire life by the number of track miles they put on. i would think that, compared to a DE, you get less track time on a club race weekend, am i not correct?

correct. i usually do 180-200 track miles per track day.