Track tyres for heavy(ish) cars

[Mansell90]

Hi, Im thinking of getting a new set of wheels and tires to use on trackdays for my focus ST so as to stop ruining my road tyres in very little time. I have been looking into specific trackday tyres, however my understanding is that they are by on large very soft tyres, and so would wear very quickly on a heavier car like mine (1400kg) rather than a sub 1000Kg Elise that for example are often fitted with track tyres. Any advice on what would be best in terms of grip and wear rate (whilst also keeping an eye on the price) for a set of wheels that would soley be used on track.

Cheers,

Mansell

[T180985]

im running a set of Toyo R888 (medium) on my civic type r, think my car is slightly lighter than the st but not but much and they seemed to have held up well after just the 1 track day anyway. ive actually just left them on the car and dont seem to wear a huge amount with normal road driving

[PetrolTed]

I run 888's on my GT3 (~1400kg).

[paulmon]

Kumho V700 (Hard). Have these fitted to a Z4MC and they are very good.

P

[rex]

Run 888 on partly stripped and caged e36 M3. No idea of weight but must be 1300kg

[dan101smith]

Kumho V70a will do the job nicely without raping your wallet.

[weed]

Most track day radials are designed with the weights of performance street machines as one of the parameters, so you'll be ok with your choice as long as you don't use ACB10s or the Yokohama tyres with the "LTS" tag on the sidewall.

Generally, the tyre pressures used are selected with regard to the weight of the car.
The heavier the car, the higher the starting pressure. Then pressures are fine tuned according to how good the contact patches/sidewall look after some laps.

m

[Mansell90]

weed said:

Most track day radials are designed with the weights of performance street machines as one of the parameters, so you'll be ok with your choice as long as you don't use ACB10s or the Yokohama tyres with the "LTS" tag on the sidewall.

Generally, the tyre pressures used are selected with regard to the weight of the car.
The heavier the car, the higher the starting pressure. Then pressures are fine tuned according to how good the contact patches/sidewall look after some laps.

m

Thank you, this is helpful (as i am most definatly a trackday novice) At my previous (and 1st) trackday, the front left tyre took quite a battering, rounding off the outside tread of the tyre (on a clockwise circuit) would it be best then to put up the pressures that i normally use on the road for trackdays? Or would this result in losing too much grip?
Im running Bridgestone RE050's at the moment by the way... if this makes a difference or anyone has any experience with them?

[edh]

I would think that your tyre wear is probably due to your lack of track experience. Get some tuition, your lines will improve, you won't understeer through the bends, (not easy I grant you in heavy fwd car ) and that will save your tyres.

Kumho v70 in hard sound like your best bet.

[edh]

Tyre pressures - too high just loses grip & gets more squeally understeer. Set them when they are hot, after a few laps, at around normal road pressures. Keep checking until they stabilize through the day.

[edh]

Tyre pressures - too high just loses grip & gets more squeally understeer. Set them when they are hot, after a few laps, at around normal road pressures. Keep checking until they stabilize through the day.

[Mansell90]

I can almost guarantee that you are right and that the wear was mostly down to lack of experience, i will openly admit that i was overdriving the car quite a bit for the first few sessions, but as the day wore on I learnt that i was much quicker if i was smoother and saved the tyres a bit more. Also i am having some tuition at thruxton soon so this should help hopefully! I shall bear in mind the pressure advice for my next trackday and the kuhmo's sound like a good option as they are not too expensive, i shall look into it. Thank you

[Rusti Evo]

A tyre I loved to bits was the DZ02G (now DZ03G) on the turbo barge.

The R888's overheated and melted really quickly whereas the Dunlops would poke up with a blazing hot day at Castle Doom. Dz's are popular with sprinters as well.

[sonny.j.h]

I own a RS4, car weights around 1650kg (1750kg) including myself.

I have been running Eagle F1 Asymmetrics and have found these to be of exceptional quality, to include grip and less road noise. Size 255/35/19s all round due to AWD.

However at my last track day at Brands I was really struggling to get the tyre pressures just right, I tried everything from, 44psi cold, 40psi hot. 38psi cold etc. The higher Tyre pressure I found gave me the best control, car felt mroe planted, however the crown of the tyre was wearing slightly as expected. Dropped them to 40psi hot, car felt more fun to drive, but was under/over-steering more, and was fish tailing under hard breaking (car can some times be busy under breaking due to engine forward off front Axel)..any way.

I think my tyres have finally given up there Ghost even though they look in perfect condition (still after a few track days). I am thinking about purchasing a set of R888 as a set of track day rims. sorry fr the slight deviation of thread, but It seems we are in the same boat.

[Paul_M3]

I too have read that 888's are a bit soft for heavy cars.

I've got a set of Kumho V70a's in Hard compound set ready to go on a set of second hand wheels I've bought.

Cost £660 for a set (225 front, 265 rear), and I'm hoping I'll get 4 or 5 track days out of them.

[e46m3c]

im reading into this at the moment too.

Got R888's at the moment but thinking of going for 595rsr on full weight e46 m3 1500-1600kg id imagine.

Cups are meant to be the best but are over twice the price...

[gruffalo]

dan101smith said:

Kumho V70a will do the job nicely without raping your wallet.

+1 here.

[mmm-five]

e46m3c said:

im reading into this at the moment too.

Got R888's at the moment but thinking of going for 595rsr on full weight e46 m3 1500-1600kg id imagine.

Cups are meant to be the best but are over twice the price...

I know it's not an out & out track tyre, but I'm using the Pilot SuperSports on my 1500kg Z4MC. There's a few of the e34 M5 guys using them on 1600-1800kg cars.

Have done 3 trips (about 75 laps) to the 'Ring and one Oulton trackday so far, and they're doing very well. They car is also my daily driver (20k/year), and they've currently got 20k miles on the fronts and 17k on the rears. Fronts are down to 5mm, rears are at 4mm.

Not the cheapest tyre at about £210/£230 a corner (225/45r18 & 265/40r18), but they're lasting about twice as long as the Conti SportContact M3 I had on the car originally.

Relatively good in the wet/damp too.

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 2nd October 11:09

[krallicious]

I'll report back in a couple of weeks but I will be running 888s on my M3 next week if it's dry and my PSS if it's wet.

[fushion julz]

I've been using 888s (215/50/15) on my E30 M3 (1200Kgs) for some while now ...However, they are now starting to get prohibitively expensive, given that the fronts only last one day or two at best. (I get 2-3 days out of the rears).

I have considered several options including Federal FZ201 and Silverstone FTZ but the Federals are an unknown quantity and are not a lot cheaper than the Toyos and the Silverstones only come in certain sizes which, for me, means dropping to 195 section.

I decided to go for some part-worn slicks (Michelin 19/57/15, S9c hard/endurance compound) which are roughly 200/50/15 road size.

I haven't had a chance to use them, yet, but even if they get trashed after a single day they will be a whole lot cheaper than the Toyo 888s and should offer at least as much grip. Given that the 888s are not good in anything more than damp conditions and, when worn, are positively dangerous in the wet and that means having a set of "wets" (in my case my road tyres/wheels which are Avon ZZ3 225/45/16) in either case, there seemed to be only positives in going for slicks...