Tyre wear on first track day.

[milleman]

Booked on a track day in a couple of weeks and want some advice on the rear tyres.

They are nearly at the wear blocks especialy on the nearside-should I replace them before hand?. Don't want to get any grief when I get there.

3.6 996.

Cheers

[Super_Marv]

Problem is, if you put new tyres on before the trackday, more than likely, they'll fall appart - new tyres need a good few KM's underneath them before they go on track...

[Don]

milleman said:

Booked on a track day in a couple of weeks and want some advice on the rear tyres. They are nearly at the wear blocks especialy on the nearside-should I replace them before hand?. Don't want to get any grief when I get there. 3.6 996. Cheers

Does the organiser have tyre support? If so - why not book two new tyres, do the trackday - and have the new ones put on at the end.

Brand new tyres suffer from tread squirm and suffer bad wear initially on track. There again - you have a couple of weeks - you could get them changes now and go scrub them in - a few hundred miles should suffice.

Enjoy your day.

[GreenV8S]

New tyres will wear a lot faster than old ones, partly because the extra tread depth deflects more and generates more heat and friction and partly because the tread material is physically softer. Neither brand new nor knackered tyres are ideal, but if you have the choice then I would fit new tyres, scrub them in for a couple of hundred miles and then put them through three or four heat cycles to finish curing them. Also run them a PSI or two softer than normal on the track.

[verysideways]

I'm a firm believer in old knackered tyres.
You can really lean on them hard, and if you get to the point where they start to overheat a bit they'll slide beatifully - it won't help you go faster (in fact your lap times will probably get worse) but you'll get to learn a lot more about the car "at the limit" because the limit is easier to get to.
Plus, when you completely wreck them by sliding them around you won't care because they were due for replacement anyway!

As someone else has already said, if there is tyre support at the track, go ruin your old ones and then have the new ones fitted for the drive home.

VS

[t urbo]

I too am a great believer of using the old tyres.
My rears are like slicks on the inside edges but im going bedford on the 9th june and there coming, no way am i putting on new rubber then wrecking them in a couple of hours.I wanna see thread before i change them bad boys.

[david hype]

Guys, just interested to know what is the lowest legally acceptable amount of tread allowed for a track day?

[t urbo]

Not sure there is one. Ive necer had my tyres checked. Normally they are only interested in noise levels and your towing eye.

[GreenV8S]

If they're very worn then you may be in danger of wearing through the tread into the carcase. This has a completely different (less grippy) compound, and once you're into here relatively little extra wear can damage the fabric leading to catastrophic failure. I appreciate the school of thought that says keep the decent tyres for the road, but personally I think it's false economy - the track is where you need decent grip, predictable handling, and absolutely avoid any risk of high speed catastrophic failure. If the thought of a couple of mm tyre wear worries you then to put this into context consider how much you're spending on the track day (fees, fuel, brakes, servicing etc) and decide whether you want to compromise all that by running knackered tyres. If that doesn't ursuade you then start adding up how much it's going to cost you if anything goes wrong. If you're going on track then you want everything A1, if it isn't then stay in the paddock.

[milleman]

Decided to renew them, £170.00 each plus VAT for Conti's.

[911nutter]

FYI Kwik Fit (no laughing please) are doing essentially 4 for the price of 3 on michelin tyres until early June. Might save you £200 odd....