Avon ZZR longevity on road

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Evening all, following on from my previous post:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thank you to everyone who shared their inputs, it’s greatly appreciated.

I have another question, to those who use ZZR’s for road use, do you possibly know how many miles you can get out of them? It’s what I run on my 7 but as over 90% of their use is on track, I’m not sure how long a set will last with road use.
I’m assuming, with how light the Caterham is and without hammering them on track at full operating temp, that a half worn set could do 2500 miles of mainly motorway driving without becoming illegal, but thought it best to check.

Any input is much appreciated!

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agatebox said:

It’s not so much the tyre compound but how much an aggressive set up you have for track use.
If you’re running a lot of negative camber combined with some toe out on the front for track work you’ll find you’ll soon be wearing down the inside portion of the tyres at an alarming rate under “normal” road use.

Because of the length of the drive, the suspension/geo will be completely adjusted prior to the trip, with the current ride height, I doubt I’d make it to Italy without smashing the sump to pieces

agatebox said:

The other thing to consider for extensive road use is ZZRs don’t take kindly to standing water.
Having had the pleasure of aquaplaning without warning a couple of times on the local dual carriageway with ZZRs, personally id be fitting ZZSs for any potential wet motorways unless you’re prepared to seriously reduce your speed if conditions turn bad.

Although I’m making the drive in Summer, I have no issue slowing right down if the weather turns bad, I’m planning the drive down over 3 days to make sure I’m in no rush.

Swapping on a set of new ZZSs is likely the best option, but my tight fisted ‘Yorkshire’ side doesn’t want to spend £1k on a set of tyres for one trip………..unless anyone has a set for staggered 13’s that they want to part with?

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BertBert said:

You could always use them once you are back as well.

Edited by BertBert on Wednesday 31st January 07:36

Doubt I’d have much use for them though, the 7 is used on track 90% of the time and I use the ZZR’s for track, I could possibly keep the ZZS’s as ‘wets’. However, even though I have a spare pair of front wheels I would need to source a pair of the wider rears which seem to be getting hard to find after Caterham discontinued them.