Hey. Probably a stupid question.

I live quiet a long ride from the track and I don't feel like putting highway miles on expensive r888's or michelin cup tyres. I doubt you can fit 4 wheels with tyres inside the car with a passenger, correct?
So - On the track I feel like I would gain most from having stickier front tyres, and I can easily haul two 8" wide wheels in the backseat. Any reason I shouldn't run r888s or mpsc in the front and regular 295/30-18 pilot sports in the rear?

Will the car be unstable or some ****? Maybe It'll snap right in the middle. Hell, I don't know, so I thought better ask first


FYI my car is rwd converted. Thanks!

 

Well....I'll say this, pretty unlikely anyone here would give you an opinion based on experience .
What you suggest is a novel idea.I understand the challenge of driving to track events. Many say.....crank up your air pressure, endure the rough ride, hope it doesn’t rain.

But anyway....on your idea....the only way to know how she'd handle is to try.

Having said that.....I would not recommend it for either your drive to, or from, the track. Porsches are known to exhibit some strange handling with mixed tread/rubber front-rear. That's definitely the case with the 997. If I had to guess I'd say it's also the case on an all-wheel 996.

 

why not make/buy a little trailer to haul the race tires/wheels?

 

Compared to miles at the track the Drive there will not be very hard on your R-compounds. I wouldn't track the car with a mix of R's and street tires. When the R's get heat in them your going to have wild oversteer. The little trailer is a good idea! My friend Buckey L. had a rack on his roof that worked super good for his slicks.

 

Unfortunately I would never be allowed to do that without putting down major work on the car, I would have to weld in the frame and connect the turn and brake lights. And the trailer itself would have to go through testing and blablabla.. :/

 

I buy a set of r compounds every year. I put them on the weekend before a track event and drive 105 miles to the track and drive home. I have been caught in the rain before and have been fine. (Except with Hoosiers) I just ran through a set of toyo r888 and have bought a set of Michelin sport cups for the upcoming season. I have been known to even put my r compounds on in April and take them off the car in October. Don't be afraid to run them on the street if your Porsche is a second car.

 

@Ebwerks, I think you missunderstand me, there's either drive the whole way on 4 r comps or drive there on street tyres and change the fronts. It will most likely oversteer alot but the question is If I will get better laptimes with Rs in the front only than streets all around.

@BenTT, how many miles and trackdays do you get per tyre set?

 

I run about 6 track days per year. I instruct at summit point and I'm not easy on my tires. Do not just put r compounds on the front. I believe a full tread r compound tire is very good in the rain. 2-4k miles is avg for my r compounds. I even got caught in a light snow after the last track day of the year with some spent kumho victoracers once. Scary. I got caught in the rain with my Toyo r888 last year and it was not bad. I could run r compounds on my car year round since its an extra car and not my daily.

 

Not sure about this tire combo, but years ago I had PS2 in front and Sumis in the back and my car was horrible. Abs kicked in all the time- during turns, going up hills- all over. Each time it threw off the balance and cut power- dangerous. Not to mention the different adhesion properties.

I ran Cups year round and had no problem with them upto and on track other than they were pretty hard for the street after the season. Personally like the trailer idea and there is a hitch that bolts right up to our bumpers without too much mod. Wouldn't mind picking one up if available myself.

Have fun at the track and like F1 said- just jack your pressure up for trip up. I currently have Hankook TD tires and they told me to do the same thing.

 

If you are worrying about lap times and trying to drive the car hard enough to improve them, you will put the thing in the wall backwards with the R compounds on the front and and streets on the rear. Just run the R's all the way around, drive to the track then you can drive it like you stole it and not worry about it. Have fun, wish my home track didn't have a 12" of snow on it, track day sounds great.

 

This!


Just put the rcomps on drive to track, drive laps, drive home, change back to street tires.

You can get thousands of miles from rcomps. On the street.

Make sure your alignment is good though. If not you can cord a rcomp durong the event and driving back like that would be nerve racking.

 

I've used a lot of different tires for track days (not on a 996TT). I agree with others that mixing grip levels (especially changing with temperature) is going to be hard to drive with an ever-changing limit. You didn't mention how far your drive from home to the track is either.

If you're talking less than 150 miles of highway to the track then I would just mount some R-compound tires the evening before the track day and drive over and back on them. The wear from 300 miles of highway is going to be small compared to the wear from 200 miles of tracking.

If you live a long way from the track then I can see two options. If you become friends with any of the track organizers or trackside support businesses, there is usually one or two of them who will store a set of track wheels/tires for you, and bring them in their trailer when they come to the track. This way you can drive there, and swap wheels/tires when you arrive. If you're going that route it also opens up the idea for running slicks.

The second option is to just use some high performance non-R-comp tires. This is what you'll be driving on anyway, so there's no harm learning how they behave on the track. If you bump up the size slightly you could run a 235/40R18 and 315/30R18. This opens up some tire options like the Falken RT-615K or the Kuhmo XS, both of which are pretty cheap, and I've had good luck with on a road course.
-Dan