Craig is the resident guru so go with his word...I will goto PS2's after my rears are wasted...

 

Seriously look at Yokos...If you can get Neovas...they are way better preformace wise than the PS2s (even the Advan sports are better).

 

Everything Craig says about the MPSC tires is true. Everything he says about the MPS2 is also true, but for track driving the MPS2 will overheat after about 10 minutes. It can only handle about 160 degrees F of temperature. For the road the MPS2 tires are far superior. They are used on the 996TT that won the Cannonball One Lap of America (http://onelapofamerica.com/) overall 3 straight years in a row. If you do use MPS2 tires on track be mindful of the air pressure. The rear gets really slippery above 38-40 psi hot in the rear and braking performance starts to go away above 36 psi hot in the front.

Edit: The Yokohama Advan Neova is an awesome tire. It nicely splits the difference between steet and track but it does not come in a 315-30-18 which is what I suspect a lot of you guys are running on the back of the car.

 

\
Question for you when I check my cold tyre pressure (MSPC's)in the am (mind u I live in S Florida) my pressure is 29 front and 31 rear, as the tyres warm it goes to 31 front and 33 rear..the dealer says this is normal and other owners here told me this is what they run

 

I do not yet have any direct experience with the 19" MPSC that comes standard on the 997GT3. However the larger rear tire width and lighter weight of the 997GT3 would dictate less required air pressure. What are the recommended cold air pressures as listed in the owners manual?

In any case given the weight of the car 31F-33R hot would seem to be in the target window for the tire.

For clarification are we talking about track use or street use? This seems like a very small presusre inscrease for track use, even in the heat of south Florida.

 

Street use...I will check the cold tyre pressures from the manufacturer on the door jam

 

It will be interesting to see what Porsche recommends for cold pressure on this car. They have been trying to lower the recommended cold inflation pressure on all the 997 model variants.

 

It will I always ran my tyres on the lower pressure side as when you go to high the handling is not good.

 

Any experience w/ Nitto NT-01??

 

OT:

Onelapguy,

who built and who owns the one lap car?
Is it still in same state of tune?

Thanks,

congrats by the way!

MK

 

I have (well...will when my Fikses come in) 2 sets of wheels and tires for all the reasons people are mentioning...I have PS2s on my stock, powdercoated wheels for the rain (the little bit of extra heat from the powdercoating seems to be good in keeping the ps2 warm even in the wet...) and for street driving, and I have Fikse Profil 5s' with MPSC tires on it...


YES...the MPSC break much quicker then the PS2s...but as others have said...its at a conciderably higher level...

NO...I wouldnt use them in the rain for normal DEs or really even on the street...they are VERY, VERY slippery and require a HELL of a lot of control and a very light touch...many clubracers will run the MPSC rather than a PS2 or similar tire in the rain but they cut the tire up a bit before hand and are fairly experienced with the loss of traction at a quick rate.

If you can do the mpsc on another set of wheels...go for it...if not, I would stay away from them...

 

I was told that you shouldn't get them above 33-34 hot. To do that (here in Texas), I need to start at 22-23 cold. It takes about a lap (3.1 mile) to warm up, and they generally last most of the DE session before getting slippery. When I started at 25-26 like I did on Corsa's I used to run a couple years ago, they went away about 1/2 way through the session. I think you need to experiment a little to find the starting pressure that works best for your climate and the way you drive the car. I have also use them on the street (rarely), and they seem ok in the rain as long as you keep it under 75 or so and watch for standing water. I was caught in a freak snow 'dusting' here in Dallas one time, and they were ok (and brand new) but you just need to be careful. If I was only using them for the street only, I would go with PS2's because they last longer, are better cold, etc. I don't really drive it hard enough on the street to properly heat the MPCS's up anyway, usually driving to the track or the RUF Auto center for more tires or brake pads :-).

 

Vincentdds: Sorry no experience with nitto NT-01

Woodster: Thanks for the sentiment! The car is owned by Mark DaVia and it was put together by him and the crew at Fairfield County Motorsport as a collaborative effort (I work for FCM but I am not a technician). FCM sponsors the car for the OLOA and has done so since 2002. I've been the co-driver for the 2004, 2005 and 2006 events, and if we can get it back together in time I'll be the co-driver for the 2007 event as well. There are no modifications from last years event.

Whirls: At those pressures what kind of wear are you experiencing on the outside shoulder of the rear tires? Also for my edification what are you running for dampers, spring rate, alignment and what size tires? You are correct about the pressures. They are just a guidline and everyone may run a slightly different pressure. The real number that is important is the tire temperature.

 

Here's Michelin's documentation on MPSC usage with Porsches:

http://www.performanceinsider.com/michelin/PSCTires.pdf

Joe

 

Joe: Good Stuff, that is better than the more generic MPSC guide that Michelin put out earlier.

Everyone watching this thread should note the higher rear pressures listed for the 996 on the second to last page. They correlate to what I was saying earlier about tire pressures. But again your pressures may vary depending on tire size, vehicle weight, driving style, suspension components and alignment.