Matt Lane

Hi guys, one more classic 'dual use, good at neither' thread:

I now do about 12 track days a year, and am a signed-off (but still novice, improving) driver. I have about 30 days of PCA DE experience, spread over the last 5 years. My interest is in learning, not outright speed/performance.

I wil have a second set of wheels available and am debating whether to get R comps or good performacne street tires (RE11, Direzza Star Spec). My alignment is set conservatively (1.75 degrees neg camber) on stock ROW Euro suspension since I still do about 5K miles a year of street driving. I have been trying to maintain a reasonable wear pattern.

Are R comps even an option with such an alignment?

Alignment values aside, any ideas about the cost effectiveness of either approach (wear rate/cost of tires?)

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thanks for any tips and advice.

Best,

Matt

Potomac-Greg

My vote is for you to get either Nitto NT01s or Toyo RA1s (both R-comps) for the following reasons. These tires will give you a lot more grip than street tires, and they're no more expensive then good street tires. You also do not need to worry about them "aging out" before you get full use out of them because they age well. At 12 events/year, you're doing 50 heat cycles anyway. You'd be better with more neg camber, but 1.75 is pretty close.

Personally, I moved to R-compounds a few years ago, and then last year went "purist" running a season of DE with street tires. In the end, the street tires got flat spotted and I was simply going slower and making more noise! Moral victories come few and far between when you DE in a 944 n/a, so I'm back to R-compounds this year.

Bull

+1

jpk

Camber is not nearly as bad on tire wear as toe; I run 2/2.5 degrees neg camber (F/R) and almost 0 toe on the 968. After over 15,000 miles on my street tires, I can't see any signs of uneven wear. The tires havn't been rotated at all (directional tread with staggard widths)

michel944

The fun is with R-comp tires, street tires don't even come close.

Bill Verburg

MPSC work well for dual use too, lots of folks arrive and drive on them.

A potential issue w/ some of the others is that they are not all available in the usual sizes for 993

JustinL

If it were me I'd stick with streets forever if it's not about speed. I went to R-comps to be competitive at autocrosses and time trials. For me it was worth a couple seconds, but no increase in learning potential of the car other than driving it harder and faster.

paradisenb

Well.... Duh.

Get the R comps.

JustinL

Heheh I agree, but we have to be honest with ourselves. It's not about "learning"... there's always a desire for speed when r-comps come into the picture.

Backmarker

+1 for Nittos, I am on my third set and love them

I use them to drive to/from the track and on the track

Once you do a single session on them with proper pressure you will never drive street tires on track again

Matt Lane

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback.

Still interested to get more opinions specifically about the feasability of running R-comps on a sub -2 degree alignment. Concerned about toasting the outside edges. This based on the assumption that the lower grip of street tires will generate less wear on the outside edges, resulting in more even wear, all things equal.

Thoughts?

M

ritzblitz

I ran R6s on a street alignment with less than 2 degrees negative front camber. No problems here.

CWay27

I run Nitto NT-05 for street and really think they would be a great tire for you. I ran them in the constant rain at Calabogie event last september and they were great. If I were you, I wouldn't run MPSC simply because they suck in the rain, they heat cycle out before you even cord them. Really, for mild use, I would consider NT-05 or NT-01 for R-comp.

sbelles

I'll Respectfully disagree. I went "back" to street tires a number of times after my initial foray into R Comps. While my lap times might have been higher, I think my learning curve may have been steepest on those days. Once you have a pretty good understanding of the performance envelope of your car, taking it back a step so that you can really play on the ******* edge can be great fun and really beneficial.

4porsh

http://www.nittotire.com/#index.tire.nt05

http://www.nittotire.com/#index.tire.nt01