What's the thinking around best track day tyres?

I currently have the origional tyres on my Scoob and have purchased a 2nd set of alloys with unused tyres on them to get me home after my 1st airfield day on 24/7.

Then I will probably have a bare set of tyres. Can I continue to use them on dry track days or is it dangerous?

If I need to get some 'track only' tyres does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks,

Greg

 

Part worn slicks are your best bet. they can be sourced failry cheaply from race teams, they last much better than treaded, and grip better too. I could try my source and see if he has any more spare. He supplies me with 16" Dunlops.

 

don't slicks put an extra load on the car?

Greg

 

No-one else got any views? Do people just use standard road tyres and replace them after each event? Surely not?

Greg

 

I went round the 12 mile Nurburgring (quite a few times) while the temp was 29c+ and my SO2's did a sterling job, nice and tacky but didn't wear out. I just went into gentle understeer. (This was in my old Car.) The tyres were still very legal when I changed cars. However, some tracks are more abrassive than others. Spa I think, is meant to eat tyres. The same goes for tracks in the UK, some eat them some don't. But slicks will always be better. To be honest, when I did the track days I just wanted to enjoy it and not drive like I was going for pole position for the sprint race in the BTCC.

P.

 

Greg.

Before I 'discovered' slicks, I use to put part-worn road tyres on my car for track days.
These are better for track as the tread is already worn somewhat, so you don't get the 'melting tread' problem and you don't ruin your good road tyres, which probably wouldn't perform any better on track anyway (unless perhaps it was raining).
It obviously helps if you've got a spare set of rims with these on, in case they become illegal, but most SIDC days have an on-site tyre van anyway.

Stef.

 

Cheers,

A couple of extra questions.

I will have a spare set of rims, which have my origional Bridgestones on them. After Abingdon I'm guessing they won't be road legal.

How can you tell when part worns are no longer safe to use on the track?

Also how much do slicks go for vs part worns getting fitted for the RSOC day?

Cheers,

Greg

 

Greg,

I think you may be overestimating the amount of tyre wear you will get on a track day.

I have done 3 on my current set of raod tyres, and there is still about 3 - 4mm of tread left on them.

You can still have fun by driving fast around the track, having the tyres squealling, but not sliding around etc, and this is the approach I take.

I know I'm never going to be anywhere near the fastest around the track (I never get timed anyway), so there's little point in pushing the tyres very hard and destroying them in 1 day for going perhaps 1 or 2 seconds per lap faster.

Brand new tyres tend to suffer much more, as there is a lot of tread on them, which overheats quickly, and they start to slide earlier and if you push them too hard, you can scrub a few mm off them quite easily i a few hours.

If you take it relatively easy for your first few sessions, and graudually build up, then you'll probably find that tyres wear is quite reasonable.

More experienced track veterans, who can drive the car to 100% (and beyond) from the first session are the ones who can really punish a set of tyres, and they tend to go for part worn tyres or slicks, as it is cheaper in the long term than wasting good road tyres which can't withstand the punishment

 

Thanks for that John,

Whatever the wear the time will come when I need to replace the tyres, and then I will have a second set purely for track days.

What I'm not clear on is when my current ones' become non-street legal, are they still safe to run on the track, when do they become unsafe?

cheers,

Greg

 

Greg,

you can run your "track" tyres until the rubber has almost worn through, though most would probably win them once they were down to the point of tread barely existing on the tyre.

 

cheers, the wallet is feeling happier :^)

Do others tend to just put part worns on, or buy specific track tyres, with a harder compound for track rims?

Greg