AX tires for 2014 Cayman S - 20" wheels
12-04-2016, 09:54 PM
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Track Day
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Location: Sykesville, MD USA
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AX tires for 2014 Cayman S - 20" wheels
I ran AX this year (PCA events only, running class S3) with the OEM Pirelli Pzeros on my 2014 Cayman S, but wasn't too happy with them. That's especially true since they ran out of grip about half way through the season when I had 12k or so miles on them. (I was doing decently with them when they died, too. 
) I was planning to replace them next season with Pilot Super Sports, but discovered that I'd be much more competitive with Bridgestone RE-71Rs. I've weighed the consequences of switching to the Bridgestones and have decided that's what I'm going to do.
The only remaining decision is tires size. My croc came with 20" SportTechno wheels with tire and rim sizes:
Front - 8.5 x 20 ET57 - 255/35 ZR 20
Rear - 10 x 20 ET50 - 285/35 ZR 20
The RE-71Rs don't come in 255/35-20, so I'll be going to 245/35-20 on the front, which is actually an optimal tire size for that rim size. RE-71Rs come in both 275/35-20 and 285/35-20 sizes, but which would be better? It's easy to say the 285's would be fine, but I'm a bit worried that I would wind up with what I might describe as unbalanced front/rear grip with that size on the rear which could lead to excessive understeer. So which would be better for this application? 275s or 285s?
As a side note, I'm curious what kind of life I'll get out of these tires. I run about a dozen PCA events during the season with 5 to 6 runs at each event. I'm going to try the tires anyway, but it would be interesting to hear if I can expect to get a full season out of the tires in addition to the 10k to 12k miles I put on the car in a year.
Thanks!
Regards,
Greg
) I was planning to replace them next season with Pilot Super Sports, but discovered that I'd be much more competitive with Bridgestone RE-71Rs. I've weighed the consequences of switching to the Bridgestones and have decided that's what I'm going to do.The only remaining decision is tires size. My croc came with 20" SportTechno wheels with tire and rim sizes:
Front - 8.5 x 20 ET57 - 255/35 ZR 20
Rear - 10 x 20 ET50 - 285/35 ZR 20
The RE-71Rs don't come in 255/35-20, so I'll be going to 245/35-20 on the front, which is actually an optimal tire size for that rim size. RE-71Rs come in both 275/35-20 and 285/35-20 sizes, but which would be better? It's easy to say the 285's would be fine, but I'm a bit worried that I would wind up with what I might describe as unbalanced front/rear grip with that size on the rear which could lead to excessive understeer. So which would be better for this application? 275s or 285s?
As a side note, I'm curious what kind of life I'll get out of these tires. I run about a dozen PCA events during the season with 5 to 6 runs at each event. I'm going to try the tires anyway, but it would be interesting to hear if I can expect to get a full season out of the tires in addition to the 10k to 12k miles I put on the car in a year.
Thanks!
Regards,
Greg
