anto1150

Would you use track tyres (R888, MPSC etc) on a street-only C2 with no camber-plates?

I like to drive fast on mountain roads and I'm quite experienced to understand they need some... attention when cold and wet, but my car goes out quite rarely, so normal tyres tend to become hard before they wear out...

Would they reach their ideal temperature on a mountain road? If not, would that make them last longer and remain soft till the end?

TIA
Anto

Bill Verburg

There are certainly lots of folks that do that, Never heard to many complaints except for when it rains or gets cold

boxsey911

I happily use mine when travelling long distances to the track. However, they are VERY noisy (produce a high pitched whine) so I wouldn't want to use them all the time.

Jimjacqmx5

I would recommend running Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport tyres if you can get them in Europe.
hey provide almost as much grip as the best semi slick tyre (Dunlop Dz03G) but have much deeper grooves and will work even in torrential rain. They have full semi slick tyre consruction so have excellent turn in etc. They are also MUCH quieter than a true semi slick.
I have driven on pretty much every semi slick tyre and highly recommed these.
I have previously run Falken Azenis 615's as street tyres which are pretty good and were the best street/track tyre a few years ago but the Z1 Dunlops are leaps and bounds better.

I often leave on my DZ03G full semi slicks after a competition event and they suffer no undue wear. If you do go a true semi slick rather than a street/track tyre, I'd recommend running a softer compound front than rear.
You should still run a fair bit of camber if you are driving hard, at least 2 deg neg camber all around. I would also be very careful with tyre pressures and monitor for wear, especially the centre of the tyre as the often overheat, over inflate and chew out the centre.

So in essence, the answer is definately yes.
As I said, if you can get the Z1's, I'd do that as you get 99.9% of the performance and will still tolerate standing water where a true semi slick may spit you off the road into the trees!

DanR

question to me is will you have more fun! Track tires will give you more grip so you will need to go faster to to get closer to th edge. This increases risk! Keep the street tires and get the screeming, more predictable and for me on the road, more of a grin factor! The most fun I ever had was in my 911 on sumer tires in a freak early year snow storm. Dont need lots of grip to have fun

race911

Toyo RA1s are a defacto street tire for many, many Northern Californians who still use their track focused cars lightly on the street. Mild enough climate to fake it in the freak rain storm; never gets cold enough to worry about temperature issues.

Frank 993 C4S

Provided you live in a warm climate it would probably be safe to do, but why on earth would you do this? I doubt you would ever safely get them up to temperature to where you could use their true potential.

and this will drive you crazy:

race911

Anything above mid-40s and RA1s are fine. Sometimes you get shafted on the schedule and have to go out first. If you've got a day that's practice/qual/race 1/race 2, you can't dick around waiting for the tires. On the Spec Miata I've seen guys within one second of the session best on lap 2. I'm usually 1.5-2 seconds off, but usually get a session best on lap 3 with the times falling off after that.

Been years (decades?) since I've autocrossed, but the old BFGs we used in the mid-90s allowed us to be on form right off the bat.

TAI2

+1 for the RA1's

Gus

+1 for the R888's

LouZ

I would take a slightly different course. If you want a street tire that is very good on the track, look into the Toyo T1R. It is a mild "R" compound but with full treads.

I used them on the track for a couple of years, and they were great. I have a new set on the Porsche now as my daily driver tires.

Jimjacqmx5

Before I state the following, please know I have no affilitation with Dunlop however....

In independant tyre tests I have read from both Australia and overseas and in tarmac rally events both the Dunlop DZ03-G semi slick track tyre and the slightly more road friendly Direzza Sport Z1 both top the tables.
The DZ03-G is up to 2 secs a lap faster than an R-888, and the only other tyres that come close are the Kumho V-70A and Bridgestone RE55's.
As for the road biased tyres, the Z1 has won many independant tests including one where it bettered the Bridgestone RE-01's and the Toyo T1-R's amongst others.

Quote from another Car and Driver tyre test.

"It took only a matter of seconds on the dry autocross to realize the Dunlop Star Specs were strong tires. Both the Dunlops and the Kumhos felt head and shoulders above the other tires, including the benchmark Michelin PS2s. We were impressed with how the Star Specs have huge grip that is available immediately, even before they warm up, which lends credence to Dunlop marketing them as autocross tires.

Although 0.3 second behind the Kumhos on the dry autocross, the Star Specs create a reassuring connection between the tires and the steering wheel. Geswein summed up their predictable and planted feel by saying they were “rewarding to drive hard,” and the Star Specs also excelled while transitioning from braking to cornering to accelerating, which left us with satisfyingly smooth laps.

After the staggering dry performance, we were shocked that the Star Specs didn’t sacrifice much in the wet, knuckling down to produce the best lap time—just a 10th off the PS2s’—despite being a touch peaky. "

Seems to be exactly what you are after, and all I know is we fit these tyres regularly to customers Porsches at our independant Porsche service centre in Australia and every person has stated they are simply the best tyres they have driven on.

race911

No question that Dunlop is a really good tire, I just don't have experience with it. But it's certainly slower on a track than an RA1/Nitto NT01. The other Dunlop you mention, the race tire, I don't believe is available in the US. (Though our original poster is not, so that disclaimer may not mean anything.) If they're touting it faster than an 888, then it's likely more like the current BFG or Hoosier R compounds. Tires that cannot go anywhere near a public road, even though they have DOT markings. Another track-only "street" tire is the Goodyear somethingorother. Friend ran them last year in SCCA ITE on a ~500HP S2000 with great results and consistency versus the Hoosiers he had been running for the past 4 or 5 years.

tbennett017

What sizes are you mounting on 17" rims? I'd like a set of these but they don't seem to come in bone stock sizes...

kos11-12

Hi there ,

I use R888 on the road, I agry with Steve, they are very noisy, around 70mph/100khm, concerening aquaplaning you can recut R888, actually here in France you can buy them recut from TOYO, in wet or rain version, 2 recut stages..

Konstantin