echere88

Newbie here with C2S pdk PS2 tires. I am plannig to track the car. Question for the experts here.

Are PS2 tires ready(qualified) for the track? I am still going to drive the car in town here and there. Will I damage or wore out the PS2 tires on the track quickly to the point I can not drive on the freeway? i.e. How many track event I can expect before PS2 worn out? Don't I need a set of street tires and track tires? Thanks for your advise.

ECS

Actually, they are probably the best "street" tire around for the track. I have run Cups before but I think the PS2s are very good on the track. They are sticky, light, and predictable. Of course they will wear. I say about 3-4 good track days max (4 twenty minute sessions per day). However, depending on your ability, you will have to drop the pressure significantly. When they are cold at the track I drop the pressure to about 33 rear and 28 fronts in the morning. Then I keep dropping them all day so they stay about 34s psi front and 39 rear when hot.

Frino

PS2's are not track tires. Having said that, they should be fine for high performance driving events, especially if you are driving in beginner or intermediate run groups. Invest in a set of R compound tires as your skill level increases and if you are going to be doing more than 3-5 track days a year.

I heated my PS2's up very quickly on the track and ended up running 28/30 cold to keep hot temps under 40 psi.

cviles

One item about the design of PS2s: The outside shoulder is designed to roll over a bit during hard cornering to increase the size of the contact patch. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of rubber there -- this is fine on the street as most people don't corner very hard or very often to use this feature. But on the track, you can wearing this part of the tire pretty quickly with a stock alignment.

If you're just starting out, I wouldn't worry about it very much. But if you're an experienced, fast track driver it's possible to start cording the tires in this location over a single weekend. But then, if you're going that fast (and not just abusing your tires) it's probably time for track rubber anyway.

NVRANUF

The fact that you've asked this question indicates tracking is a new experience for you. Good stuff!!

If so, PS2's are great starter tires!! They have tremendous grip on the track! Aim for 36psi front and 38psi rear hot. Anything over and they become greasy. I would begin at 6-8psi cold lower depending on the day and track temps and monitor tire temps ASAP when leaving the track hot.

Once you determine whether tracking is something you wish to pursue, then buying a second set of track wheels is the ONLY way to go, and 18" is definitely the direction. Larger choice of tire. Expense on this highly consumable item is better (reads:lower!) in 18" vs 19". Also most will agree that 18" provides a better all round platform for "tracking" in general no matter what your skill level.

Good Luck and have fun!!

MJones

Have no fear! They work very well on the track and give nice audible feedback at the limit.

PS2's are the tire that you will find on the cars at the Porsche Sport Driving School.

Havent done so; Check out and attend PSDS

echere88

Thanks eveyone for your input. Yes, I have no track experience yet. I will plan to attend driving school as many suggest here. As for the tires, I will just start out with PS2 tires.

Question - How do you tell if the tires are "hot"??

NVRANUF

Measure them before going onto the track and then measure them ASAP coming off the track, and you will see the difference.

If that doesn't work..... touch them!
But keep your fingers well clear of any brake parts, they will definitely burn you!!

Coochas

PS2 are great street tires for the track. I've run them on my old C4S and Boxster on the track and was very very pleased with them.
If or when you become addicted to the track, you can switch to some dedicated track rubber. R-compounds are NOT a good starting point. In fact, some regions such as my own PCA regions do not allow R-compounds until you are in a solo (i.e. non-instructed) class. Generally speaking R-compounds do not make as much noise as street tires and hence being able to feel the limits of the car becomes more important. At an extreme, true slicks make little to no noise before 'giving way' in a corner.

I'm glad to hear you'll be trying DE. It really is a blast but horribly addictive.
As MJones said, after you become hooked you should sign up for PSDS: it will take your driving up several levels very quickly.

ENJOY and let us know how it goes.

RonCT

A couple of additional comments. The one thing you won't like about using your street tires on the track is you might wear the shoulder because you will be cornering hard. The way around that is alignment and I'll bet yours came from the factory messed up as they all do. Your car sounds new, so you are entitled to a "free" re-alignment from your dealer. All you have to do is say "you know, the car feels like it pulls and the alignment is off..." They know that the transport of the car, the settling, etc. can alter settings.

So, my dealer asked me to go 1800 miles of break-in and then come in for the free alignment. The settings were VERY bad and so they set it for me. I asked them to give me as much negative camber up front as they could, and they got about 1 degree, which is about 3x what the normal stock setting is.

Negative camber will help avoid wearing the shoulders and won't do anything bad. I now have -2.3 degrees and have zero negative issues on street or track.

The PS2 is a great tire and I've been using it as my street and wet track tire for many years - since the PS2 was initially released. I've gone through many sets and while I use PSCups, RA1s, etc. on dry track, the PS2 is just slightly under those in terms of dry track performance. In fact, they are equal to the 19" Cups that come on the GT3 (scientific, not opinion - I have TraqMate and the telemtry shows the PS2 and 19" Porsche Cups have equal lateral and braking G forces, meaning grip is the same).

Lots of threads here on PS2, PScup, track, etc. - so take some time and search, browse, etc. through this area and especially Racing and DE. Good luck!

echere88

Thanks for pointing me to that direction...Found lots of reading to digest

MUSSBERGER

Don't sweat it. They are excellent tires. Listen to you instructor and have a great time. You'll have plenty of time to agonize about setup later in your career.

f4 plt

All the Porsches at the PSDS run on PS2's and they have told me they get around 1000 miles on a set. The tires handle well and only when hot do they get a little slippery. Expensive but a very good close to great tire and yes sticky tires do wear rapidly.

Targa Tim

Ron,

this is good information, as the PS2 will last 3 times longer than the MPSC.

I wonder if I should ask for PS2 for delivery with my RS...

Bob Rouleau

The tires delivered with your RS are superior to the PS2 don't worry.

To the Original Poster - Track wears out all tires. Street tires last longer than track tires (R compounds) but have less grip.

The problem with track is that the standard alignment provided by Porsche will cause the outside edges of the tires to wear out prematurely - five days on the track will do it, sometimes even less!

You can fix this by changing the alignment as has been suggested above. Doing this on anything but a GT model,i.e. GT3, RS etc will involve modifying the front suspension which is designed to prevent the amount of negative camber needed for track.

Here's the run, with 2.5 degrees of negative camber in front and 2.2 or so in back your tires will wear evenly on the track. Bravo. Trouble is, if you do a lot of street driving you'll wear out the inside edges prematurely. Oops. Dedicated trackies like me wear tires out on the track since we do a lot of track days. The additional wear on the street caused by a track alignment is negligible compared to what we do to our tires on the track. Worse, we use sticky R compounds which have great grip but wear out faster than streets ... and we don't care

Hope this helps you decide on the right compromise for your situation. You can consider a compromise alignment (-1.5 degrees in front for instance) which gives you a half and half solution.

Best,