NorthVan

I seem to burn through the fronts as fast as the rears.

The Greek

Resurrecting a previous thread I saw. We need to convince Nitto to make the NT01 in a 997 diameter format. All I hear is good things about that tire....


Here is the link directly to their contact page.
http://www.nittotire.com/Contact

996toomey

Yes the price of the Trofeo very reasonable. The difference for me is I can get one set of RE-11 and for the same driving time I will need three sets of the Trofeos.

When my throw away money starts picking up a little again I will try the Trofeos and see if the performance advantage is worth the cost difference to me.

Izzone

Odd....my fronts last forever

Izzone

I believe it is a modern day RA1

I will be running these on my 996 stripper

The Greek

^ Yea, everyone raves about them. I remember reading someone tried it with no errors. I am scared of trying it....

NJ-GT

If you want to know which street tires are best, check what the SCCA drivers in the Solo and ProSolo street tire classes are running. We do a lot of testing, and we are a gigantic group.

- Michelin PSS: good for rain and nothing else, dry grip better than PS2, but not as fast as MPSC. Nobody in the SCCA street tire classes run these tires.
- MPSC N-Spec: all the problems mentioned here, plus low grip, except the 245/325 used in the 997 GT2 RS, RS 3.8 and RS 4.0. These specific sizes where found to be very sticky by Sport Auto, the German magazine .
- MPSC race-spec: For the 997 wide body, 265/30R19 on 9" wheels and 345/30R19 on 12" wheels, the rear offset needs to stick to the inside 10mm more than stock (10mm higher offset value or 1/2" more back spacing).
- Hoosier R6: 16 Heat cycles that's it. Any drive you do on them is 1 heat cycle, typical schedule on track days is 4 sessions, that's 4 heat cycles.
- Hoosier A6: 8 heat cycles, I have run way too many of these ones.
- Corsa System: as slow as the MPSC n-spec except the 245/325 n-spec. They were 1.5 secs slower than R888 on my own testing.
- R888: I ran 5 sets in the Fiat, 2 in my Spec Boxster, 1 on the 997 GT3 RS. 20 HC, that's it. Anything over 20 HC and you're in for an ice driving show putting us at risk. I can touch them and know when they are toast, despite of a full tread look.
- RA1: My favorite tire for street/track/auto-X. This tire made me quit the MPSC. I stopped running RA1 when my cars went to 19" wheels. I put 8,000 miles on one set of RA-1 with some track time and autoX time. They get faster as they get older.

I have not tested the Trofeo, but I seriously doubt the comments here about them being 2-4 secs faster than MPSC. This gap would make them faster than Hoosier R6, and all the SCCA, NASA, PCA club racers would be running Trofeos instead of R6, V710 or A6.

RE-11 are amazing despite of being heavier. I have data and lap times to prove it. Feedback on tires with no data doesn't help too much.

A fellow autocrosser tested for Grassroot Motorsports magazine a series of street tires. The Hankook RS-3 came clearly on the top, beating the RE-11, Kumho XS, Dunlop Direzza, Toyo R1R and Yoko ADV-08. All these street tires have far superior grip than anything else out there.

For hot days the RE-11 are not good. But the Yoko (as Peter-85Gold said) behave well in hot conditions. However, the RS3 will be my tire of choice when the time comes to replace my RE-11, the RS3 likes heat, it actually needs to be warmed up to stick well, and it is a full street tire, not a race tire. I have been talking to owners of the RS3 and they just stay fast. They make RS3 sizes for the 997 on 19" wheels, a 235 front and 305 rear.

Izzone

try a 996 stripper.....I did and am hooked

997.2 GT3 is like a college girl in bed......little heavy from too much beer. Newness hides all of the driver faults

996 GT3 stripper is like a tight cougar......knows how to move if you can move with it. Will leave you in the dirt if you abuse her

85Gold

Rad

I agree on R-S3 being best in the heat. Andy Hollis swears by them over in other street tire on track. Takes a couple of laps to get hot the you are good to go. Now if they just made a 395/30 18

Peter

M3EvoBR

Rad I have to disagree with you on the Stock GT3 RS MPSC.
I drove them back to back with RA-1's and they are 2-3 seconds slower. They have lateral grip but you can't brake or put the power down.
If the statement on the Trofeos are correct, they should be right next or maybe a tad faster than RA1's

NJ-GT

Eddie boy, comparison of tired and old MPSC doesn't add much value. Porsche would not use crappy tires to break Nurburgring lap records. BMW started the cheating part, then Porsche, lately GM, MPSC are sticky when fresh.

Get a new set of MPSC, gather data, put RA1, gather data, then compare.

Heat cycled out MPSC are worth nothing, very low grip, less grip than a standard street tire. In Florida weather, every time you take a GT3 RS 3.8 to the highway and drive for more than 15 minutes at 75 mph, you will need to count that as a heat cycle, core temperature already reaches 150 degrees just on street driving.

My Fiat doesn't have the mechanical grip of the Aero Beetles with the wings cheating stuff, still it produced 1.4g at the 2 hairpin turns inside Daytona where Aero doesn't play too much of a difference, I'm still waiting for Daytona data from the RA-1 shod Aero Beetles, but I doubt they were any higher than my MPSC.

Longitudinal grip showed better numbers than I ever recorded before with the Fiat, no idea whether it was the new brake compound or the MPSC, but good brakes would overwhelm bad tires, and the numbers show good grip (avg and peak g-forces during a braking short segment).

M3EvoBR

You have a point on the heat cycles. I was using the tires that came with the car.

NorthVan

Tracks layout, and surface will make a difference. I am not sure what the alignment setting were, as this was on my C2S with Damptonics. The tires wore even across, but only slightly more remained in the front, then the rear.

MM3.9GT3

[QUOTE=NJ-GT;9044930]I have not tested the Trofeo, but I seriously doubt the comments here about them being 2-4 secs faster than MPSC. This gap would make them faster than Hoosier R6, and all the SCCA, NASA, PCA club racers would be running Trofeos[QUOTE]

Rad, please test a set of Trofeos. They are fairly new, and were in very limited supply through much of this year, and that is the most likely reason that a lot of people have not tried them. They are at least 2 seconds a lap faster than MPSC N spec (not the real 18" MPSC) on a 2:00 lap, and that's with my limited driving skills. A faster driver like you will amplify the difference.

BBMGT3

Agree with MM3.9GT3. Trofeos are monstrously quick. Apparently Pirelli is making a "Enduro" version of it with less grip but much more life. Pity (I think)

Will try to mount a set before they are discontinued. Still hard to find...

Regarding the "downside" of needing 100+ psi to seat the bead, you have a high risk of damaging the tire while fitting, as was demonstrated on Friday when I saw/heard one grenade...