gosborne

Looking for informed opinions on aging out of track tires...

I recently bought a set of track wheels that happened to have NT01s mounted. Based on wear indicators, my guess is that all 4 tires have probably 50% useful rubber left on them. No cuts, unusual wear, or any other signs of problems – they actually look to be in good shape. The issues is, the date codes on the tires are – fronts mgf date of 2009 and rear 2010. I spoke with Nitto and of course, for liability reasons they can’t say for sure and are leaning toward replacing them. I get why they are saying that. I don’t want to be penny wise and pound foolish and risk an issue on the track but, given the coin I have into these, would like to get a DE weekend or so out of the tires. I’m not concerned about getting max lap time out of them since I’ll be getting familiar with a new car anyway but, don’t want to risk a failure at track speed either. My gut says replace them. Thoughts?

David993S

Go with your gut. Those are old, date code-wise. The manner in which they were stored has a lot to do with tread compound life. I understand not wanting to pitch a set of tires that have lots of tread left, but why risk it? Are you willing to risk life & limb over a $1000 set of new NT01's? I wouldn't. It's a small price to pay considering all the other costs involved with tracking a car.

jmartpr

Go with your gut feeling...replace them....if we go by the year those have 8-10 years plus use.

gosborne

Thank you both for the input.

Agreed - it just doesn't make sense to take a risk with track tires that "look" good but, are 9-10 years old.

grrrmonster

Use them for autox

blomman

I bought a couple of sets "new" pirelli corsa R tires from ca 2010. There were small small cracks in the rubber. One tire exploded on track. Never again, cheap tires on an extensive porsche.

RickBetterley

Excellent advice

petee_c

when did they explode? (how old were they?)

----

I have a set of used toyo r1r's that I bought with cayman wheels to use with my street boxster when I take it to the track.... they have a 2015 date on them, but I think they should be ok for 2019 and hope to get this season out of them...

I tried to find a definitive answer on the topic, but could not find one... the closest one I could find was relating to motorcycle tires....

jmartpr

Besides the risk or failure from an old tire you also have to be clear that the tire will be nowhere near it's expected performance/grip due to aging+use. You may end up fighting the car all over the track and any setup or adjustment will not work when you change to newer tires.

petee_c

I was running Kumho PS31 street tires last year at my local track... I am hoping to do better with these R1R's.... if I don't like them, then I'll budget a replacement....

petee_c

Tires were in great shape. One pair had 1115 date on them, the other pair had 3016 date on them....

Ran a couple seconds faster with the R1R rubber vs the Kumho PS31 rubber I had on before.... I kept the stock pressures for now, but doing some reading on the interwebs, I might go down a bit (I ran 29F/36R)....

Happy, I noticed they were also very quiet, unlike the PS31's which would howl at every corner....