cobalt

I have been doing some autoX events in the 928GTS with old Michelin MXX3's and have had no problems. This included a skid pad and car control clinic event were my wife and I pushed the car all day.

I took my turbo out for the first time this weekend and I chunked the front left tire pretty badly. The tires are S02's 225/40/18 with about 3 years old and have about 6000 miles on them. The caorse was rather fast and there was a really hard left hander to the finish which I pushed too hard a couple of times. Carried way to much speed and it appears I did some damage at the local PCA-NNJR event at the Meadowlands. The other 3 tires are fine and I was running 34/40 tire pressures.

My question is are the tires damaged beyond safe street use? Can I use these further for additional AutoX events? What caused this to happen? Ws it my driving, pressure setting or is this common for these tires?

Appreciate any help.

djantlive

I think age of tire may have something to do with these. Although mileage is low, they can be dried up after 3 yrs. Combined that with heat cycling, that may be the culprit. I'd change it but don't be surprised if the other tires go bad too. See if you can get some warranty credit on a new tire.

James-man

Same happened to one of my tires at my last DE weekend. My tires were getting pretty noisy, are similar in age to yours, and I am wondering if tread separation may possibly have something to do with chunking.

I am tempted to swap right to left tires, putting the tire with chunkage on the inside tire (right) for a DE day. But I realize that new tires are in the immediate future for me.

What do you plan to do about yours?

pcar964

you call that chunking? try a trackday at Sebring with street alignment, chunks as big as marbles all over the outside (of every tire) - from what i can see, your tires are fine for street use, just check the wear bars...

arenared

Those look fine. Maybe back off 2% in the corners if you're concerned about destroying your tires. You could swap or flip the tires if you really wanted to abuse them some more. They'll be fine for the street.

Check these out (no affiliation) from http://dpcars.aprsworld.com/mini/me.htm

cobalt

400 miles on a set of tires ouch. I actually replaced the tires. The pics don't show how bad they really were. The belting was actually exposed in several places and I didn't want to chance a blow out with the Speedline rims. Not much chance to rotate a directional tire with different sizes front and rear. I think it is time for a set of track wheels so I can deal with these issues better.

arenared

Good call. You don't want belts showing. Depending on your sizes, you may be able to pick up a set of Dunlop SSRs or PZero Corsas on the cheap. They're really fun tires. I sometimes run my directional tires backwards (left to right) during the summer to even out the wear, but I don't have to worry about standing water where I live either. BTW, that Cobalt Blue is a gorgeous color...