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Are these tires shot?

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steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
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Cookeville TN
Those tires are fine, you can run them right down to the last wear bar showing. Try and get a little negative camber and bump air pressure 2 psi cold to move the wear inbound a little to make em last some more. How many miles and how many track days?
Steve
 
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the response.

The tires have about 3,000 miles and 6 track days. They look fine to me except for the very outside edge where the tread has completely disappeared. That part of the front tires wears very, very fast, with very little wear to the rest of the tire. I have been using them until the tread is gone. With no tread left there how do I judge, in the future, when that area is worn too much?

I don’t have camber plates or bolts, so can’t do much there. The Firestone store said that, stock, camber and caster are not adjustable on the BOSS. Is that true?

I have experimented with air pressure some. Usually run hot 41 – 43 psi. Sometimes as low as 40 and have made some runs 45 – 46. Even accidentally made one run at 50. Got some bad “chunking” on that set and speculate that the 50 psi run may have done them in. I did not notice the chunking until sometime after that run.

If the outside edge looks OK to you now, how many more track days do you estimate are left (given 6 so far)?

Thanks again.
-- Jim
 
Tread doesn't look bad to me. In fact mine are looking very similar. Unfortunately the grip has fallen off big time on my OEM Pirelli's. May be due to heat cycles or maybe they just fall off like that.
 
Jim, if you are looking to save money try these camber bolts. You can about 2* negative with theses. They really improved my wear patterns. Very easy to install and adjust.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/item/EIB-581260K/Ford-Mustang-Eibach-Camber-Adjustment-Bolts
 
My grip does seem to fall off, too, after about 4 track days.
I've marked in yellow the areas of wear that I am concerned about. There is a narrow (about half inch) band of high wear at the outside edge. Looks like tread is completely gone there. Yes?

IMG_1236-crop.jpg

IMG_1237-crop.jpg
 
You basically want to watch for cords showing. Then you're done. The only problem you'll have is if you are driving on them to and from the track you have to get home. You'll want to avoid driving on them once they cord. Definitely look into at least camber bolts to preserve them on the track. You will wear the insides more on the street but not as fast as you're wearing the outsides on the track.
 
Thanks for posting the question and pictures. I too question as to when OEM tires have had enough. Currently I have over 17,000 miles on them with 3 track days (not run real hard) on them but question if they still have life.

Right now I can see the wear on the outside edge near the sidewall but the tread appears like the ones in the photos. Having never been a road course racer I am learning from those like Cloud9, PeteCT, steveespo and RGracing.
 
Thanks again for all the replys. OK -- I'll go to the cords.
Any estimate as to when that might be? As in how many more track days?
HackBoss302 - were your wear patterns like mine? How did they change with - 2 degrees camber?
Thanks.
- Jim
 
I have 5 track days on mine....so about 20 sessions....they are very slippery and seem to get greasy a lot quicker then when they were new.

I have made any camber mods or aligned the car since lowering it. I went to Homestead on saturday and it was sliding all over.

Thinking about a new set of tires and a proper race alignment before the next event in late May.
 
Ran my first track day on stock tires on Sunday this past weekend. I was actually somewhat impressed with the grip of the stock Pirellis. Mine have about 3600 miles on them and only one other auto-x. Just installed camber bolts and running -2 deg of camber. Ran Hoosier R6s on Sat, but ran into a serious tire vibration issue, so switched to the stockers for day 2. The delta between the R6s and Pirellis is stark for sure -- the R6s just have tons of grip and don't get greasy or fade at all -- but the stock tires hung in there better than I thought they would. They did start getting greasy by about the second to last lap of the 20 min track sessions.

As my buddy Bill aka "fastoldman" said on Sunday, "you can have just as much fun using up those crappy Pee-reelees."
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
With the stock 255 P-zeros, around -2 degrees camber and 42 PSI worked for me on the GT. Used the tires until the center was even across the wear bars and the outside 3/4" was bald like yours. Didn't want to run to the cords since I usually ran the car home without switching to spares. They also seemed to grip less when worn, so I wasn't trying to eke out every last bit out of them.
 
YellowJacketBoss302 said:
Thanks again for all the replys. OK -- I'll go to the cords.
Any estimate as to when that might be? As in how many more track days?
HackBoss302 - were your wear patterns like mine? How did they change with - 2 degrees camber?
Thanks.
- Jim
Jim my tire wear stock was not as bad as yours, but I ran 45 to 46 psi hot on my 2012 Boss stock so that reduced the outside edge wear somewhat. With -2 of camber and 41 psi hot on my 2013 Boss the outside edge wear is improved, but not eliminated. The boss really needs more camber IMO, but I'm not ready to spend the money on camber plates.
 
6,345
8,135
Invest in one of these, they are expensive but will pay dividends in the long run............

http://www.longacreracing.com/catalog/item.asp?id=188&catid=7

Your tires are fine but try "flipping them" for more life.
 
blacksheep-1 said:
Invest in one of these, they are expensive but will pay dividends in the long run............

http://www.longacreracing.com/catalog/item.asp?id=188&catid=7

Your tires are fine but try "flipping them" for more life.
Hi Ron. Can I flip the tires even though they have asymmetric tread?
Re. The longacre temp gauge -- I have a similar one without the adjustable probe. I haven't posted any data because I am not confident that I'm using the device correctly and getting good, repeatable measurements.
 

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