Pirelli P Zero's.

Very strange, very aggressive driving on 2 separate DE's. They actually drove very well, lots of feedback. I did however notice on day 4, all four tires had a seam appear to open completely circumferentially. I've never seen it before. The "seam" is most noticeable on the last photo (day 4) front tire. No belts showing, however.

Tires or expectation with aggressive track work?

Rear Tires Day 3




Front Tire Day 4



FYI, I have adjustable front & rears sways and obviously-grippy-aligned camber...

 

I have had similar results with MPSC's. Although my wear was even across both F&R.

 

How much camber are you running?

 

Not a good thing.. unless you're running separate wheels & tires for DE events.

Got a tire warranty?..

 

Embarrassingly, I don't know. Dealership "set it up" after they installed my sway bars. I asked for "aggressive"........ Guess I got it?

 

No, these are my DD & DE tires........ I'm putting my snows on already simply because I don't trust them anymore and will wait 'til spring for the next track tires.....

 

Looking at your tires, I'd say the setting is nowhere close to aggressive enough. Aggressive camber would tilt the top in and the bottom out. Street driving would wear the inside of your tires excessively. It looks like you're wearing the outside of the tire, in the one photo. To me, that says you need more camber...

 

Rear tire is a camber problem, not enough negative camber. Front tire, no clue, but not a camber issue. My guess is that those tires aren't up to track duty. Either too old, or your driving the **** out of them. That looks like a tire quality issue, but only an issue worth complaining about if they are new enough. Again, however, I'm just guessing on the front...

 

Sorry for the multiple posts, but I'll provide a further clarification
Your rear tire is wearing as one would expect, with a mild camber alignment. As you screech your tires through high speed turns, your putting a disproportionate load on the outside of your tire.
Aggressive neg camber is dialed in to tilt the top of the tire in, and the bottom out to even out the contact patch and therefore the wear of the tire.
If the outside is wearing disproportionately, you need more neg camber. If the inside is wearing too much, you need less neg camber.
Hope that helps...

One last thing, catching myself so I don't need to put this in a fourth post, you may have the max neg camber configured, depending on your suspension. I can't comment on that, but your shop and other smart people here may know. I have some great kit from RSS in my rear suspension (front and rear sways, drop links, rear toe kit, and rear dogbones), but I'm not tracking my car, yet...

 

I think until you get all of your alignment specs, we're just making educated guesses. Your suspension setup will also impact tire wear vis-a-vis alignment. Start there. No use replacing tires and having it happen again without understanding why.

 

Also. do you know what hot pressures you were running? Did you do a lot of street driving between DE's? Was the wear pattern similar between right and left tires front and rear? If you are running adjustable sway bars, obviously your suspension is modded. Any other components not stock? How are the sways set? Any other anomalies? Just asking, you know.

 

A few more pics.

Thanks for your input guys. Unfortunately I do not have the camber and alignment specifics.

To answer a few questions, yes I was driving the **** out of them. There were a few months separating 2 DE's for a total of 4 days, so some street use, but I would not classify it as aggressive anywhere near what I do on the track.

The track in question is half a Nascar oval and half infield track, so I certainly noticed wear on the Right Rear (making Nascar lefts) early. What shocked my was the tires were new for the first DE and after the first 20 min session they looked very similar to what you're seeing now (minus the seam opening-up).

Additionally, I was running factory sway bars for the first DE. I have since had TPC Racing Sway Bars front/rear and started the second DE with the fronts on the 2nd to softest setting and finished the DE slowly adjusting up to the the 2nd from hardest setting. The rears remained in the middle setting.

Tire pressures on the first DE were pushing 50 (early April, got hot) and on the second (last weekend) they really never got above 42 as it was a partial rain-DE.

I did switch the left and right rears between DE's namely because the right rear was getting destroyed on the oval and I was not, uh, gentile?

Ultimately, I'm generally opposed to replacing my Pirelli P Zeros with the same and thought so before this seam appeared. They just didn't seem to hold up, despite my aggressive track use. I was planning MPS's but Tire Rack was out of stock when I was buying.

So, do you think I'm being unfair to the Pirelli's and am just "driving the **** out of them" or do you think 4 days on the track with a few months of average DD should expect better?

 

I say...bad alignment and over heated by over driving.

 

Is this a bad thing..............................

 

Agreed. Not enough negative camber and the tires overheated. Not enough cool down laps here and there to keep them alive.