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Track tires= front tire wear faster....?


peteinjp

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I run semi slicks on my car and it only see spirited driving- no highway and no daily use. I did not rotate the tires this go around and I found that the fronts are almost bald while the rears have more than half the tread left. Just wondering if this is considered normal (given that i was not smart enough to rotate them) or if there is something else I should look at...

Shortened struts with rabbit inserts re-valved by bilstein for my springs on ireland camber plates dialed all the way in, 2mm toe in. Rear is stock camber etc with ireland stage 2 springs. The car steers pretty neutral under throttle- just a hint of understeer.

Brakes are stock tii set up in the rear and vented brakes up front.

The tires are 195/50 r15 dunlop 03g's. The wear is pretty even across the face of the tire with slightly more wear on the outside corners in the front. The rears are dead even- thanks BMW engineers!

Bitchin tires BTW.

Pete

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that is what a street alignment does to front tires when driven hard.

need at least 2.5deg camber and run zero toe.

it is also a function of car set up and driving style. you said understeer. that is what understeer does to tires if the driver keeps forcing the understeer. softer front springs or swaybar setting, or stiffer rear springs or swaybar setting will decrease the cars tendency to understeer. altering your approach to turns and what you do with steering and throttle mid-turn will also help.

or just rotate the tires more often and keep having fun...;-)

2xM3

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Pete--if you are running coilovers with the IE plates all the way in you should be close to 3° negative in front. I have the same setup and it is 2.9° negative on each side. Surprised you run toe-in, that will be on the understeer side. I prefer slight oversteer to help rotate the car--adjusted via suspension set-up, not tire pressure. As Marshall said run neutral toe, or even very slight toe out (that is what I do for track). I used to run a lot of toe-out for autocross, turns in much better on tight courses, but not so good for street. I like the comment above, you need more power to even out the tire wear! --Fred '74tii & '69

--Fred

'74tii (Colorado) track car

'69ti (Black/Red/Yellow) rolling resto track car

'73tii (Fjord....RIP)

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Thanks for the thoughts guys...

The understeer is very slight almost imperceptible. But I'd like to have just a bit of oversteer. So I think the easiest way will be to see if there is room to stiffen the rear sway a bit. I certainly am not interested in reducing traction up front. Time to get the tire thermometer out again....

I was running close to 0 toe but the roads around here are rutted and the car was very darty especially when braking hard. It was a bit nerve racking. In fact even with slight to in it still squirms about a bit.

In terms of driving style how might I reduce understeer.

Ultimately Nick is right... Got to get that s14 in. But these days it seems like a distant dream...... The list of things to do first is not getting shorter quickly.....

But the close ratio tranny is off the list and that is a biggie... Next up- cage/ headliner.

Pete

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Slightly off topic, but can anybody recommend a good book on this type of car set-up? Suspension, tire pressures, alignment, etc...

bondurant "going faster" this one stays in my race trailer for quick reference. great simple presentation of many things to get a car going fast. excellent intro book and you can branch out from there.

shelby "tune to win", "drive to win", "think to win", "design to win" these are in the home reference library for more in depth theory.

2xM3

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