race tire go bad .... in a strange way

[Copenhagen GT]

This was a first for me - and one that really took us by surprise.

We did a track day the other day and after about 10 slow laps - showing my son the track - my right front tire looked like this. In the morning before going out, all 4 tires looked fine. It looks like the top rubber simply peeled off almost 1/2 the tire width - all around. No doubt that right front would take most beating on this particular track, but these laps were done at max 70% speed and partly on wet track.

Off course I didn´t bring a spare so we switched with left rear - and did the track day with no problems (without going crazy, but still keeping good speed) - about 60 laps later it looked like this - actually not much extra Wear compared to the starting point in the morning.

Tire is a P-zero 305/35/18 and is a few years old - that could be part of the explanation I guess.

Anyone ever experience similar?



Nicolas liked it :biggrin



Very focused young man .... right before first "high speed" tour of the track

 

[RALPHIE]

I remember having recaps do that - hmmmmm! Makes you wonder! :thumbsdow

 

[Xcentric]

Pirelli has had tread separation problems on other P Zeros.

http://www.rubbernews.com/article/2...0-pzero-corsa-tires-for-tread-belt-separation

Gotta love a website bold enough to call itself "Rubber News."

The car looks fantastic!

 

[Wwabbit]

Was this tire ever previously run flipped the other way? Or does the car moderately understeer?

 

[Copenhagen GT]

Was this tire ever previously run flipped the other way? Or does the car moderately understeer?

I do not know if the tire was flipped but I do not think so. These are the tires that were on the car when I got it - and almost new at that time. The car is pretty well balanced and I also think very neutral steeringwise. Set up like a race car with lots of negative camber - but with tracks here being very twisty it might pit extraordinary wear on outer part of tire

 

[Wwabbit]

Set up like a race car with lots of negative camber -

That was the reason for the question; looks like the tire may have seen a lot of heat on that edge at some point, like the inside edge does with a lot of negative camber. If it was once the other way around and on a set up with say 4-5 deg neg camber, Pirelli's don't seem to like that. I failed a Pirelli a couple weeks ago at Zandvoort looking the same way with a lot of neg camber - the track needs it but the Pirelli compound can't take it for very long. Could be age related as well. In any case, time for new tires, huh?