Sonoma vs Laguna Seca tire wear pattern

[BMotorenWerke]

Interested in hearing experiences out there on how the tread wear patterns are for clockwise vs anti-clockwise circuits (Or circuits with heavy right turns vs left turns)

After about 4 track days at Laguna Seca, seeing higher tire wear closer to the outsides left and right fronts and to a lesser degree on the rears. Alignment is to max possible with OEM camber.

Running Falken Azenis RT 660 (OEM profile)

Would I see similar tread wear patterns at Sonoma too? which AFAIK is right turn heavy.

Does it even make sense to unmount and mount(swap) left side to right side tires? Tires are directional

Thanks

[Davisca455]

Personally, I didn't have much luck with front tire wear (PS4s) at either Thunderhill or Laguna Seca.
First three track days on OE camber (-.9*?) just torched the outer tread block.

Removing the alignment pins got my car to -1.6*, still destroyed the outer tread block, but there was a noticeable decrease in the wear rate, probably worth an extra track day.

I ended up adding Vorshlag camber plates up front (-3.0*) which totally cured the uneven tire wear at the track.

The unintended consequence was that once the tire wear problem was solved, heat cycling was next thing I learned about, and that shit is real.

So then I switched to NT01s for the track.
Been to Sears Point, Laguna Seca and Thunderhill East with the latest configuration and the tire wear is nice and even.

For my car, Thunderhill East and Laguna are definitely toughest on the right front.

Pictures are NT01s from Sears Point.
Looks like the left front is taking slightly more grief at Sears.

[BMotorenWerke]

Thats looks pretty good and uniform tread wear Chris, looks like camber plates and higher neg camber are over-due on mine.

Thanks for the note on heat cycles, would you mind explaining more whenever you can - just curious what you meant.(was it about about general life of the tire in terms of heat cycles or something about managing how they heat-up and cool down?)

I'm still wondering if its worth unmount swap and mount effort for the front tires before I get camber plates.

Do the outside edges generally wear out a lot more irrespective of the track ?

[slcook54]

Going to be very apples to oranges compares.

To perform accurate comparisons across two tracks, at a minimum, you would need similar tires, similar hot pressures, similar car weight, similar alignment specs (camber and toe) and similar pace.

I didn't see any material wear delta after 8 days at Laguna on PS4S rotating each day at -2.6 front camber.

If you don't have camber plates, that's your first issue. Tracks cars need at least -3.0 in the front. I'm increasing to -3.5 / -2.5 for my next Laguna day this Thursday.

[BMotorenWerke]

Agree slcook54 , camber plates are way over-due on mine.

Not looking for anything highly accurate but was interested in hearing about general wear pattern differences, if any.

[Davisca455]

Originally Posted by BMotorenWerke

Thats looks pretty good and uniform tread wear Chris, looks like camber plates and higher neg camber are over-due on mine.

Thanks for the note on heat cycles, would you mind explaining more whenever you can - just curious what you meant.(was it about about general life of the tire in terms of heat cycles or something about managing how they heat-up and cool down?)

I'm still wondering if its worth unmount swap and mount effort for the front tires before I get camber plates.

Do the outside edges generally wear out a lot more irrespective of the track ?

Heat cycles has to do with how many times your tires have reached temp and then cooled.
Some tires reach a certain number of cycles, then they get hard as a rock.

Like slcook54 said, different tires experience heat cycling differently and as I've been told, some tires don't suffer from heat cycling at all.
I only know that my PS4s were affected, no idea if your tires will experience heat cycling.

My PS4s reached temp and cooled something close to 30 times over 6 events.
On the 7th event, my rears wouldn't grip the track exiting the tight turns.
(Leaving T11/T2 at Laguna in 3rd gear, nothing but wheel spin, almost like it was raining.)

In hindsight there were hints the tires were getting iffy during the last couple of sessions of the prior event.

I think it's generally accepted that if you don't have enough negative camber, the outer block will wear prematurely, no matter the track.
At least that is what I experienced at both Thunderhill East and Laguna.

[Davisca455]

Originally Posted by BMotorenWerke

Agree slcook54 , camber plates are way over-due on mine.

Not looking for anything highly accurate but was interested in hearing about general wear pattern differences, if any.

Here's my camber plate install thread.

https://www.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...php?p=28016607

Once you get your camber plates, below is a really good (my opinion) set of alignment Work Instructions that SYT_Shadow created for the alignment tech to use.

[kyippee]

The fronts will get pounded. Heavy braking and corners with lots of suspension compression.

Need -3.5 front camber with tires that hold up better if you want longer lasting tires. Like NT01, RS4, etc.

Sonoma also has compression but braking hasn't been as heavy. Yes to rotating tires.