Remaining life of G3R's
 

Finally, I was able to get through an entire 3 day travel event on a set of G3R's. On my previous 3 failed attempts, the best I got was a day and half, and never cut short from tire wear, but all from either punctures (screws and nails) or losing a large chunk of the tread block in cold conditions.

Getting to day three was uncharted territory for me in terms of tire wear, and given the many stories of premature cording, I was a little nervous on day three, so checked tires after every session. After removing the G3R's and inspecting the wear, I'm pleasantly surprised with the wear. The pics below show the tires after 3 track days (15 heat cycles) and about 1500 street kms (930 miles) and running the GM track alignment spec. The first 2 pics are the fronts and the 3rd pic is the rear.

For those that have experience running these tires to the cords, how much remaining life do the fronts look to have ? The rears appear to have lots of life left, but I've got a 2 day event coming up and I need to go with with front tires that will get me through another 8 - 10 heat cycles and another street 500kms.

Has anyone got 20 - 25 heat cycles out of the G3R's and if so, does the grip level drop off, or do they just wear out ?

Any insights appreciated. :happy0180:

If i may ask: where are you heading to?

PS No first hand experience with G3Rs but they look damn good to me. Perhaps because you likely have much less camber than most ZLEs (given you run GM specs)? Just a wild speculation on my part, nothing more. But if that turned out true, it would be an interesting finding. Just my musings :)

The next event is a time attack @ Mosport/CTMP later this month, with the timed portion in the afternoon of the second day. If I'm going try to get another couple of days out of this set of fronts, ideally I'd like to be able to run hard without having to worry about tire preservation.

Based on the look of the fronts, I think I've probably got another couple of days out of them, but haven't heard or read about many drivers getting 20-25 heat cycles out of their G3R's so not sure what to expect.

Interesting comment re the camber issue, and I'm a little surprised to hear that I may be running less camber than most. I thought most ZLE's that are tracked are running the GM specs, but that may be an incorrect assumption.

I know Mosport is not a tough track on tires (ala Calabogie) so maybe my tire wear experience is more of a function of the track than anything else. Ultimately, in just interested in others perspectives and experience with respect to the G3R heat cycle longevity and performance at end of life.

On a related note, I'm planning to do 3 days at Calabogie in July, and thinking I'll try the G3's for that event as I'm not confident that I could get 3 days out of a set of G3R's including driving to/from.

:happy0180:

I think GM calls for 2.5F and 2.0R yet i think a vast majority runs F at much closer to 3, it not beyond it.

My mechanic is 15mins from Mosport in Port Perry and often works Saturdays. So possibly he could mount new fronts for ya before the TT run (OTA I assume?).
Let me know...

Good call on Calabogie. A buddy with a ZL1 corded his G3Rs F after half a day (down to steel carcass!), but he ran aggressive camber (3.4 i think?). That track is getting more abrasive every season now and i corded my G3s there on day 4 (but mildly and still drive home on them with no drama).

Cheers!

You definitely have a lot of life left, or maybe I am just cheap and like to get every bit of use I can out of my tires this was my factory set of tires. (One rear and one front)

Which is which and how many cycles on them? What camber? Thanks! PS nice even wear on both!

Also curious whether you flipped the tires on the rims to extend the life, and if your wear was primarily from track use, was the grip consistent to the end or did the tires cycle out to some degree ?

After seeing your pics, my tires clearly have some life left, just trying to determine if I roll the dice on a road trip and full track weekend. Thanks.

Mine is a trailer queen so no road miles, and yes I do flip my tires when I am at about half tread so I can use the other shoulder, I really have no idea on how many events were on those it was about a full season of autocross and a few trackdays. The 1st picture posted is a rear tire and the 2nd picture is a front tire, and really the tires felt very consistent throughout the life of them with some fall off at the end.
I've got -3* front camber and was at -1.5* rear but have had to max out the rear camber now to -2.2*ish to fit the 355 Kumho ACR rear's now.

Thanks for the info. I'm running a little less camber with the GM track alignment which seems to support decent wire. If it's going to be a rain free weekend, I may flip the fronts for the next event to extend the tire life. Good to know grip is consistent until the very end. :happy0180:

Thanks! That's what i thought, but wasn't sure given the state of the rear. Looked like it was sliding lots, proly due to low camber (I am assuming you dont do strip).
Cheers!

Northtrack, not sure if you saw my message above or not? If you want my mechanic's contact info pls let me know. Cheers!

Appreciate it greatly if you could PM me your mechanic's contact details. Not sure I'll need him for the even next weekend because I think I'm going to run with a new set of tires, but going forward, I'll have a couple of sets that are half used up so they'll likely need some strategic flipping as I use them up later in the season.

Hoping that I can get 20+ heat cycles before cording and any noticeable grip reduction. It would be a huge win if I could get 2 x 3 day events - at least at Mosport.

:happy0180:

PM coming shortly!

I apologize for the hijack but with the wear you guys are getting maybe you could help me. I would love to worry about heat cycles on the front tires. I did my first HPDE a couple of weeks ago at NCM motorsports park (clockwise track). I was only able to get about 4 hours/230 miles before cording the fronts. -2.7 front 0 toe error to toe in and -2.0 .08 total toe in rear. Rears wore great and ran hot temps pressures of 34lbs with good heat across the tread from inside to out side dropping about 8 degrees each from inside to middle to outside. I ended up with front hot temps of 37.5 to get the best heat gradient. The left front dropped about 4-5 degrees each from inside to middle to outside. The right front had temp drops ranging from 15 to 20 degrees at each point. After one day, about 3 hours of track time, the inside edge of the right front was severely over worn and the inside edge of the left front was wearing great. I rotated the wheels and was down to the cords on both front tires at the end of two 30 minute sessions the next day

My sessions ranged from 30min to 1hr long.

I am wondering if shorter sessions are helping the inside edge hold up.
Any thoughts?

I am also thinking about running -2.3 camber on the right front when on a clockwise tracks and vise versa to get better heat gradient across the inside front tire.
Has anyone done this?

I would love to see three track days out of the GY3R. I have only run NT01 on my corvette in the past and they never seem to cycle out.

I appreciate the help and here is a video of some laps.
https://youtu.be/1BvbwwIa79g

update: Checked the alignment yesterday and the toe shifted toe out to .27* total toe. That would explain why the inside edge of the inside tire was getting scrubbed off. Hopefully the suspension will be settled now and not change during the next track day.

I would still like to know if anyone has ran different camber for the front for different tracks to get some longer life. Thanks.