[jollymon]

'23 SS 1LE on stock Supercar 3 tires. 13k miles, no track but plenty of very "spirited" driving on the backroad twisties and lots of aggressive cornering especially on my favorite cloverleaf interchanges.

Tons of outside wear on the front tires. Pretty even driver-v-passenger side. See attached picture.

Is this what I should be expecting to see for these tires with normal "street" alignment (assuming that is what comes OEM)? Or is this indicative of something I should look into?

Planning to move to PS4S for significantly better wet performance... looking for feedback if any alignment or other issues I should be thinking about ahead of new tires.

Side note- shockingly, the rear tires still have a legal (above wear bars) tread depth despite my best attempts to "enjoy" the car

[nikerret]

What’s a tread gauge say? It still looks like the depth gauges on the outside are pretty deep.

[TransamGTA350]

Looks pretty normal. The outside tread grooves are pretty shallow, but there is a lot of rubber there. The depth holes show a lot of rubber left.

Not necessarily great for dealing with wet roads on the street, but no issue for track driving (which is really what the tire is designed for).

The PS4S is a good choice for street driving.

[cdb95z28]

Normal for factory alignment, which is usually about -1.2*. More outer shoulder wear tells us the need for more negative camber. More negative camber will add some more stress to the inner shoulder, just don't go nuts for the street. Some will say track negative camber doesn't add to inner shoulder wear. I disagree. It does play a part, along with toe. There's no free lunch.

I set my front street camber to -1.2*, zero toe.

[jollymon]

Thanks for the good info... nothing seemed like a slip in alignment, especially with both sides similar, so good to hear this seems like normal tire wire for tires/car. And definitely more rubber left on outside shoulder, so gonna run it hard for a while longer, skipping the rainy days as I have been doing.

Maybe get rest of this summer on the stock SC3s and then get new PS4S next year. Saves a few bucks and I do love the sticky of the SC3s.

[cdrptrks]

The skinny outside groove is only molded to about half of the usable tread depth on a brand new Supercar 3 tire. There are only wear bars on 2 of the grooves (the 2 inside grooves).

You can check the holes near the outside edge with a tread depth gauge to see how much rubber is remaining before the cords.

[cdb95z28]

I have driven SS 1LE's with the following tires on the street: OE SC3, Michelin 4s, Michelin PSS and Conti ECS.

While the OE SC3 is a great tire that punches way above its weight for track use, it's wet and cold use limits most people. A great tire for dry and warm/hot weather street fun for sure. So most look for alternatives to it. Seems the 4S is the go to choice, but not for me. I drove my buddy's SS 1LE with the OE SC3, Conti ECS and 4S. I hated what the 4S did to the great steering feel/feedback of the SS 1LE. A softer sidewall vs the SC3 and lazier on response. That was a deal breaker for me when I wanted to look for a set of long road trip tires for my SS 1LE. I went with the Michelin Pilot Super Sport in the BMW "Star" application (#80913) for the front and the Ferrari "K3" application (#48442) for the rear.

I could not be any happier. Sure the 4S might have better rain performance but I don't think it's gonna be that much different to matter. FWIW, I didn't think I was gonna die when driving in the rain on the SC3's. If you would rather have a softer ride, then choose the 4S. For me, I don't care to give up any feel of the OE SC3/SS 1LE dynamics. IMO, the PSS felt a touch stiffer actually. Now the PSS will not have as good ultimate grip as the SC3 but for the street it has plenty. The first trip to the Smokey Mtns on those tires was perfection. Steering feel and response was perfect.

[jollymon]

Hmm, that’s good info on the PSS options.

I was/am willing to give up a bit on handling to not have to carefully check the temp and weather before taking it in to work (85 miles round trip) as well as extending my window of that earlier and later when freezing-ish temps happen.

But what you indicate might be a less compromise option to the PS4S.

Thanks, definitely gives me something else to ponder.

[arpad_m]

The Pilot Super Sport does have a more rigid construction, so if handling and steering feel are the most important to someone, especially with a 1LE, it's a worthy choice.

I will be brutally honest and admit that I'm perfectly happy with the Pilot Sport 4S, because my driving ability and sensitivity are simply not at a level where I would be bothered by the slight compromise to precision due to its softer sidewall.

In addition, my car is not a 1LE, although I do have the 1LE wheels/tires and brakes, which together account for 80% of its performance delta vs the base SS.

What I'm saying is that these slight differences won't make or break the deal for the majority of even sports car enthusiasts, these are all top shelf tires and the PS4S only disappoints a small percentage of Camaro connoisseurs.