The Race Tire Saga

Tomorrow is an Open Test Friday at Thunderhill, which I've been very eager to make. I had talked with Michael Saal (Docta Boxsta) about doing an Open Test Friday ever since the last Thunderhill event, and we finally decided on tomorrow. It turned out that this weekend is a PCA Time Trial at Thunderhill, and that they're running the track backwards (clockwise). Because of this, Open Test Friday is also being run clockwise since there will presumably be a number of PCA folks there practicing for the Time Trial.

But I'm not going, due to last minute tire trouble. Aaargh!

A few weeks ago I finally realized it was time to stop beating the crap out of my street tires on the track and at autocrosses. And the idea of getting race tires was an appealing performance thought. My Bridgestone S-02's where getting pretty far towards their end of life, so it was a good time to make the move. I decided on the Kumho V700 race tires. Race tires are in fact cheaper than street tires, so other than then expense of a second set of wheels, it's actually cost-effective to get race tires for the track. Because it is difficult to find 18" race tires, I decided to use my existing 17" wheels for the race tires and go with new 18" wheels for the street.

New street wheels and tires.

I ordered a set of 18" Porsche turbo look wheels with new S-02s from Wheel Enhancement, and they shipped them to me in a couple of days, all mounted and balanced and ready to go.

They're really nice. The wheels are noticeably wider than the standard 17"s, which certainly gives a beefier look due to the fact that they fully extend to the edge of the fender panel, at least in the rear.

Here are a couple of lousy photos with the new 18" wheels & tires, in the fading evening light. I'll take some better ones soon.

New race tires for the old wheels.

Next I set about to buy a set of 17" Kumhos from the Tire Rack to be drop-shipped to a local installer. Unfortunately, they were out of stock of one of the correct sizes, with next shipment due in December! I checked several other sources, with similar results. I went to a backup plan: getting BFGoodrich g-Force T/A R1s instead of Kumhos. Tire Rack was also out of stock of these. Things were looking desperate and by this time it was end of last week -- only a week to locate race tires and get them shipped and installed.

Finally, I checked with America's Tire after reading a post by Gary Barnhill on the Boxster Racing Board. I was skeptical when they claimed they had a set of g-Forces in stock in a warehouse across the country, but could get them to their local shop in 3 working days. (Note: BFG makes two different g-Force tires. The "R1" is the track tire that is just street legal enough for you to put on your car; the "KD" is the street tire that is somewhat similar but has quite a bit more tread and presumably not as good track performance.)

And they came through as advertised! Whew! I drove to their shop on Tuesday, had them mount the new tires, and drove home on them. Then I put on the street tires. Here is a close-up of the g-Force in brand new condition:

So tonight I prepared to head up to Thunderhill. One by one, I jacked up each corner of the car, removed the street tires, and put on the race tires. As I rolled the last wheel over to the car to bolt it on, I noticed something shiny in the middle of the tread.

It's a big nail.

I'm not driving two hours in the middle of the night through the middle of nowhere on it. I posted a whine to the Boxster Racing Board, and Doug DeVetter responded almost immediately with a generous offer to let me stop by his house on the way up to Thunderhill and put on his extra set of tires that he's not going to use this weekend! But, it's just too much. I'd have to spend another better part of an hour putting the street tires back on, finish packing, drive 2 hours to Sacramento, changing wheels again there, and then drive to Thunderhill. I'd probably get there at 4 AM, only to get up early to hit the track. And then all in reverse at the end of the day. I'm just not up for that.