I am no gear head. | FerrariChat

I am no gear head.

Discussion in 'Ferrari Discussion (not model specific)' started by Bart, Dec 7, 2003.

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  1. Bart

    Bart Formula 3

    Nov 1, 2003
    1,522
    Orange County, Calif
    Full Name:
    Bart
    I just discovered something. Since my rear wheels have independent suspension, they need to be aligned. How do I know this? I looked under my rear end and saw that both of my rear tires are bald on the inside. The middle and outside are very good.

    Rats. I need to by a set of rear tires and an alignment. If I had known about aligning the rear, I would have saved some money. Looking on the bright side, I get to light up the car for the first time. I was waiting until I needed tire replacement.

    Now I have to figure out what tires to buy. Does anyone here have any ideas? I have a 550, drive a whole lot, don’t do twisties, and go very fast often.

    Never drive but a 12 cylinder!!!
     
  2. Get your car to an alignment shop that specializes in high-performance cars like yours.

    As far as tires go; sorry, can't help you there.
     
  3. Hubert

    Hubert F1 Rookie

    Jan 3, 2002
    2,642
    The Left Coast
    go to darrin at west end alignment. inside wear could also be caused from underinflation , and out of wack toe settings. westend alignment is in gardena.
    as far as tires... everything in your size will be a high performance tire (read : soft) so longevity is sacrificed in order to keep you shiny side up. you may want to try the kumho ecsta 712's (cheap and "hard"), or the kumho ecsta mx (cheap , and a bit softer newer compound). most everything else will cost you $$$, and won't wear quite as well.
    good luck, and keep on truckin'.
     
  4. EVartanian

    EVartanian Formula 3

    Mar 19, 2002
    1,179
    Sunny SoCal
    Full Name:
    Eric
    Bart, what tires you running currently? I remember there was recently a 550 tire thread on this new board, perhaps you might find some answers there. If your fronts are wearing well, then you could probably just stick with the same tire and just get a rear set instead of spending the extra dough on a whole set.
    FYI, we have the Pilot Sports on the 550 right now and so far so good. Nothing to complain about, but we haven't had anything else on her to compare.

    -Eric
     
  5. BigHead

    BigHead Formula Junior

    Oct 31, 2003
    995
    Outside of Boston
    Full Name:
    Dennis
    Bart: what you're seeing with your rear tires is very, very common to many high performance cars, especially mid-engined and rear-engined cars. Many people set it up with lots of negative camber, which gives the car more rear end grip in high-speed turns. This has the negative result of wearing the inside shoulder of the rear tires.

    You can get the negative camber dialed out when you have the car aligned. You can also get more life out of the tire in the future by getting them swapped from left to right - since most ultra performance tires today are unidirectional, you'll need to remove them from the wheels and swap them around, then from side to side.

    I've had great luck with Pilots, and the S-03 is also pretty good. Kumhos and Proxes are pretty good as well, and a great value.

    vty,

    --Dennis
     
  6. Bart

    Bart Formula 3

    Nov 1, 2003
    1,522
    Orange County, Calif
    Full Name:
    Bart
    I am running with Pilot Sports front & back right now.
     

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