NT01 life cycle and alignment
 

I am going to pick up another set of tires, but before I blow another $800+ on rubber, I want to make sure I'm getting proper use of my NT01's. I went straight to these tires after burning up the primacies at the track and loved them at the track and canyons over rs3 and vr1. I was DD'ing these tires as well, but I really don't drive this car much and I put the most street miles on just by driving TO the track or canyon locations. I work 3 miles from home and often use the wife's rav4 for any errands and whatnot.

Current alignment is -2* at all 4 corners. 0 tow front, 1/16" tow in at rear. I am getting some camber wear still and fear I may be driving with pressure too high perhaps, though pyrometer readings never varied so much to make me worry. I didn't cord the inside until the wear indicators on the outer shoulder were just about smeared away, and I corded the inner shoulders of all 4 at the same , with frequent rotations, but never flipped the tires once which would have likely helped.

Pictures attached. Appreciate any insight! :)

I run -2.5 camber front and -2.0 rear, 0 toe all around with my NT01's. If your getting camber wear your not driving hard enough :p

Lol I've seen this on a few track junkie forums and random Google searches as well, so I'm sure there's some truth to it. But did I lose much mileage from the uneven wear?

Aside from growing some bigger balls in the canyon runs, I dunno what else I should be doing besides getting a spare set of wheels and tires ::shrug::

Am I wasting money on nice tires? Should these last more than 4.5k miles? I got one wet track day, 3 hot and dry track days all at Buttonwillow, and a handful of ACH/Malibu/Palomar canyon runs. They started to cord on my one day of autoX at subifest this past weekend.

I feel like I never even got a chance to try to heat cycle them out, which was nice and confidence inspiring I guess

Oh yeah, here's the obligatory paging for @CSG Mike

I DD on mine for roughly 5000km's and loved it (touring tires went on for a road trip and are still on as winter is coming so may aswell just go to winters and save those for the turbo next year) , but I do work them hard on some empty exit ramps on my way to and from work every day. I am going to be happy if I get more then 15,000km's out of them lol.

As far as wear goes you should keep an eye on those little holes. those are to measure wear in the solid rubber areas. You should have them wear more evenly then what I saw in the pics. it looks like you still got 1-2 32nds in the center

Waaat? That's almost double than what I'm seeing possible :paddle:

No track sessions brah and honestly they will probably only last till 10,000km if I am lucky. I would "like" to see 15k

I've been summoned.

How many miles are on these tires? Also, can you ballpark how many canyon/spirited miles, and how many track miles are on these tires?

-Mike

Just came in to say that both with the NT01 and the Maxxis RC1, at -3 camber up front I was still wearing the outside of the tire more than the inside. Im going to say that driving them on the street while not pushing them is actually wearing them a lot more than you think. I dont drive mine, I swap them at the track, the RC1 lasted 8 track days (around 1h to 2h per track day in 20 min sessions), I hear the nittos last a bit less than the RC1, only time will tell I have only done 2 days on the nittos.

I street drive on RC1; with a solid alignment, I average around 10-12k miles per set with mixed use.

For mixed duty, you have to decide if you want to maximize grip or life. For most track people, track grip is more important than street life, since you'll usually heat cycle the tire out before wearing it out.

Lol thanks for joining Mike!

I went Buttonwillow in December, February, April, and July on these tires; (I'll plan on going again in October and Laguna Seca in December and I'm trying to choose tires carefully on my one set of wheels) 5 heats of 20 minute hot lapping sessions each. But perhaps I destroyed the tires more during the 3 hour drive to the track rather than however many miles I drove on the track itself?...

I go to ACH and Malibu canyons about every other weekend, sometimes more. That's an hour drive to either canyon location as well.

All in all, I believe they lasted just about 4500 miles. I'd say ballpark... a bit under 600 track miles, 3k canyon miles, and the rest commuting to and from these locations including maayyybbee 2 or 300 DD miles.

I'll have to double check my math... These are rough estimates and I will have to take more careful notes on what kind of miles I'm putting on each set of tires

10k miles on mixed use would be way more easy to stomach than 5k. But I do absolutely love grip in the canyons and obviously more so on the track.

I wish I was more worried about heat cycling out than cording tires

based on wear patterns, disregarding grip, I'm going to say you should run less camber, slightly more tire pressure, and a slight toe-in.

Cording the inner edge on the NT01 is fairly normal for street use; the sidewall is rather strong.

Ok, thanks again for chiming in.

Also, what would be your recommended cold psi for street driving on these tires?

Finally, to be clear on one last stupid question - once the cord becomes even slightly visible, its time to trash the tires, correct?