will be swapping out my tyres at the december service… currently running on A048’s, dont do track - so my question is… would there be any benefit switching to A039’s? will they last longer? is the a noticeable reduction in grip in the dry/increase in the wet?
The 39 is a better road tyre although doesn’t stand up to track work at all. It has much softer side walls which improves the ride and the tread blocks are much smaller so it disperses standing water well. Don’t expect any better life out of them as they only start with 5mm tread and are reletively soft.
The 48’s are excellent though, I have them on mine at the moment as I CBA to change them back to 39’s since the last track day I did. Only trouble is that I think I will kill myself if I keep them on. Maxing the car out on the public road with 48’s on is just silly IMHO.
39s cost more and are the same treadwear rating of 60 as the 48s.
I think they’re okay on track, just wears them out badly. I’ve just got a cheap job load of 39s and will be wearing those out before going back to 48s.
To be honest, there’s no real good alternative. The trick in winter is to make sure there’s decent tread on either a 39 or 48.
Ian
I think they’re okay on track, just wears them out badly.
I knackered a new set of 39’s in about 3 laps at Croft. The downside of small tread blocks is that they overhead causing the rubber to ‘go off’. Unlike 48’s they don’t recover from heavy heat cycles.
Blime! Were they new?
Sounds funny, as that’s all there were for the first two years of the Exige, and there were plenty of trackdays in that time.
My block just tend to melt at the edges.
Ian
Blime! Were they new?
Sounds funny, as that’s all there were for the first two years of the Exige, and there were plenty of trackdays in that time.
My block just tend to melt at the edges.
Ian
Yep, they were new. I have new rears on now and the difference front to rear is huge. Had massive understeer when I had to attempt to post times at the tuner GP with them on. I was actually astounded that I got below 1:20 with them on. It wasn’t that the tread was horrendously worn, just that they had overheated and lost most of their grip, this is a common effect of overheating tyres, used to do this al the time in Tuscans .