M3995

I am tracking my '14 Z51 more and more, I currently use Super sports, great life, great street, so so track, any recommendations for tires for the 19" & 20" Z51 wheels on the track?

thill444

The Pilot Sport Cup 2 Tires would be best for the track but will not be as good for the street and will not last as long.

They are more of a dedicated track tire.

Otherwise the stock Pilot Super Sports, or the new Pilot Sport 4S tires are probably as good as it gets.

BaylorCorvette

The Pilot Super Sport run flats are nothing to scuff at. This past weekend I was running at my local track on worn slicks. The last session of the weekend I put my OEM Pilot Super Sports back on and ran. There was just over a one second lap difference on the OEM Pilot Super Sport run flats compared to worn Pirelli slicks (also I was running wider slicks).

Here's the video. The first lap was a flyer the rest is me navigating through traffic on the track. Ignore the music, my iPod was on shuffle and I wasn't paying attention to that, lol.

Jay_Davis

Don't use the Sport 4S, they seem to have issues with track use.

BrunoTheMellow

I've researched this a lot recently. I currently have Hankook RS-3s with incorrect rear size (285/35/20) and they ran about 1 sec slower on a 1:30-per-lap track than the SS ZP (the tires may be better but tread width is quite a bit narrower than SS ZP and the rear had to be raised a lot to fit the tires with no rubbing). They feel about the same on communication, ease of control when losing grip, and life. RS-3s don't feel as planted and feel softer on turn in (tires are likely softer so total spring rate is softer). They last quite a while, if the new RS-4s had proper sizing for Z51 rears I would try those.

I almost decided on RE-71Rs 255/295 but most say that they wear extremely fast (like 1-2 track days). I am now almost 100% going back to SS ZP. Likely will buy take offs from a forum member, people sell them for all-seasons fairly frequently. Specially now that ALL corvettes have 19/20 wheels.

The SS ZP are definitely not "so-so" on the track. They are about the best you can get for the z51 stock wheels short of buying RE-71R that last a couple of days only and the super expensive Sport Cup 2's which are not as grippy as the Sport Cup 2 ZPs that come on the Z07 package and definitely last longer. Unlike the MPSS and MPSS ZP, the SC2 and SC2 ZP treads are VERY different. Also, remember the sport cup 2s will grip worse than SS on the street and definitely on the wet due to requiring temperature for grip.

The best thing to do other than buying the stock tires, I think is to buy dedicated cheap wheels for track duty, likely base 18/19 (which I may end up doing) and stick re-71r or sport cup 2s on them but keep stock wheels and stick some cheaper continentals on them to offset cost. SC2s are stupid expensive.

Or go big and buy nice wider track wheels and mount scrubs to them. But can't go too wide, 18x9 and 19x11 is about all the z51 can handle unless you want to bulge out of the fenders.

A final point to make, the car's spring rates and dampening was designed the for the SS ZP. Tires have their own spring rates. Therefore going with other tires you will be changing this. Maybe for the better or for the worse.