Scirocco Central

Hi All!
Took the Rocco to its first track day last weekend (Blyton Park) –was brilliant fun if I might add.Did five sessions of six laps each. Rocco stood up really well; Oil level still the same, still some life left in the brake pads and the tyres – am really impressed.

After I got back home (about 50 miles away from Blyton Park) I had a good look at the tyres and I noticed this rather unusual wear on the inside edge of each tyre.


Nearside front


Close up of wear on nearside front


Offside front


Close up of wear on offside front


Offside rear

I have never seen tyre wear like that before.

Any ideas as to what would have caused it?

Looks like they have been rubbing on something. Possibly the base of where the front spring sits in the strutt???

Had a good look around the strut and the springs just now to see if anything could have caused it. Everything looks normal.
I should mention that at the rear its not just the offside wheel, found the same wear on the near side as well.

Bizarrely that groove is there on all four tyres at roughly the same distance from the inner edge of the tyre. The groove in the front tyres are slightly wider and deeper than the rear, with the offside a bit deeper...

Any other Rocco owners experienced this after a trackday?

Looking at the pictures, that is completely normal wear for a track day.

Problem is your tyres are not designed for the heat put through them on a track day. You can buy road legal semi slick tyres but not really worth it if you are only on track now and again.

I see this tyre wear a lot on race cars when they run fully wet tyres for too long on a drying track and overheat. Its basically the tread flexing back and forward and overheating, if your tyres had less tread depth it wouldn't overheat as much.

Thanks! I kept thinking that tyre graining was the only damage that can happen due to overheating.

This feature is on all 4 tyres at the same place? Probably a real part of the tyre, not due to the track day.

This band looks to me like the "conducting strip" used in fuel efficient tyres. These use silica filler (made from sand!) to give the good fuel economy, but this leaves the rubber with a lower conductivity than the old generation black tyres which use a form of soot. A narrow strip of black-filled rubber is built into the tyre, usually on a circumferential rib, to connect the tyre's inner parts with the road and thus prevent static build-up. You see this band clearly on some tyres due for replacement. I've even seen them on low mileage tyres (5000 or less)

Completely normal..