Nothing to Worry About (archive)

I autocrossed a lot the first year I had my M Roadster. First on the dunlop 8080's, the on the G-Force KD streets. I got 25k or more out of the G-Forces, which included - I am guessing wildly here - 30, 40 autocrosses. I consider an autocross to be 5 runs, so if I got 30 runs, I would call that 6 autocrosses, BTW.

The bottom line is that autocrossing doesn't really wear on your car that much. Sure, a few thousand less miles on the tires, and maybe brakes. But you should certainly do it, since it is so much fun! Now that I run Hoosiers, and they only last a dozen autocrosses - well, now, I look back fondly to the days when autocrossing was CHEAP, on street tires.

On the way back from teaching a scuba class in Monterey yesterday (conditions sucked, by the way, which meant it was perfect for the rescue class I was teaching) I stopped by the Marina airport to check out the NASA autocross event. Someone in an M was just completing his run; it looked like a blast, and definitely something I want to try.

My concern is that today I just plopped down $700 for a new pair of rear Pilot Sports, and I am a bit worried about wearing out my street tires. Just how fast does autocross eat street tires? Is doing a few events to see how I like it (at which point I might invest in some track wheels/tires) going to seriously shorten their life?

John
'00 M

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