New to boxster road racing

[jspoljor]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums, and new to racing in general. I attended a de event in Indiana a couple weeks ago and had a great time! I'm working with a stock 2000 boxster s. There's another event in October and I've been considering minor upgrades that would give me the most bang for the buck before that event. I'm looking at an extra set or rims and racing tires for the event.

Questions:
1. As an amateur who is very new to the sport will the racing tires help?
2. Any other minor upgrades that would be recommended?

Thanks in advance and I look forward to any help!

[JayG]

Unless you have suspension upgrades, R-comp tires won't do much for you

Up grade your brakes with better pads like EBC YellowStuff
Get Bridgestone Re-71's

Get lots of instruction and coaching

It's highly addicting and a very slippery slope........

[johnsjmc]

Better brake pads ,fresh fluid and as much neg camber as you can get on the front end (then match rear to it) would be a start. I would also consider an upgraded oil pan metal baffle box.(I forget what the proper name is) because the engine is suspected of having oil pressure issues under high G cornering . Supposed to not be an issue without R comp tires but who knows for sure?

[steved0x]

GT3 brake ducts are an easy mod and inexpensive:
Porsche Genuine GT3 Brake Cooling Ducts for 987 Cayman New Genuine | eBay

This will help keep your front brakes cooler.

For my first 2 events I used ATE type 200 racing brake fluid, the OEM Porsche Brake pads, and my 320 tread wear summer tires (Sumitomo HTR Z III)

These worked out well - the tires had plenty of audible feedback to let me know when they were working hard and the brakes held up fine. (I did get a false brake wear light on because I melted the sensor in the front, so I have deleted the sensors, I check the brakes enough to know if one is getting low)

If I had kept with those tires once I got faster though I probably would have chunked them up due to the heat and wear.

I then moved to the Hankook R-S3 200 TW summer tire. I only had 1 set of wheels at this time so I drove on them as my street tire. They lasted a year of street driving and events. I'm still on my second set of backs, 19 track days and around 8,000 miles of driving.

I got an alignment and maxed out my front negative camber (close to -1), kept -1.6 in the back, 1/16" toe-in in the back and no toe in the front. Also went to EBC RedStuff brake pads and added the GT3 brake ducts.

This worked out well for a while, but as I got faster I would tear up the outer edges of the fronts due to the limited negative camber. I installed GT3 LCA to get more negative camber and solved that problem and am on my 3rd pair of R-S3 in the front, 13 events so far and 4000 miles. They have plenty of life left while the backs need some work.

I am holding off on going to stickier tires because I am still not fully maximizing the grip on these tires.

What are your current tires? If they are a good summer tire you can stay on them for a little while. Some experienced folks run their Michelin PS2 and Super Sports as their main track tire.

Any video or pics from the event?

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by JayG

Unless you have suspension upgrades, R-comp tires won't do much for you

Up grade your brakes with better pads like EBC YellowStuff
Get Bridgestone Re-71's

Get lots of instruction and coaching

It's highly addicting and a very slippery slope........

+All of these - you are the slowest part of the car, coaching and instruction will be the fastest mods you can make. The RE-71R *is* the hot 200TW tire to have for competition, it sticks like glue, at the expense of faster tread wear and shorter life. I'm still preaching the R-S3 due to its longer life, but probably only because I have never tried the RE-71R.... I am afraid to try it... Also I am funny, I am sticking with the same tire so I can tell if I am really getting faster, or if it is the tire

[Swiftmotoring]

This is a very helpful thread as I am at the same point. What size Bridgestone or Hankook tire are you using? Tire Rack does not have my factory size in 17"in the RE-71 or R-S3...also checked availability of Goodrich Rivals and Dunlop Direzza Star Specs...not available.

[steved0x]

For 17" run 225/45/17 in the front, it is an approved size on the OEM 17x7 wheel. Helps dial out some of the understeer and also looks good too The only one that has 205/50/17 in 200 TW Extreme Summer Performance tires is the RE11 and the Advan AD08R (which are good tires too) but I think you will like the 225/45/17 in the front, lots of folks are running that size.

Steve

[Swiftmotoring]

Steve thanks for the insight on sizing, I went with the Ventus RS3. Where is the best source for EBC Yellowstuff pads? Pricing seems to be all over the chart...

[steved0x]

JayG seems to know the best sources, I think Summit Racing is one he likes, and I got a good deal on some EBC RedStuff at Parts Geek the last time I got them.

[JayG]

RS-3's are not a bad choice, especially if you have only one set of wheels
If you have dedicated wheels for play, RE-71's are better and there is currently a $70 rebate on them.

Search the web, including ebay for the best pricing
then call Summit Racing and they will beat the price by $1.00.
The fronts and rears can be from different vendors for the price match
I paid $251 for both sets from Summit

this is from another thread
Auto-X tires and brakes

Originally Posted by jb92563

Just ordered a set of EBC Yellowstuff from importrp.com
$238 total incl shipping and no tax req'd.

Parts DP41414R Front set & DP41208R Rear set.

I was in the phone queue with Summit Racing for too long so
I just pressed [Purchase Now]

Some deeper Googling can really save you a lot of bucks.

Costco tires is next.
Are they any good at tire balancing or should I take the tires elsewhere to be mounted and balanced?