Q-AX tire wear question

[richard]

My Yokos are normally on my 964-they follow the cracks. I then put them on my '84 Carrera for the AX and they then started to follow the cracks\. I recall having a conversation with John at Black Forest who indicated that some tire manufacturers in order to get the M + S ratings are puttin in bigger "knobs" in their tires, thus causing this squirreling. Maybe as they wear down they get better. Before an alignment borrow another set of tires.

[Kim Crosser]

Are you sure you haven't had any alignment changes? When I had the front toe-in dialed out, I noticed (with ALL tires since then) that the car now wants to track the pavement grooves - concrete freeway sections are particularly "twitchy". If the rear toe-in were also removed, I think the car would be a handful to drive on the street.

The other factor would be the grooves in the tire. If the grooves go straight around the tire, the tire will exaggerate the feeling of tracking the road surface (but will handle better on a smooth track surface). If the tire has staggered blocks, with more horizontal grooving (used to help shed water and avoid aquaplaning), the tire will be less apt to follow the road surface, but won't have as much grip on a track.

Everything is a trade-off. If I weren't tracking the car, I would put some front toe-in back in to make it drive smoother on the street. Since I want the additional front grip in the turns at an AX, I live with the freeway groove following effects.

[galis]

Reading this thread and having another look at the Yoko S-Drive tires....

I don't know how those 4 finger size groves on the circumference wouldn't follow road cracks etc! I guess some tow in could make a difference but seems that is more addressing the symptoms than the cause.... I'm guessing this is only a front end and steering feedback issue, I doubt any wondering problems are coming from the rear, regardless of toe adjustment. But I'll replace these with R-888 in due time...

[ChuckS]

We have Yoko S-drive's on our M3 with NO wandering or groove following problems. The alignment is the biggest factor. When I had an AX type of alignment on our 993, it wandered and was "twitchy" through 3 different brands of tires.

[Kim Crosser]

One other thought - zero toe-in on the fronts is good for performance, but if someone had all the toe-in on the rears removed, the car would be VERY "twitchy" on the concrete grooving. You might check to make sure there is least a little toe-in on the rears - toe-in there won't affect AX performance significantly, but will help the car drive smoother on the road.
My Yoko ADVAN Neova AD07 tires have similar grooving to the S-Drive, and they will definitely track the concrete grooving on the freeway, but it isn't uncomfortable - just a bit twitchy. I have zero toe-in on the fronts and a tiny bit of toe-in on the rears, and the road tracking is acceptable, while the AX performance is definitely enhanced.