Chris' Cayman

I go through two sets of rear tires to each set of fronts on my 996 Turbo.  Sounds about the same for you.

Thanks for the feedback doc. It makes sense. I wonder if the PDK contributes to the rear tire wear too. 

I installed the third radiator last weekend. It went fairly smoothly until I realized that they shipped the wrong grill for my car. I emailed the vendor and had the correct grill two days later.

I dropped the car off at my local indy P car shop and gave them a laundry list, spark plugs, belt, CV boot, coolant flush, general inspection. It should be done this afternoon.

I also ordered a set of Nankang CR-S V2s to try out. They seem like a good tire for my needs based on Andy Hollis' and Rennlist reviews.

Finally, I signed up for a track day at Sonoma on the 19th. I'm looking forward to trying it out again.

I took the car out for a drive for the second time since I had the coolant flushed last night. I got about 10 miles from home and suddenly I got a warning to Check Coolant Level and the temp gauge was maxxed out. I had my OBD reader on and it was showing 190F. WTF? I pulled over and let the car cool down for a few minutes. Tried to drive home and the warning popped up again. I decided to drive it straight to the shop that did the work since it was closer than driving home and called my wife to come pick me up. We'll see what they have to say tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be $$$$.

In other news two big ass boxes from Phil's Tire Service showed up today. Mmmmmmm, sticky tires.

There's some weather moving into the area next week. It sounds like it might hit mid week and clear out by the weekend. Let's hope that's the case.

The coolant level scare turned out to be a little air in the system. The shop topped it up and I haven't seen the warning since. Apparently there was still some air in the system somewhere. I wound up topping it off one more time before the coolant level stabilized. 

I hit Sonoma for the second time on Sunday. It rained on and off most of last week but finally stopped at 5PM on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning the track was still damp and it was only 48F outside. By the second session the track had mostly dried out and I started to get a feel for the tires. They felt pretty good overall but got a little nervous towards the end of the session. I dropped the pressure targeting 33psi HOT and my times kept getting better but it took 2-3 fast laps before the tires would come up to pressure. I wound up with a personal best 1:59.65 in the forth session. I lifted coming out of 7 to give myself some space to the cars in front and from the data that cost me about .8 seconds. Watching the video there are a couple places I could improve. I'm consistently hugging the left side between 1-2 and need to be further right. I'm also turning in too early on 6 and 10. The Nankang CR-S V2 feel really good. I was able to drop my personal best time by almost 4 seconds compared to the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3's.

I'm at Laguna Seca today. It was 37 degrees when I got here this morning. I think that's the coldest it's been when I've been here. 
 

I dropped my pressures to 25/26 cold before the first session. I wound up at 35/36 hot. The funny thing is that the car developed a little oversteer towards the end but my lap times kept dropping. I had a series of 49s and 48s then a 45 and finally a 1:44.37. That beat my personal best by 3.6 seconds. I dropped the pressures down to 31/33 hot afterwards. We'll see how that works out in the second session.
 

I'm really liking these Nankang CR-S. Highly recommend.

I'll be watching - congrats on beating your pb!

I'm going to try the CR-S as my next set of track tires, good to hear you like them.  Congrats on your PB!

I managed to knock another 3 tenths off my time in the second session. 1:44.07. RaceChrono says I could shave another 2 tenths off if I combined my best sector times. The last two sessions it's warmed up into the low 60s and there's been a bit more traffic. These CR-S are easily 3 seconds a lap faster than the Goodyear Supercar 3s. 

I didn't manage to lower my PB any more yesterday, but my times were consistently in the 1:44-45 range all day. I was going out with the tires at 23/24psi cold (65F). They would get up to 28psi by the end of lap 2 and I felt comfortable pushing them hard from that point on. They were around 32/33psi by the end of each session. The temperatures were very even across all four tires. The rears do seem to want to be a little lower as they are still a little hotter in the middle than at the edges (+5F or so).

Minor correction. The pressures started at 34/35 hot and I bled them down a little after every session. The last time I checked them was after the 4th session and they were at 31/32.5 hot when I came in. When I went out for the 5th session they were at 23/24. I think next time I'll start at 24 cold F/R. 

I installed a new pair of rear PS4S on the car on Saturday at 74,550 miles. I got 10,800 miles out of my first set.

I took the Cayman out for one last fun drive tonight. Tomorrow I am driving it to work and selling it at lunch time.