OK, the trackday was a success. I chose arbitrary pressures of 28psi cold all round, hot they all came up to 36psi very quickly.
I borrowed an IR thermometer from work to take a look at temps across the tyre surface with particular attention to the inside edge of the fronts where I wanted to make sure that -2.85 degrees of camber wasn't hammering the tyre carcass too much. It measured 10 degrees hotter (remaining in spec for the tyre) than the rest of the tread which was well within limits; the wear on the outside edge just touched the top of the little triangle.
I only had one moment of very negligible understeer but I had entered Lavant a little too quick and gone too deep on braking, given this I'm not inclined to change anything next time until I'm more familiar with the way the car now behaves.
First observations, and not unreasonably, are that they are more noisy than PSS and I didn't expect them to be whisper quiet. I hadn't realised that the noise they generate is best likened to a whirring and is present without vibration.
On track I found myself surprised by my new position when exiting bends. When driving the way I have become accustomed with PSS I was finding myself further from the edge of the circuit by a significant distance. So much so that these allow you to go off line to pass (under invite) before you fully exit Lavant and to then easily re-position the car for the next kink.
Braking is more composed with regard to front end stability, no squirming under heavy load. This is also the first outing for my APF404 pads so there were two things to get the measure of. Later braking would be possible, it depends how you want to use the advantage. either as a safety margin or somewhere to gain time.
What I realised is that I have a 're-calibration' process to go through and there is more entry and exit speed to be had. My best lap times were 1:39.2 and 1:39.35 which came next to each other in my last session. I was getting more confident with them and had little traffic around me where it mattered. These times may not be quite as 'epic' as some but I can see and measure an improvement and this is about my development and not who I can claim to blow into the weeds!
It'll be interesting to see how things go with these as they're used for daily duties until the new daily drive arrives and obviously I've no wet weather experience with them yet. I'm not expecting miracles here otherwise these tyres would be all things to all people and that simply won't be the case. These and regular tyres are things of different compromises and they have specific requirements which are not common to each other.
So far, not a disappointment and I'm happy with them. But if you want ultimate grip for the road in all conditions and a very quiet cabin and you don't go near a circuit at all you'll need to buy one of the usual suspects I think.
