Just to be clear, are you talking about the regular Dunlop Direzza ZII, or the star spec?
I’m talking normal Z2. But all Dunlops (z1, z1 star spec, z2, z2 star spec) always liked camber.
The tires always delivered high performance through a narrow envelope. The benefit is that they are pointy (check the reviews - the dunlops have the best turn-in and off-center response of the bunch), at the expense of being picky with tire pressures.
If you pay attention to the autox crowd, it’s generally guys with stock control arms/top hats that like the BFG rivals. Guys with camber plates/upper control arms end up favoring the z2 or rs3. rs3 needs the camber for soft sidewall, z2 simply works much better with the additional camber than without.
I think I got a little over 1 season out of them (I only drove them on the street in the summer). The sidewalls/outer tread lasted a bit better than my Bridgestone Potenza S-04s on my RS5 lol. And it lasted a lot more than my Michelin PS2s that I had on the car prior to that.
But honestly, with tires, annual replacements are all I’m aiming for. Now, if only I could get more life out of my brake pads (I’m looking at 4 days per front set of pads - which equates to $100 in pads a day - ouch!). Heavy fast car needs stopping…
I’m probably going to kill the S-04s this weekend (or at least take it to it’s last legs) and then swap tires and then get an alignment. Currently my front camber is -1.7 but I might add more negative camber up front.
Just to be clear, you’re advocating for the ZII’s over the ZII Star specs…mostly because of price? My buddy is convinced the regular ZII is a pretty pedestrian tire, while the ZII SS is better than the PSS and definitely the real deal. But for the price, $650 for a set of track tires can’t really be beat.
Regarding the pads, I want compounds that play nice with each other, since I run 1521’s on the street. The carbotechs got killed at gingerman, which is a track I don’t really want to go back to. While at mid-ohio, the carbotechs barely showed signs of wear. I imagine grattan will be similar to mid-ohio. I ordered a micrometer, so I’ll report where my pads are right now and decide if I need to replace. But I was very impressed with how the xp20’s performed, since the color of my caliper dulled a lot and I melted the rubber cover on the fluid connection between the opposite side caliper pistons (not sure I need to replace this?).
This is exactly the same with me. Plus, Mike Jr is great to work with and chat (super knowledgeable).
Also, it being ceramic, the dust doesn’t stick to the wheels (and if you’re as anal as I am on cleaning cars, this itself, pays dividends). I might try pagids (maybe), but so far, I’m very pleased with Carbotech - just wished they’d last longer than 4 days per pad, but again, heavy fast car, can’t go against physics…
Have you ever tried the carbotech endurance pads?
First, the tire question:
I am only advocating the z2 over the z2 star spec on price. z2 is on close out right now.
I had the z2 on the boss, and really liked them. I personally beg to differ on the z2 vs pss debate. It really isn’t a debate. One is track focused, one is street focused. The PSS is clearly the better tire for general use, but if you’re talking about TRACK, no one worth their weight competes on PSS for a reason. It’s simply not competitive. It’s not even in the same category (max performance vs extreme performance).
Has your buddy tracked the Z2? Honestly, I am blown away at the description “pedestrian tire”. There is nothing pedestrian about them – they ride like crap (stiff carcass) and they are louder than anything (rigid tread blocks). The grip is like a last gen r compound. In a test on miata (and also FRS), they were able to get over 1G on the skidpad (1.1 to 1.3 actually!) on these tires vs a regular summer tire which was in the 0.9’s. Is it possible your friend is confusing the z2 for the direzza dz101 or dz102? Those are indeed pedestrian tires. The Z2 is a no compromise competition tire no matter how you want to slice it.
Look under the wheel well of any global time attack car competing in the street category, or any lemons/chump car. You will not find a PSS. You will find these/RS3/Rival/AD08 etc. The PSS has now only become a standard OEM tire. They are nothing special, despite AZ’s love for them 
As for brakes and compatibility - a real track compound pad is going to be abrasive enough to scrub off the transfer layer from a street pad. I wonder how much of this compound mixing stuff is marketing hype, because before the days of “pad compatibility” even being a thing, people always swapped from street pad to any random brand of track pad with no issues.
Note that even Carbotech advocates to use an abrasive pad like a Hawk Blue to clean off any old compound.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with carbotech. I was just curious
Personally, I am mixing and matching! HAH! Considering going Endless ME20 (for track) with Stoptech street perf pads (for street). Tempted also to try XP12’s but probably wont be enough to stop this thing 
Oh here’s a thread on the pss vs z2 debate.
No idea why they spent 4 pages to talk about it though XD
http://www.evoxforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79682&page=3
I will put my money on it. Once you try any tire from the extreme summer category, you will be blown away by the big difference between those and the PSS.
PSS is a fantastic street tire, and amazing rain tire that can also hit the track. But it is no extreme performance tire.
It’s like Comparing the S4 to a Cayman GT4 One is a steak knife, the other is a Scalpel. hahaha.
Gotcha on the tires, and thanks for the PM and recommendation. I’m not blinking an eye for less than 700/set. Was just wanting some clarification since there was a chance you mis-linked (although that was nearly impossible haha). I’ll read up on it though.
With regards to the pads, I don’t believe the problem is going to the track pad, but rather, going back to the street pad. Maybe driving home on the race pads will do a good job of cleaning off the transfer layer, but QU77TRO wrote of a mishap where his street pads put all sorts of junky deposits on his rotors after running some carbotech track pads. He has a B8 avant FWIW.
I was told by the tech who installed my bbk that the only truly clean way to do it is swap both rotors and pads, which I won’t do 
Good call on the VMR 810s. I have a set in 19" and I’m very happy with the quality and weight.
I tried the RP2s when I first tracked the RS5. On the B8 S4, I ran the RP2 out in the front and XP8 in the rear. It was a great setup! I gave up some initial bite but a set of front pads would last over 8 track days easily.
On the RS5, they were gone in two track days…
I had a chat with Mike Jr and I told him that I was a little over 10 seconds a lap faster on the same race track I’m going to on Sunday vs on my S4 (stage II+ but stock suspension). He then recommended that I do XP24s since I was going quite a bit faster in the RS5.
Am interested to see what my suspension mods have netted me in terms of laptimes on the track.
I need more options in my fitment size…
Suspension is good for about 3 seconds on 2 minutes.
LOL WTF Psykotik, you are faster by ten full seconds in the rs5 over the s4?!?!?!?!?!?!
How XD
That’s insane! Was your S4 broken? HAHAHA! As for tire selection - are you bound by the 20s? You can’t go 19s?
IIRC AD08 and RE71 come in the 19s. But you’re right…not many options in those giant tire sizes.
Oh and West - your JRZ getting you 3 seconds over a 2 minute course is amazing, and about right for something of that caliber. Though most guys buying coilovers are not springing for something near the performance of a JRZ. Probably 2 seconds is more realistic.
Different conditions I suppose (that and my B8 S4 would suffer from heat soak).
If it’s any barometer, I was over six seconds faster than my buddy on his B8 S4 (stock power, but has the full Eurocode sways + my old BBK and about the same guts I have when driving) on the same day in the same group (both on clear laps). Haha! I’m not blowing smoke… And I know his driving skill. There are folks and their cars that I knew I had to fight hard to get a pass with the B8 S4 that was a lot easier on the RS5. (there’s a bunch of track regulars with the local Audi Club chapter)
He couldn’t keep up with me in the corners when we were following each other (which also translates to higher exit speeds on my part as well). I’ll ask him what speeds he’s hitting on the main straight before he brakes this weekend.
That v8 really kills it up top, a much better engine for track driving.
But you’re also probably becoming a better driver lol
A mild tune is really necessary for track driving the B8 with other quick cars like the RS5 and the R8. Once the OEM tune bleeds all of your boost out at 5200 RPM, you don’t have enough steam to get to the top of 3rd and 4th gear with other cars on you. When a highly modded 2.0T pulled on me I knew it was time to tune.
A V10 R8 driven by a capable spanked my stage II+ B8 S4 (on hot days as well as cold days). Almost unfairly even. Even when I got my corner exits about the same speed following it, in the straights, it would just pull away.
It’s not as easy on the RS5 and while I have overtaken some, I still don’t kid myself.
Again, with a capable driver that is.
Haha, I agree on both counts (or at least, I certainly hope on the latter LOL!).
The 4.2 V8 doesn’t seem to run out of steam as much at the top end (and at higher speeds).
The V10 is in another league, for sure. I was referring to the V8 variety.