Just for a different perspective, I use them (the black ones, thank you) and I have several friends who use them as well. I have the old "sport" style on a 600 and just tried the race slicks on my 996; while I was at the race, I saw another guy who was really competitive on his 600 and he was using the dot races (we did notice that, after 3 days and 2 races, the tires showed some spalling on the left side of the tread but we both surmized this is due to stressing a cool tire as the track only has 2 lefts and they are far apart).

Are they equal to the best rubber out there? No. But, in my experience, they are equal to the task and I dropped a second a lap when I switched out my pirelli supercorsas for the slicks (which cost $209 a set) and the street set I just put on my ST4 was a whopping $118 (total).

Finally, I stronly suggest you call them with your complaint. A buddy of mine called to say that he thought the tread looked "funny" as it was wearing (I looked at it and thought it looked fine) and they sent him a new tire for free.

And I understand that they are DOT certified.

But, again for the record, I ONLY USE THE BLACK ONES - COLORED TIRES ARE FOR SQUIDS!!!