Why are my front tires corded after one season while the rears look barely used?

The lowering is almost certainly your culprit here. When you drop a car without realigning it, the toe goes way out of spec, and toe is what murders tires. Excessive toe-out on the fronts will scrub the outer edges down fast, especially on the side that carries more load in right-hand corners. Too little negative camber would show up more as even wear across the whole face of the tire, so if it's concentrated on the outer shoulder, I'd put money on toe before camber.

The vague, grabby feeling in long corners fits too. A tire worn unevenly like that loses its grip in a wierd, unpredictable way rather than just letting go cleanly, and it gets worse as the session heats up. That's not heat management, that's geometry.

For AWD on track, yeah, rotate every 2 or 3 events. The fronts do way more work than the rears on most AWD setups, especially under braking and turn-in, so the stagger grows fast and the rears end up practically new while the fronts are corded. Rotating evens that out and saves you money overall. On alignment frequency: get one now, before you mount the new tires. After that, I check mine every couple months during the season, or anytime the car starts feeling off or I hit somthing on track. Track driving knocks alignment out faster than street driving, and lower cars with stiffer suspension amplify every bump.

When you go in, tell the shop what you use the car for. Ask for some added negative camber up front if the platform allows it, zero or a hair of toe-out, and mention the uneven wear so they can check for anything bent. And if you lowered it with parts that let you dial camber separately, that's the afternoon fix you're looking for.

Been through the same cycle on my daily that doubles as my autocross car. What finally got it under control was a cheap tread depth gauge, like ten bucks. I check across the tread at three spots every couple weekends now, write it on the window in grease pencil, and I caught a pulled toe from a curb hit months before I would've felt it in the steering.

One thing that helped stretch a set: when you do rotate, also swap the tires side to side on the rims if they're not directional. That evens out the shoulder wear on the passenger side you're seeing. And yeah, rears outliving fronts on AWD is just how it goes with the fronts doing the braking and turn-in work.

Add tire pressures to that checklist. My fronts were coming off track about 4 psi hotter than I realized and that alone was eating the outer shoulder, even with the alignment dialed. A cheap infrared pyrometer pays for itself in one weekend, just sweep it across the tread right after you pit. Also worth having someone bounce the corners, since a lowered daily on stock dampers will feel vague in long corners once the shocks are cooked, and that's a separate fix from the alignment.

This is kind of eye opening for me because I lowered mine a couple years ago and never thought twice about it. The car felt totally normal to drive, just sat lower, so I assumed everything was fine. Turns out the wheels can be pointed slightly wrong the whole time and the car still feels okay untill the tires are half gone? That seems sneaky. My question is, does the shop need the wheels off to check this stuff, or can they measure it with everything still on the car?

Update: took it in for the alignment like you guys suggested and the toe was out bad on both fronts, way worse on the passenger side. Shop said exactly what the first reply predicted. New rubber goes on this week. One thing though, that pyrometer idea got me thinking, how soon after coming off track should I be checking pressures before they equalize? Don't want to chase a number that's alredy wrong.