tires

[gtigirl]

newbie looking for new tires. considering conti extreme contact or kumho acsta asx i run 225/40/18 x 8" Thanks for your help.

[MrsVlad]

I'd go with the Continental's.

[Sisko99]

What do you want to do with these tires?

I had the Kumho ASX on my Z for a while and they were good tires. But they weren't exactly great for AutoCross or for other high performance driving. But for a daily driving tire, they were great.

[lagunamiata]

sisko99 said:

What do you want to do with these tires?

That's the big question...

For an occasionally driven street car, Azenis, RE-01R, T1-R, or any other 140-200 treadwear tire.
For a daily driver that doesn't get driven in the cold, there are tires that give more life, like what you've mentioned.

If Continental made a 140 treadwear tire that would be competitive in the ST classes in 15", I'd have them.

[C4Shane]

I use round, black ones.

Hope that helps.

[gtigirl]

ha ha very funny.... Sillly me - I figured you'd realize I meant autocrossing... My Pirelli's are fine for the road but i tore them up a bit on saturday.

do you make fun of all the new people or just the girls....

in the future i'll be more clear.

[autoxdad]

Normally its make fun of everybody

[dstan]

gtigirl said:

ha ha very funny.... Sillly me - I figured you'd realize I meant autocrossing... My Pirelli's are fine for the road but i tore them up a bit on saturday.

do you make fun of all the new people or just the girls....

in the future i'll be more clear.

If we like the person we make fun of them!!!!! The conti's tires are a great Daily Driver tire but like Rich said you are allowed a low threadwear rating which means softer tire better grip and they wear faster.

[lancer360]

My vote would be for Bridgestone RE01R's. I have them on my Lotus Elise and love them. They also seemed to do well last year at Nationals in the street tire classes. Toyo has a new tire out for street tire class called the R1R that looks promising. Not sure how it has faired at the national level compared to the RE01R or the classic Azenis, but it look very promising.

www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tires.asp?lpid=30251&name=Proxes%20R1R%99&category=sport

Either way, all three tires have a treadware rating of 140 which is as low as you can go for street tire class and any of these three would do very well.

[Sisko99]

The Bridgestones and the Toyos are great if you have the cash. Just on brand name along you'll be paying an arm and a leg.

If, like myself, you'd rather not sell that arm and leg, you can find the Falken Azenis for pretty good prices. Check www.edgeracing.com as they usually have decent deals on them. The Kumho MX is also a very good tire. A buddy of mine runs them on his Z which he tracks and he swears by them. I believe John Byrd ran them for a while.

I myself am planning on trying out a set of Sumitumos for my next venture into the world of tires. My friend with the MX's said that he ran them at the track for a while and they were great, till he cooked them (I believe that was Roebling...which is one turn after the other). But for my purposes...AX and mountain runs, I shouldn't have any issues with that.

[ccytrader]

Hmmm didnt we just have a conversation sort of like this last week about where new drivers start in ST classes for tires?

At any rate, San Diego Tour had 1 driver in ST classes on them. And at Dixie it went as follows

STS 6 out of top 10 on Toyo's
STS2 2 out of top 10 on Toyo's
STX 4 out of top 10 on Toyo's
STXL 3 out of 5 on Toyo's

After looking at the R1R on the Toyo site I can only imagine how many sets a year you can plan on going through. But what the heck do I know? I cant drive on street tires anyway! ;D Fire up a set of anything in a 245/18 and have a blast.

[tirewarmer]

These would be the only street tires that I would think about autocrossing on right now. When you look at the prices in your size, one kind of jumps out as a bargain.

Falken Azenis Rt615 Price: $119.00 <------ Edge Racing
Hankook Ventus R-S2 Price: $153.00
Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec Price: $164.00
Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R Price: $195.00
Toyo R1R 225/40/18 Price: $209
Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD07 Price: $248.00

For reference, I am a cheap b@stard that drives enthusiastically on the street. Both my MINI and my Miata have Azenis for street tires.

[C4Shane]

For the record...I only make fun of everyone.....LOL

and I do use round black tires...mostly bought on Ebay as my son (my autocross partner) believes that tires shouldn't be used more than a couple of events....

I use Goodyear Sports Car Specials or Hoosier R25A or R35s (not streetable tires).

Good luck on your tire choices - You might want to look at some of the recent issues of Grassroots Motorsports. The Azenis were still ranked among the best and very hard to beat for the price.

[tedebayer]

GTI Girl,

I have to agree completely with Tirewarmer... he's absolutely correct.






He IS a cheap bastard. ;D


And his tire reccommendations are correct as well. See? We don't just pick on ladies, we pick on guys too!

The question "what do you want to do with them" has two parts...
One. What do you want to do with them.
Two. If Autocrossing, what do you want to do with them. Regional? Nationals? Once a month autocrosser or ... I'll go anywhere there is an event.

If you want a daily driver and autocross tire, that's one answer.
If you want a daily driver and autocross tire and can afford to replace often, that's another answer.
If you want tires to mount up on an extra set of wheels and only use for autofcross, that' s another still.
From my own experience (the costly "hard way" often), a daily driver /autocross car with a mid-range alignment works good for intermediate. I have watched many a good driver take his class on tire rubber that was dead or even cars with poor alignments. An old timer told me, "You can learn to run fast with a car that is handling poorly with practice ...but you cannot go fast with a well set up car with new tires on your first outing." You are smart in asking for help and advice... as opposed to SOME people that just had to learn the hard way... (he says while looking in a mirror with an empty wallet in his back pocket.)

You go too crazy with aggressive alignment on a daily driver tire and you may win lots of $3 trophies at the price of changing tires that are 50% good... unfortunately it's the thread showing on the inside of the tire half that's the 50% bad. Plus your daily driving (which is 95% of your total seat time in car) is more likley going to be less than enjoyable. (feels great in curves but often it's a fight to keep a straight line...).

If you need some ideas on mid range alignment, Joe (tirewarmer) is an excellent source... he's really good on front wheel drive for many years... (see proof below)




The 5'o clock shadow started the following year in kindergarden...

[tirewarmer]

Ted,

You are so dead.

Joe

[tedebayer]

Darn it...

I was sweating it for the first month... after that I thought he wouldn't notice...

[roundman]

tirerack.com