Tires for track day (HPDE)?

[rob_e30]

I am planning to get to Willow for a HPDE in early July and the used R compund Kumo's I have on the car are spent. What tires do you run for track (not auto X)? The car will not be competing, just laying the ground work for obtaining a competition license. The car will be run in two separate run groups. I'm looking for a good balance between performance and price as I stated before, I won't be competing that day.

225/50/15's BTW.

Thanks,

Rob.

[oh2fly]

Toyo RA1s shaved to 5/32nds will work great. I just went through this after toasting my autocross tires at the last track day. Hot tire pressure is 37-39 front and 35-37 rear hot. You will like them!

[Charlie]

I'll concur on the RA1's. Shaved would be ideal for a dry track.

I ran full tread fresh RA1's last weekend at Mid Oh, and it was definetly an adjustment with the tread flex. In the wet sessions, it was great, in the dry they took a while for me to build confidence on them. In an ideal world, I'd bring a set of shaved and a set of full treads.

However, for a school, I'd have to give myself a kick in the junk (c) if I did that.

-Charlie

[DanGillan]

get a set of yoko a032r's an call it a day. the soft compound one's are stickier, the hard compound will last longer.

[Charlie]

get a set of yoko a032r's an call it a day. the soft compound one's are stickier, the hard compound will last longer.

Eh.

They'll also cost more and offer less grip than the Toyos.

-Charlie

[trent]

get a set of yoko a032r's an call it a day. the soft compound one's are stickier, the hard compound will last longer.

Eh.

They'll also cost more and offer less grip than the Toyos.

-Charlie

Agreed! :up:

[rob_e30]

Thanks for all the info! It's great to get the feedback.

At this point I'm looking at either a set of Dunlop SP Sport 8K's or Yoko's AVS ES100's. Both seem to offer good dry traction (similar to tires at 2X the price) but I know that the wet traction is crap. Given I'll be in the Southern California high desert in July I don't see wet traction as an issue. I don't want to spend any money for a marginal increase in performance as I need to get some HPDE's under my belt as I prep for a competition license. The plan is to wear out the first set of tires over the summer, add a second set of tires/wheels (R rated) when we're ready for competiton, and replace these tires with better wet (or all season) traction tires in the winer.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again,

Rob.

[alex]

Hankook RS2. I've got 3 track days on them with 2 drivers each day and several sessions of drifting and some autocross slaloms. Still bunch of tread left and they still stick well. They aren't very expensive and pretty grippy

[nando]

well, I've stated many times my opinion on ES100s (they're crap) but if it's your first track day, getting a super high performance tire is probably not a great idea anyway.

[Tangent]

I've heard from several sources that R compound tires are not a good idea for somebody that doesn't already have alot of track time. (Dunno if you do or not...) They tend to mask technique problems that you might have which of course makes it harder for you to reach your full potential down the road.

[JRKOUPE]

good for track and street



wet or dry



decent wear(15k ish)



Toyo t1 s or ts1 ( I forget) I run em on my Z 3 coupe 8 track days /yr...16k miles



dont go R yet.