Autocross/weekend tire

[greg1333]

Getting some opinions, I just bought tires for my e46 Conti DW's and they are doing well for me. Currently I am autocrossing my e46 but will be replacing it with my e30 when its done (fingers crossed this summer).

The e30 is modded. s52 motor, e36 m3 brakes, gutted interior, coilovers, 17x8.5 wheels with 245/40/17s. I will be running Hoosier A6's for dry tires. But living in the Pacific Northwest half of our events contain some degree of rain.

I am looking for tires that I can run as my wet tires and drive to and from the events on. The Conti' DW's were a recommendation from my car club members and are doing well for the heavy e46, I was wondering if they will be fine for the lighter e30 or if there is a better choice out there.

Thanks

[agent]

I have a set of DWs currently on my swapped car. They're very good street tires (especially in the wet) and tough to beat for the money, though I'm not thrilled with their performance as an AutoX tire.

I haven't driven an event in the rain/wet with them, so I can't speak to that. If it was really wet, I'd imagine they'd do pretty well.

[greg1333]

I have a set of DWs currently on my swapped car. They're very good street tires (especially in the wet) and tough to beat for the money, though I'm not thrilled with their performance as an AutoX tire.

I haven't driven an event in the rain/wet with them, so I can't speak to that. If it was really wet, I'd imagine they'd do pretty well.

Thanks.

[matthugie]

I use ZII's as my rain autox rain tires for my swapped car and have been quite pleased with them. The car itself is a handful, but the tires seem to do alright.

[Eric]

I auto crossed this weekend on a set of Z2's and were quite happy with the results. I should have the video up in a day or two.

[greg1333]

Thanks, but from what I hear the Z2's are being replaced. Any idea why or when?

[klodkrawler05]

Dunlop did the same thing when they released the Z1 a year later they came out with the Star Spec Z1, that seems to be their standard method.

When you say some degree of water how much is some? The A6's will outperform the DW's and Z2's on a wet track that doesn't have standing water.

I had DW's on one of my old e36's and although it never got autocrossed the performance of those tires could be described as consistent, pushing them on dry or rain soaked roads they seemed to have the same amount of grip and even in deep standing water I never had an issue with hydroplaning etc. They're a fantastic tire for wet conditions IMO.

Last year I ran my miata on Z2's and although we got fairly lucky to not have much rain at many events we did get absolutely dumped on at the Toledo Pro Solo. Standing water 3-5" deep across the entire track many of the other drivers in my class of RTR got slower as the sunny early conditions changed to downpour but myself and the 2 other cars on Z2's both improved positions during the rain, so from that aspect it seemed to me that the Z2's handled rain better than the rivals and rs3's. They're definitely not as consistent like the DW. but then their dry performance is so high that you'd expect that.

It would be interesting to do a side by side rain comparo between the 2 for science but my gut feeling is that the softer z2 compound will still have the advantage over the DW in most cases although this is purely a guess on my part.

[Jb325is]

If you'll be using Hoosiers for auto-x, there is no point IMO to have a 200 or less treadwear tire for the street. The Continentals are as good as anything this side of Hoosier h2o's in the rain, and they have a 340 treadwear rating so you can drive your car as much as you want without worrying about wearing out your autocross tires.

I'm in the same situation right now and I'm buying the DW's, in the same size for my e30. Then using Continental grand am take-offs for DE's and auto-x

[Eric]

I have a feeling you won't really like the conti take-offs for auto-x!


Here are my Z2's in action. I drove about 30 miles on brand new tires to the event. First run in the vid is the 5th run on the tires, 2nd run is the 8th run.

[Jb325is]

I have a feeling you won't really like the conti take-offs for auto-x!

Yeah I know, I don't think I'll be able to get any heat in them. I'm planning on focusing more on DE's and some TT's now though, I never really drive well or learn anything at auto-x's, they are just an excuse to drive around like an ass and work on car control.

LOL at the end of the first run! New car sounds awesome and looks pretty quick

[LJ851]

Yeah I know, I don't think I'll be able to get any heat in them. I'm planning on focusing more on DE's and some TT's now though, I never really drive well or learn anything at auto-x's, they are just an excuse to drive around like an ass and work on car control.

Tire warmers man, go full baller status.

[deutschman]

I run ZIIs on my e30, and had ZIs on my 2002. Love those tires. Only complaint is that they could give more noise feed back. They almost make no sounds

[totheredline]

Love my falken RT-615k's. Haven't run them at any autocross events yet though.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[greg1333]

Again, thanks for the advice. looks like I have to make a decision between the Conti DW's and the Dunlop ZIIs. (the Falkens aren't available in 245/40/17)

What kind of life has everyone seen out if the ZIIs?

[klodkrawler05]

I managed to get 5k street miles, a trip through the tail of the dragon and 130 auto-x runs out of mine,

they're now to the wear bars but I'd still use them for auto-x only this year if I had something to put them on (185/60/14)