Help on Tire Selection?

Falken Azenis used to be the hot ticket in auto-x. I don't know what we're planning to run on the Audi, but any sticky DOT-approved tire like the Azenis, maybe Hankook RS2 and similar should do the trick.

azenis have always worked well for us.  cheap, decent traction for a street tire and seem to last a long time.  what size are you looking for and how heavy is your car?  awd/fwd/rwd?

The rt-615k is supposed to come out this year ... it may be better than the original rt-615. the press release says they'll still be 200 treadwear, which keeps em in the Lemons candidacy (while most high perf street tires have gone lower, but still above 140 for STS autox rules).

First go to TireRack.com, put the tire size you have and check reviews and prices on tires they have, they dont have the Falkens though.  We bought a set of 245/45/17 Hancooks that we also got shaved for racing at around $90 a tire at TireRack, they were a clearance item. 

Tires are important - don't scimp, also 14"/15" don't have a lot of choices, 16" are better, 17" is probably the best for price-to-performance ratio 18" or larger get costly. So investigate if you can use taller and wider wheels on your car. The combined Wheel/Tire WEIGHT makes a difference too.  All that unsprung weight effects handling.

Hate to throw so much at ya, but since tires/wheels are an "open" mod. might as well get as much bang for the buck as you can without going crazy overborard.  We bought clearance tires and found a set of rims on Craigslist. We went with the original rims on the car with a set of the best used tires I could find for practice and our "rain" tires and then another "race" set of brand new shaved-for-racing tires on some light wheels.

were you planning on having 4-6 or 8 tires?

First question is what car are you running, as knowing this will help narrow the tire selection down some.

I have ran a Miata on BFG's with a 340 treadwear rating (about $85-$90 each). These are a perfect tire for a Miata as we have been able to get over 2 races out of one set of tires. These tires work good and have out run alot of people on softer tires that we race against on other Miata's.

Added: Until middle of April discounttiredirect.com has a $80 rebate on Falken RT-615 and also if you find a lower price on them they will match it. This is a website only deal.

We ran Toyo PX4's (225/50's), 300 treadwear.  If you can only afford 1 set of tires I'd recommend them.  Just rotate 'em after the first day.

I highly recommend round tires.  Flat spotted ones are kinda bumpy.

More seriously, I have been spending a lot of time trying to decide what tires we will buy for our future replacements.

We have been racing on 225/40r14 Toyo T1Rs.  They are short and fat and reasonably grippy.  They are discontinued and while I can still find some, they are going to be old-new tires.

As ifb_mole pointed out, your wheel size will affect your options.  I currently have 14" or 15" wheels so the options are pretty limited and if they have a tire for that wheel, it will typically only be 1 size.

I have some adapters and 17" wheels I can run now but I am working on a 5 lug conversion without adapters.  You start getting better tire options once you get up to 16" wheels but 17" seems to be a good sweet spot.  Some performance tires start with 17" so you get way more options.

Falken Azenis are pretty much a staple tire in Lemons.  They have mixed reviews.  They have reformulated the rubber for 2010 and the new compounds will be RT-615K.  I am not sure when they will be available.

The Hankook RS2 has been very popular but is discontinued.

The Dunlop Star Spec Z1 is probably the grippiest tires we can run.  No personal experience though.  I've had mixed reviews on that tire too.

The reality is we are racing on street tires.  Many tires will perform well if you do not overheat the tires.  I am trying to come up with a solution to keep the tires cool.  I am thinking a bigger tire, probably shaved, will stay cooler and therefore perform better and last longer.

I spent a good while on the phone with a guy at Tirerack last week.  He discouraged the Star Spec.  They have many knowledgeable people there that can probably offer you some good advice.

does this forum do "sticky" threads?  or maybe a FAQ for tires, kill switch and what does $500 mean

Unfortunately his year T-bird has an oddball 5x108 which limits cheap wheel selection quite a bit. The only Fords that used this pattern were the Tbird/Cougar, Taurus/Sable, and Windstar vans. Not exactly performance oriented options.
The Super Coupes came with 16x7s, so they'd be decent.

AFAIK only some Volvos shared the pattern, and the V8olvo team had trouble finding cheap wide wheels in that pattern so they made their own!

damn scott, that would suck. see, the way it worked out for us is that i had an 03 Maxima that was totalled on the way home from Flatrock/detroit 07. i rescued the gram lights that sat in my garage for almost a year, and as it turned out, my dad picked up a 98 CVPI. found out that both shared the 5x114/114.3 pattern, pulled them out of storage with the Eagle F1 All-seasons on them, and went to town. they did awesome, and we stuck to those tires on those wheels until there was some apparent nonsense with tire wear and Tirerack put a freeze on new shipments/deliveries. We started grabbing the Eagle GTs in the UHPAS segment and had fun at nelson ledges, only needing one set for the entire race.

Try diamond wheel.....they make custom steel wheels for around $100 per wheel in any size you want up to 16x9"

http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/

they won't make bigger than 16" since the steel wheels get too heavy...they are just about perfect in 14-15".....

The 928 Estate is fairly heavy....not Fury heavy, but not light either at a racing weight of about 3200lbs with driver and a full tank....  the dunlops do just fine...I see no reason to change now.....

+3 Star Specs handle awesome. Stay the same hour after hour. On a smooth track surface we get 2 races out of a set. Can't say the same about the RT615, after awhile they get greasy, at least with my driving style. 3100lb FWD car.