Topic: Tires?

What tires are you guys running? When we bought the car it had DIREZZA ZIII - SIZE: 225/45R16s.

What's brands do you guys use and what brands should we stay away from.

Re: Tires?

Depends on the car. ON our 88 T-bird we ran Direzza Z-II Star Specs, but switched to the Falken Azenis RT615K+ when the Z-II Star Specs ran out.

Didn't try the Z-III because I recall the Z-II being underwhelming compared to the Z-I Star Specs. So for our heavier car we decided to just wait for a Z-III Star Spec to come out.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Tires?

There are a thousand threads on this, and it comes down to personal preference most of the time.

Most popular options are
the Star spec version of the direzza
Falken RT615ZK+
RS3/RS4
One or two others I'm forgetting

Be weary of things like the toyo R1R that used to be a 140 treadwear and then magically became a 200. They don't hold up the same.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: Tires?

Guildenstern wrote:

Depends on the car. ON our 88 T-bird we ran Direzza Z-II Star Specs, but switched to the Falken Azenis RT615K+ when the Z-II Star Specs ran out.

Didn't try the Z-III because I recall the Z-II being underwhelming compared to the Z-I Star Specs. So for our heavier car we decided to just wait for a Z-III Star Spec to come out.

Have run rival (no luck) Hancook 3 twice (no like) dunlop direzza 1&2 both star and non star spec (like and is the go to tire) Trying our first direzza 3 in three weeks, will get back with results after Charlotte.

Note: Big, heavy, fast A car.

Homestead Chump 5th-Sebring 6th-PBIR Lemons 9th - Charlotte Chump  CrashnBurn 9th
Sebring 6th again -NOLA Chump 1st -PBIR Chump Trans Fail 16th
Daytona 11th - Sebring 6th - Atlanta Motor Speedway 2nd - Road Atlanta Trans Fail 61st-Road Atlanta 5th
Daytona 13th - Charlotte 9th - Sebring 2nd-Charlotte 25th broken brakes - Road Atlanta 14 10th-Daytona 14  58th- Humid TT 19th Judges' Choice!

Re: Tires?

Related question: A few years ago, some Lemoneer who works for one of the tire companies confirmed that the rubber composition of the then-current Dunlop Direzza and Falken Azenis were identical. I think it was the Z2 Star Spec and the RT615K (not +), but I'd have to go back and search for the thread. Does anyone know if that's still the case with the current generation of those tires?

Re: Tires?

I think they are different now, but I don't have a source to prove it. All I know is we've been running the RT615K+ on our heavy (3400lb) saab, and we just love them.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: Tires?

SpaceFrank wrote:

Related question: A few years ago, some Lemoneer who works for one of the tire companies confirmed that the rubber composition of the then-current Dunlop Direzza and Falken Azenis were identical. I think it was the Z2 Star Spec and the RT615K (not +), but I'd have to go back and search for the thread. Does anyone know if that's still the case with the current generation of those tires?

The source (or one of them) is a tire engineer that has the Skypassive ecotech swapped RX7 and used to be part of the Product Design Saturn team.  Mitch was not at the Joliet Race too ask such burning questions, though.

Re: Tires?

They are both Sumitomo brands, the guy I got it from was a development engineer at the time. I believe they stayed the same green tire until the Star Spec ZIII but not sure.

Volvo PV544 (RIP) - now with Chevy 3.9 power!
2007/2012/2013 Driver's Championship (what was I thinking!?) 142 races and counting.
2/25/24