Topic: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

Alrighty Lemonheads, a question that has probably been asked 2,415 times and will be asked once more. Because Lemons.

A little over a week ago at Pitt we ran Falken RT660's and it was a total dumpster fire (Direzza III's were sold out, had no option). The car was aligned, slightly more negative camber added to stock (nothing crazy, -1.8 ish), pretty good neutral wear patterns, no obvious alignment issues reading the wear other than the tires were rolling over past the side wear triangle so we increased the pressure and they still wore out faster than a political discussion at a cocktail party. The Falkens puked their brains out before a single day was done (worn through to the cords). We had set cold pressure at 28, hot was ~33/34. We had run Direzza III prior at Gingerman and had way better results. However, I wanted to check and see what folks liked running the best (aka, get good performance and last the longest). Current strategy is to go back to the Direzza III's unless you have some better secret sauce. Also, our group really has never had a good handle on the Voodoo known as proper tire pressure, so any good advice you could throw our way will be rewarded with whiskey shots at the next race (Gingerman). If you don't drink we'll give you cookies (don't worry we don't have a 1977 Plymouth van with free cookies sign so you are safe).

ps. Setup: FWD, ~2800lb ish, 205/50R x 15, slightly more negative camber than stock, otherwise aligned within spec for toe, stock springs n such, nothing fancy. R53 Mini Cooper (which already come with decent front and rear camber from the factory).

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

I think the RT660 is meant to be an autocross tire.  Have you tried the RT615Ks?  Hankook RS4s?  Both of those wear as good or better than the Direzza III on my RWD car.

As far as tire pressure, if you have a Pyrometer you can adjust pressures and alignment to get the tire temps as close as you can to the same on the outside, middle and inside.  That takes too much time for our team, so we just run at about 30psi.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

Hands down, the ultimate in longevity is found by running Hankook RS4s.

We were Dunlop fans starting with D1 when discontinued on to  D2, D2 SS but when D3 came out we hit the wall, literally, thanks dunlop for a faster tire, good luck with the obvious autocross market you court.

For those that want a more speed at the expense of wear I would investigate Coopers latest offering rather then Dunlop.

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: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

I don’t yet have direct comparison running the same car on the same track with different tires, but the only time we’ve made it through a weekend at Inde was on RS4s. Three of them are good enough to use again, the LF tire gets destroyed on a FWD car as nose heavy as our Passat. I’ll be putting RS4s on the Benz as well. And probably on my street-only 540i. Good stuff...

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

5 (edited by squidrope 2021-04-27 06:44 PM)

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

Pitt is horrible on tires.  We used to run the direzzas but now run the rs4's and find that they wear much better and handle as well or better.  rs4's weren't/aren't available in 205's so we run the 225's instead.  Our car is RWD 2,300#ish (e30)

ETA-In my experience tire pressures vary due to the temp/track.

"We Got Screwed" NHMS 2017, 4th NHMS 2020,  4th NJMP 2021,
"Judges Choice" NHMS 2021,10th NJMP 2022, 3rd Thompson 2022
#847 Batmobile  aka-"Beulah"  search Squidrope Racing on Facebook

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

Yeah, Pitt is a higher wear surface than Gingerman for sure. I'd recommend the RS4 if you're looking for a long life tire, but would also recommend a wider tire to increase the amount of wearable rubber and the added grip that comes along with it.

Pressures will have to come from testing, as they are dependent on both conditions and vehicle.

#330 Rubber City Racing
#688 SHOuth of the Border

7 (edited by fjehlik 2021-05-02 06:19 AM)

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

All you folks is the shizzle. Thank you for the replies! It seems the overwhelming favorite is RS4's so we will be looking into those~

ps. Also, per the autocross commend on the Falken's, i would concur. Thanks a bunch for the great feedback, it is appreciated.

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

We've found going up on tire pressure helped a LOT with the outside shoulder wear at very little impact to cornering grip (almost unnoticeable difference). We run New Beetles, which are also very nose-heavy.  We've had great success with BFG Rivals and Toyo Proxis, and are about to try the Falken 615k tires that are very popular in Lemons since we found a great buy on them in our size. The 615k has a great reputation for grip/wear/price combination. I think the 660s are designed more for autocross.

We ran BFG Sport Comp 2s our first year while figuring out what the heck we were doing and how to set the car up right. They had a little less grip (still pretty good, just not like the 200 treadwear tires). They lasted very well and ran about $95-100 each if you shop around - which made them great tires to "learn on" for two or three races. A set lasted all weekend at CMP before they paved it, and that was a track known for eating tires.

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

As other people have said the RT660 is not a new RT615K, the former is an autocross tire and wears a lot faster than the latter.

I have 8 races in an R53 on different sets of RT615Ks now. If the front/rears are rotated mid-weekend then one set lasts for the race, with enough left for a couple of track days after. I haven’t gone with the RS4s yet as I don’t think we can can’t get 3 full race days from them and 2.5 days isn’t very useful, no one wants to change mid-race, so we stick with the Falkens.

As for pressures, you need to just do some testing with a pyrometer, but I find around 31 psi hot is the sweet spot for us with mostly stock suspension. I can feel when they get to 34 and it’s very noticeable when they get to 36, it feels like you’re pushing the car a lot harder than you really are.

10 (edited by Outta Focus 2021-08-27 03:27 AM)

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

With our Focus we have about -3 degrees of camber up front and neutral toe. Our hot pressure is about 35-36 all the way around.  We have ran the direzzas, RE71s, Falkens, Khumos (they really do delaminate) and just recently RS4s at Joliet. We actually had RS4s in front with RE71s in the back, we had some left over tires and wanted to try the RS4s. We have always used 6 tires for every race changing the fronts at the end of Saturday. I couldn’t believe how good the tires looked after we finished the first day at Joliet. We didn’t even bother to rotate the tires. Even after the race the tires still look pretty good, better than one day on anything else we’ve tried. I’ll be running a similar setup at Gingerman in October. A lot of people suggest they’re better in the rain too but I can’t attest to that and hope we don’t find out in October. Maybe Joliet is more forgiving on tires? That was our first time on that track. Feel free to drop in and take a look at the end of Saturday if you’re at Gingerman.

Pics after one race at Joliet, no rotation (245/40 17)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yoJK3zThVekJ9ZpN9

Khumo at Gingerman, one day
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oAiSBwQxu2CoiNWA

11 (edited by duthehustle93 2021-08-27 11:23 AM)

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

fjehlik wrote:

Alrighty Lemonheads, a question that has probably been asked 2,415 times and will be asked once more. Because Lemons.

A little over a week ago at Pitt we ran Falken RT660's and it was a total dumpster fire (Direzza III's were sold out, had no option). The car was aligned, slightly more negative camber added to stock (nothing crazy, -1.8 ish), pretty good neutral wear patterns, no obvious alignment issues reading the wear other than the tires were rolling over past the side wear triangle so we increased the pressure and they still wore out faster than a political discussion at a cocktail party. The Falkens puked their brains out before a single day was done (worn through to the cords). We had set cold pressure at 28, hot was ~33/34. We had run Direzza III prior at Gingerman and had way better results. However, I wanted to check and see what folks liked running the best (aka, get good performance and last the longest). Current strategy is to go back to the Direzza III's unless you have some better secret sauce. Also, our group really has never had a good handle on the Voodoo known as proper tire pressure, so any good advice you could throw our way will be rewarded with whiskey shots at the next race (Gingerman). If you don't drink we'll give you cookies (don't worry we don't have a 1977 Plymouth van with free cookies sign so you are safe).

ps. Setup: FWD, ~2800lb ish, 205/50R x 15, slightly more negative camber than stock, otherwise aligned within spec for toe, stock springs n such, nothing fancy. R53 Mini Cooper (which already come with decent front and rear camber from the factory).

I run a lot of TA and the RT660 is one of the fastest most driveable 200 TW tire on the market this year. Well known to be faster than ZIII's. The ZII star specs were competitive "back then" but the ZIII's didn't keep up with the latest super 200 releases last year. I think it could be a setup issue that preferred the ZIII's. With that said, neither are endurance tires. They do like a good bit of pressure, I think I usually end up around 36 PSI hot using a pyrometer, but this is very setup-dependent. With that heavy of a car you are probably also overheating a 205 tire, I would consider running a 225/45-15 and switch to RS4's, they will be ~3 seconds slower than anything in the super 200 category but will take punishment better, be less likely to overheat, and a 225 RS4 will last around 3 times as long as a 205 super 200.

For tire pressures, I would highly recommend investing in a pyrometer, I just got a type K probe for around $30-40 on amazon and run it on a multimeter with temperature function. Either way, even if you buy one at around $100 they pay for themselves on the first set of tires.

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

Re: Suggested tires and pressure settings?

One thing that can really help with tire wear is heat cycling the tire before you race on it.
A few hot laps on Friday and then allow them to cool will make a big difference is wear.
They won't be quite as sticky as when they were new, but they last a lot longer.

Capt. Delinquent Racing
RUST-TITE XR4Ti - '21 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA  I Got Screwed
The One & Only Taurus V8 SHO #31(now moved on to another OG Delinquent)
'17 Vodden the Hell - (No) Hope for the Future Award, '08 AMP Survivor, '08 ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA Mega-Cheater