(2016) 200+ Treadwear Autocross Street Tire Thread
 

Figured I would start a new thread since 2015 is done.

So far it seems the Top 4 are the RE-71R, RS3 V2, Dunlop ZII SS, and the Rival S.

Please help a lot of us here with any findings on new tires if any announcements are being made soon and your overall experience with any of the tires listed above or others from the previous year!

Debating on getting RS3 V2s again since im now hearing that the 71Rs are good as a dedicated autocross tire only.

My internal debate is 245 or 255 for my next set.

I don't have enough money to test both lol. Leaning towards 245s since that seems to be the common setup, but more tire seems more better generally.

Currently on 255 rs3 v2s and they're rubbing somewhere in the front.

Since I have been racing in KM for the past 5 years, my experience in the street tire scene is severely limited. These "tire wars" are very foreign to me as KM has been using the same exact tire for a better part of 10 years.

From my brief research, in CS last year, nearly everybody were running the 71Rs in a size 225/45 because 235 wasn't available, is that a correct statement? I noticed that the 71R in 235/45 is now available at Tire Rack, it would be tempting to mount those on a 17x7 wheel. Thoughts? Am I way off base?

If you want to be competitive, 71R.

RE71R and Rival S are ahead of the Z2 SS and RS3s by miles.

If you care about being competitive, those are your only options. If you just want to have fun and are OK with not having the best tire, then the RS3 or Z2s will work. They are good tires, just not on the same level as the RE71Rs or Rival S.

Another option is the Kumho V720, but I haven't heard much about them.

245 seems to work for STX cars. I'd just run that and stop the rubbing.

235/45 was available last year, so availability was not a factor.

I actually don't know what is better, 235/45 or 225/45. There are trade offs on each side, but both should be pretty close.

Maxxis VR1

http://www.maxxis.com/catalog/tire-513-102-vr-1#sizes
Whether they will be competitive remains to be seen.

The RE71 definitely seems to be the tire of choice amongst the fast guys in the last couple events I've attended. I'll be running the 255 rs3's this session. I daily my car and the rs3's seemed to be the best bang for buck in terms of performance and longevity.

In overall speed the RE71 and Rival-S seems to about the same. But, The rivals are harder to push to get as fast as the RE71 from my experience. The rivals just seems way less communicative, but everyone has their own preferences.

Ran 255s this year, will probably try out the 245s since width wise they are pretty much the same and the 245s are just a little bit cheaper.

On the wear note, I found they wore pretty well, got around 270-300 runs out of them and the inside edge still had some actually life left.

For autocross I think the Rival S is just a little better than the 71r. It handles the heat a little better and has a little more lateral grip.

Honestly you can't go wrong with Rival S or RE71.

It all depends how serious you are. I ran Star Specs on my CS BRZ all year and won the local region for 3 different clubs. But at national events I got hosed.

I'll be on Rival S this season.

Rival S and 71r are the talk of the town. I personally went with the latter and love them (no experience with Rival S). I can't wait to see what the next generation has to offer.

They like to delaminate.

Examples?

Like this

wow those look like way too much psi. ive noticed the 71s seem to wear the center rib too. is that a soft tire or psi thing? im new to this and only have my racing on dirt knowledge to go off of, and the center issues were psi on dirt.

Those are from an STF car from what I've read. But there's also a review on TireRack from a chump/lemons miata team telling the same delamination story.

I used RS3s last year. My first real performance tire on my second year of autox. I didn't think they performed as well as I was expecting but wrote it off as poor driving. It was pretty cool here and I understand they like to be HOT. Shoulda got the RE71s but they were new with no reviews so I played it safe :(

I think this season will be the last of my RE-11A's. Keeping an eye on this thread but really want some decent life at the expense of time (I'm not a podium level driver in STX anyway). It sounds like RS3 v2 still fits my use. Hopefully someone chimes in on my application.

I'd consider selling you my RS3s if you were interested. About 60runs on them. Only used one year, 6 runs per day, about 5 days

Iowa to Toronto is a long journey for tires....I say keep em

I love my RS3's! I did extremely well the few auto cross events I did with them last year and they felt great on track days. I may even get a few more events out of them this year. I'm surprised to see so many people suggesting the Re71R's. I will defiantly be trying them out when my RS3's are wore through.

Oh, you mean these?

https://www.instagram.com/p/9eS-9-kL0K/

:D

Stick to the RE11, AD08R, or the upcoming Maxxis VR1 for that.

Squeezing as much time out of my RE71r's as I can while waiting to see what new hotness comes out this March/April. Hopefully we get some news on anything new by then so I can make decisions before the big push in May/June/July with all the local and national events.

People are suggesting them because for autocross they are the best tire. The Rival-S can be just about a fast but it's not as easy to drive on as the RE71. Going from a RS3 to a RE71 you would notice an immediate difference.


They wear okay on our cars. You won't have the longevity of the RS3 but I expect to get 8K miles with 80-100 or so autocross runs out of mine.

Most people who have done side by sides see a 1s or more improvement on the 71/Rival over RS3 or any other 200+TW tire over a 60s autocross, that's an eternity in competition, easily the difference between a podium and middle of the pack.

If this was a track or street oriented thread the discussion would be different but here we are.

:burnrubber:

Edit: Thread may get interesting in a month or three if other manufacturers try to come out with a tire to compete, I might have heard a whisper about Hankook trying to match Bridgestone/BFG, but may be remembering wrong. Dunlop and Kumho could also make an attempt, but imo it's rare for tires to respond so quickly at the grassroots level so we'll probably have another year of RE71R at the top.

Just committed to 245/40 RE71Rs myself. Will be picking them up from TireRack along with a new set of 17x9 wheels this Saturday.

Guess I'll find out how they hold up to a season of autox and a few track days.

Rumor is that BFG once again tested some new Rival S compounds after solo nats last year. No word yet on if there will be a compound update or not, they managed to keep quieter this time.

I guess, first, define "decent life." I haven't been disappointed at all with the competitive longevity of the RE-71Rs.

Second, humility is admirable, but maybe assigning your performance to ability is not completely correct. Remove the excuse of last-gen tires and you might see that it isn't the case.

I'll be heading into my second season (not as many events as I might've liked last season, but still 70-80 runs) on last season's RE-71Rs.

Am I the last person running 245's in CS?

300 runs? Wow that's impressive. How would you character your driving performance. Are you top of class mid pack etc.

Surprised? Look at national tour autoX results and you'll know why the RE71 is the top of the spear.

I did pretty well in autocross last year with my rival s'. I get a 50% discount off bridgestones now so I can't wait to try the re71rs which is the current hotness. Maybe bridgestone will make a newly revised version of the re71r like bfg did with the rivals.

That's a fantastic discount you get there! :thumbsup:
I've always had a hookup on car parts (usually cost), but I've never had a plug for tires.

I say surprised bc I don't really follow autocross. Its just something car related to do in between track days. The only people that usually beat me are two s2000s that compete on a national level and they both use dunlop z2s.

I thinks its a combo of things. Out pavement isn't that grippy. I'm really good at not over driving the car. Car is light and well setup.

Driving this year started off around mid pack and got much better but half way through the year. I have beaten people the this year and in previous year have trophied in STX at nats. Also have been in the top 10 PAX in a region that brought back more trophies from nats with the exception of a CA region.

I hope to make it out to nats this year, but life thing may not allow for that this year.

I was on ZII SS last year; I think they were better at the track (thought a bit squeely) than at autox; where I was the only one running them. I'm not good enough for them to have affected my performance too much. I'm stuck with them this year as my budget calls for making it through two seasons with a tire.

I'd love to try the RE71 - but will they carry their performance to the track?

I can say they were easy to keep in a good temp range at autox and that they survived me being very rough on them.

For me, decent life is 7.5 months of street driving (18,000 km), 4 HDPE track days and 60 AutoX runs per season. I'd like to get 2 seasons.

In terms of where I sit, I'm top 30% PAX and mid-pack in STX. Top guys here are running 245 wide RS3's on KW's (no 71R's yet because Canada availability was shotty) where I'm 1 ish seconds back on 225 RE-11A's

Moving from CS to STX this coming season, to 245/40/17 on 17x9. Debating between ZII Star Spec or Ventus RS3. Any thoughts?

I'm leaning towards ZII Star Spec because our autox events have a wide range of temperatures through the season (40-90+ degrees F), and I heard they are better in the cold.

I'll also be daily driving these tires (through spring, summer, late fall) so I feel the ZII Star Spec might be better for slightly more wet grip. I attend about 12-15 autox events per year. Any ideas?

The star specs are significantly better for autocross but usually cost more; however, both are second tier tires to the Bridgestone Re71's.

Most of this discussion has been directed to autocross performance.

What about HPDE performance? I have run RS3 for the past two seasons (V1 in 2014, V2 in 2015). I love the cost. They can be stretched to last my full season of about 20 days.

Any reason for me to switch to 71R or Rival S? My understanding is that the 71R will be faster, but will be much more peakey (i.e. only good for a few laps). Rival S?

For the cost, I still think RS3 is the right choice for me. Tell me why I'm wrong.

Thanks.

I wouldn't call them peakey for HPDE. My best time of the day was on the last lap (lap 9) of my last session. See below, third from the top BW:

http://s34.photobucket.com/user/ae86...jpeg.html?o=15