[finch1750]

Originally Posted by Areddi

Next season all of the "big" changes are fully in effect, i.e. the Street vs. Stock thing become fully settled (right now there is a "Street R" or something like that as an interim step) and also I believe tire rating requirements change to 200 for ST classes. This would rule out the current iteration of the RS3, but they will likely make a 200 rating one.

I have been running ZII's now for 2 seasons and they are fantastic. They are 200 rating, as are the BFG Rivals and the Yokohama's, pretty much every manufacturer moved to 200 in anticipation of next year. Interesting to note, Dunlop has actually stopped producing the ZII, and is replacing it with the "ZII Star Spec" which follows the same production cycle they had for the ZI's a few years back. They have a large stock while we wait for the new tire to come out in October/November, price should be around the same I would expect but the tire is supposed to be 3% better or whatever.

The general consensus is that the RS3's, and likely their replacement, are the best tire in the hot. ZII's are considered better in the cold/wet/damp. Here in MD much of our season is cold/wet/damp, so I went for the all-arounder choice, and its not like they're not good in the hot as well, but a true min/maxer would likely have a set of current RS3's for the hot days. I plan to stick with the Dunlops and run a fresh set of the ZII Star Specs next year.

Side note: With those mods you already have you're pretty much committed to STX at this point unless you want to remove them. I personally run 245's all around on 17x8's, and that has felt perfect to me. Some people run a 255, but I dont think there is much benefit to that extra tire, most seem to say that the 245's or 235's are fine. You gotta figure this car even in full STX prep is still under or around 200 HP, so you're not dealing with all that much.

Any reason why you run a 17x8 over a 17x9? Just curious as I have been considering it since I basically only run local and it opens up so wheel options for me.