(2015) 200+ Treadwear Autocross Street Tire Thread

[Jawnathin]

Originally Posted by renfield90

$150? You need a new tire guy! I flipped mine last week for $32 without balancing...maybe $40-$50 with balancing depending on who I'm using. Maaaaybe $60 if my tire guy hates my fat tires on skinny rims.

Okay, I was wrong, it isn't $150, it was actually $141.05

I wish I had a reliable tire guy who would fit 245s on 7" wheels for your prices. This place is the best shop in town and can fit these oversized tires without damaging them. They do get balanced as I sometimes drive them to and from events.

I tried a different shop once, only because I was desperate to get them mounted late on a Saturday for an event the next day and my regular shop was closed. This shop totally fucked up my wheels. I have a ton of pictures showing the damage they did to them, but this should give you an idea of what they did...





The shop did take responsibility and repaired them, but the lesson I learned is that I will go to my trusted shop from now on.

[G_Ride]

Originally Posted by Jawnathin

Okay, I was wrong, it isn't $150, it was actually $141.05

I wish I had a reliable tire guy who would fit 245s on 7" wheels for your prices. This place is the best shop in town and can fit these oversized tires without damaging them. They do get balanced as I sometimes drive them to and from events.

Check out Tire Merchants in downtown San Jose. They're located at a gas station, but do a pretty good and their prices are reasonable. At least the last time I went to them.

[simpleisbest]

Originally Posted by Jawnathin

I have some feedback to share on the RE71Rs after the SD tour. This is on a CS car.

1.) Qualcomm Stadium Surface is very slippery and rough. I hadn't run here before, and I was surprised on my first few runs on how slippery it was. I think the RE71Rs were a better tire to have on this surface, but I think the loose surface helped neutralize some of the inherent advantage the RE71Rs have over 'lesser' tires. In other words, they would still have more grip relative to another tire but not to the same degree like it would on a good surface.

2.) The TnT was held on a different lot, the surface was better there. I was impressed by their level of grip and thought they held on better than my RS3s did. It was just a TnT, but raw times were better or very competitive with STR and STX cars on Z2*/RS3s.

3.) I would like to see how they do on a surface I have more experience with and have driven my RS3s on for a better comparison, but based on my experience from the TnT site, I expect the RE71Rs to be faster.

4.) Turn in is good, way better than 245/40 RS3s that are pinched on a 7" wide wheel. I hated the floppy RS3 sidewall.

5.) The wear on these are horrible. Easily my biggest disappointment with these tires. My co-driver and I put on 24 runs this weekend, 12 on the TnT (30~ seconds long), 12 during the NT (50~ seconds long), and the wear is incredibly poor. I think some of it has to be attributed to a fast course with a rocky surface cutting into the rubber, but looking at other cars in grid with Z2* and RS3s, they didn't look nearly as bad. Pictures of my front driver's side are below. Yes, that from just 24 runs, maybe 30 street miles. I took the photo with the tire in the wrong orientation. The right is the outside, left is the inside. The rears had the same surface texture, but wasn't as cut up. I will need to rotate them for the next event.






So with all of this said, I'm a bit conflicted. We are still waiting for the Rival S and V720s, but from the tires we have today, the RE71s look to be the fastest 200+ TW tire. You'll want them if you want to compete, but because they wear out so quickly, I don't think they are right for everyone.

If you want to be on the very edge and forefront of competitiveness, these are the tires you'll need. But be warned that if you attend multiple events per month, you may have to buy another set before the season is over. If you have a co-driver, then you may be looking at multiple sets a year. This part frustrates me the most since the whole point in moving to street tires was to have cheap but competitive options. I don't know how long these will last, but the wear on my set was significant after just 24 runs. Hopefully they'll wear better on a different surface and as the tread blocks wear down, but 'Street tires' only capable of 100 runs is no better than where we were with Hoosiers.

For reference, my first set of RS3s V2s were grippy until about 150 runs, then they heat cycled out. But they still had tread for another 150 runs. We tossed them once we hit about 320 runs and about 2k street miles.

If you are just starting autocross or just doing it for fun, I have a hard time recommending these. I think you're going to be better off with a Z2 or RS3. They are still plenty fast, you'll still be competitive, and they'll last you twice as long.

For me, who already has these tires, I'll use the RE71Rs for 'special' events and won't burn them up on local events. They wear far too quickly for that. I am fortunate that I have two sets of competition wheels, one with RS3 and another with the RE71Rs. The RS3s are going to be our 'practice tire' and we'll use those for locals until they're dead. We might try a Z2SS in 235/40 next time around. Once the RE71s wear out, we'll know more about the Rival S and V720 and I may try them out if they are competitive and wear better.

What pressures were you running?

I know SD wear can be horribly rough depending on course design, but man that looks bad

[Jawnathin]

Originally Posted by simpleisbest

What pressures were you running?

I know SD wear can be horribly rough depending on course design, but man that looks bad

New site, new tires, two drivers, so we used a few different pressures throughout the weekend.

TnT Course -
36/34 - 3 Runs (shoulder was slightly rolling over @ 36, so I bumped up to 38)
38/36 - 9 runs

Day 1 -
38/36 - 4 runs
38/35 - 2 runs

Day 2 -
38/36 - 3 runs
38/35 - 3 runs

The pic was of one of the fronts, so primarily 38 PSI.

[redlined600]

Originally Posted by AyJay

Holy schnikes!! I use my tires as double duty for both AutoX and track tires. By the looks of the wear in these pictures I think I could probably destroy a set of these in a scant few weekends.

NO bueno!

Anyone use these on track yet? Mine will also serve double duty so excessive wear is certainly a concern. If these are only going to last a few track events then I may need to stick with zii* and live with a slightly slower autox time.

Basically my threshold would be 8 autox (roughly 50 runs) and 2-3 track days.

[RedBRZ80]

Originally Posted by Jawnathin

New site, new tires, two drivers, so we used a few different pressures throughout the weekend.

TnT Course -
36/34 - 3 Runs (shoulder was slightly rolling over @ 36, so I bumped up to 38)
38/36 - 9 runs

Day 1 -
38/36 - 4 runs
38/35 - 2 runs

Day 2 -
38/36 - 3 runs
38/35 - 3 runs

The pic was of one of the fronts, so primarily 38 PSI.

Holy tire pressure! Its apples to oranges but i ran 30/27 with the RE71s last two weeks. Stx car, decently prepped.

[cactus]

Originally Posted by G_Ride

Check out Tire Merchants in downtown San Jose. They're located at a gas station, but do a pretty good and their prices are reasonable. At least the last time I went to them.

@Jawnathin
Kim's Tire in South San Jose is $80 if you bring them loose. They haven't scratched my stocks, but I dont know if I say I "trust" them lol

[cactus]

Originally Posted by RedBRZ80

Holy tire pressure! Its apples to oranges but i ran 30/27 with the RE71s last two weeks. Stx car, decently prepped.

The extra 2in of rim width helps a lot. 38/28 on ZIIs last year for CS, 30/28 this year with RS3v2 in STX and I was just touching the triangles.

[Lithium]

Originally Posted by RedBRZ80

Holy tire pressure! Its apples to oranges but i ran 30/27 with the RE71s last two weeks. Stx car, decently prepped.

Yeah I second this.....turn those pressures down and maybe it won't eat the tread so much? I have more than 25 runs on my stones and they don't look half as bad!

[Jawnathin]

Are you guys running STX cars? You might be able to get by with lower pressures on a 9" wheel, but I think on a tire pinched on a 7" wheel may need more pressure to not roll over. At 36 PSI it was just barely touching the wear triangles so I bumped it up to 38.

FWIW, I run 40 PSI on my 245/40 RS3s to try to get some reasonable turn in.

[G_Ride]

Originally Posted by Jawnathin

Are you guys running STX cars? You might be able to get by with lower pressures on a 9" wheel, but I think on a tire pinched on a 7" wheel may need more pressure to not roll over. At 36 PSI it was just barely touching the wear triangles so I bumped it up to 38.

FWIW, I run 40 PSI on my 245/40 RS3s to try to get some reasonable turn in.

I was running something like that high pressure for the RS3s as well. I figured with the stiffer sidewall of the RE71R you wouldn't need almost the same pressure for the front as the RS3.

[Jawnathin]

Originally Posted by G_Ride

I was running something like that high pressure for the RS3s as well. I figured with the stiffer sidewall of the RE71R you wouldn't need almost the same pressure for the front as the RS3.

Yeah, you don't need as much on the RE71Rs. I initially tried 4 PSI, but I still had rollover. I tried 38 and no more rollover so I left it.

Later on when I spoke to the Bridgestone Rep he said most people like about 3psi less than what they run on RS3s, so my 38 vs 40 was still in the ball park.

[G_Ride]

Originally Posted by Jawnathin

Yeah, you don't need as much on the RE71Rs. I initially tried 4 PSI, but I still had rollover. I tried 38 and no more rollover so I left it.

Later on when I spoke to the Bridgestone Rep he said most people like about 3psi less than what they run on RS3s, so my 38 vs 40 was still in the ball park.

Good to know

[RedBRZ80]

Local event Sunday.. #1 in STX by over 2 seconds.. #1 overall pax by over a second.. I love these tires. (RE71Rs). Yes I don't think they will last more than 80-100 runs.. But those runs will be stupid fast.. / I'm normally nowhere near this fast..