SCCA Solo D Street discussion

[DocWalt]

Very good point about the stock wheels, and about the tramlining.


I have 245s on my STR prepped car and it tramlines fairly badly. I had 305s on a prior car and it didn't tramline at all. The difference? Metric shit-tons of camber

[mr.whiskers]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

I run 225/45/17 only because it's what you can fit on stock wheels with a +48 offset, even with a small slip on spacer. 245 needs less offset via wheels and spacers to work, which I didn't want to do thinking of going to STX long term. If you are sticking with stock wheels, I'm pretty sure 245's aren't going to fit.

Thank you for your input, this would be a big issue for me. I don't really want to mess with spacers etc. I just want to switch the tires and run it as is.

Tramlining is usually from excessive camber and other things like toe. People have 275+ tires (not on these cars), so if the larger the tire directly correlated to tramlining

Wider tires do affect tramlining. I had a stock Infiniti M37 before with 245 wide tires and I definitely could feel it on certain roads. I drive the same roads on BRZ with camber bolts up front and stock 215 wide tires and dont feel anything.

IMO, if you want to be competitive, 245's are necessary. My car is off pace, even with other drivers in it. When it rains however, mine can match or even exceed 245's... and a gen 2's time with a GOOD driver. But for 90% of events that are usually dry, 245's are the ticket.

I am not planning to win nationals or even compete for top 5 at our small local club. As I wrote before I am in the middle of my second full season of autocross and just starting to get the hang of stock Premacies (or at least I think I am). So for me to get the 200tw tires I see as a next learning step, not because I want to beat our local top guys who have been doing this for 10+ years.
This is why I am considering RT660s. I know they are a bit off pace from Bridgestones but they are so much cheaper, last longer and will still feel amazing after factory tires.

[cmiovino]

Originally Posted by mr.whiskers

This is why I am considering RT660s. I know they are a bit off pace from Bridgestones but they are so much cheaper, last longer and will still feel amazing after factory tires.

One comment on price: They're not really that cheap. 225/45/17 for the RT660's come to $720. The RE-71RS have a $50 instant rebate, $70 mail in rebate, and even another $30 off if you use the TR card. You're looking at $800-835 right now.

That might be about 15% more or <$100 difference... for IMO a much better tire. The Bridgestones should last too. At least more than A052's, but probably not quite 660 endurance level.

Now if they were $1,000 vs $700 for the sets, ok, get the 660's, save the money, and be done with it.

Here's my review after on the 660's. I'm not going to lie - I hated the 660's after about 100 runs. I felt like I had to keep using them to get my money's worth and kill off the tread, but they were terrible. I do state in the video that the 660's might be good for a novice/intermediate looking to learn, but the way the RE-71RS is lasting some people in our region, it's probably a better bet. Or just go to a Conti ECS and call it a day.

[foshjowler]

The 660s are a good first 200tw tire. They're not that far off when new, just be aware that they will gradually get slower and slower as they age/get used. If you find yourself further down than you're used to and still feel like you drove well, there's a good chance the tires are heat cycling out.


As far as 225 vs 245, on a local level, won't make a difference. Maybe if you're fighting for 1st nationally it matters, but outside of that, you'll be fine.



For other tires, Bridgestones are really the best alternative. The Yoks wear way too fast, especially on camber challenged cars. I have 45ish runs and about 3k street miles, and they're down to the wear bars on my car with -4* of camber. The Kumhos are probably in the same breath, but I wouldn't trust them in the wet. The new Nankangs look promising from what I've seen, but there's not a whole lot of info on them, so you'd be shooting in the dark, plus they're not cheap.

[dave99rt]

Originally Posted by otter

Personally I've only seen people on the shorter 245/40/17, not the 45.

There are a few of us on 245/45's at National Tour events. 2nd gear is a slightly longer. We've been happy with the results.

I'd lean toward the 235/45/17 over the 245/40/17. The 245/40 seems to be short for many courses.

[cmiovino]

Originally Posted by dave99rt

There are a few of us on 245/45's at National Tour events. 2nd gear is a slightly longer. We've been happy with the results.

I'd lean toward the 235/45/17 over the 245/40/17. The 245/40 seems to be short for many courses.

Thinking of this now, in my 2017, which I think has the same gearing as the 2022's, 2nd is short on even some of our local courses. You're stuck on the limiter for 2-3 seconds in some sections that don't warrant up and down shift.

I wonder how many STX guys are running 245/45 (when I do my STX build). I had in my head 245/40 was the standard answer.

[DocWalt]

Second gens returned to the 2013-2016 gear ratios.


I'm not aware of anybody running the 245/45R17 in STX or STR, the folks running 2017s seem to have used 255s or going to 18s with 265s

[strat61caster]

We can also increase the redline via tuning without sacrificing low end torque.

[DocWalt]

I mean... there's a limit to that and even a lot of 2013-2015 guys are using 8k rev limits for nats.

[mr.whiskers]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

One comment on price: They're not really that cheap. 225/45/17 for the RT660's come to $720. The RE-71RS have a $50 instant rebate, $70 mail in rebate, and even another $30 off if you use the TR card. You're looking at $800-835 right now.

That might be about 15% more or <$100 difference... for IMO a much better tire. The Bridgestones should last too. At least more than A052's, but probably not quite 660 endurance level.

Now if they were $1,000 vs $700 for the sets, ok, get the 660's, save the money, and be done with it.

Here's my review after on the 660's. I'm not going to lie - I hated the 660's after about 100 runs. I felt like I had to keep using them to get my money's worth and kill off the tread, but they were terrible. I do state in the video that the 660's might be good for a novice/intermediate looking to learn, but the way the RE-71RS is lasting some people in our region, it's probably a better bet. Or just go to a Conti ECS and call it a day.

Hey I am subscribed to your channel and watched your video on RT660s when it came out. I understand for an experienced driver like you rt660 might feel like crap but I am pretty sure they are still infinitely better than factory Premacies I am running. If they can last me a long time that a pretty good deal for my money. And maybe by then I ll be good enough to get the Bridgestones and show some decent results.

Regarding the price, its kinda hard to pintpoint exactly what the price difference will be. And in Canada the prices are probably quite different from USA. But so far I did a bit of research and it seems RT660 are quite a bit cheaper. Who knows, sales happen. Of course if price difference is less than $50 for tire I'd get Bridgestones

[cmiovino]

Originally Posted by mr.whiskers

Hey I am subscribed to your channel and watched your video on RT660s when it came out. ........ they are still infinitely better than factory Premacies I am running.

Thanks for subscribing!

I'll agree with you on that. I kept the stock Primacies on the stock wheels for the first year I had the car and ran them at longer distance events just for seat time. They were pretty bad, even for an enjoyment standpoint.

They're not bad for street use, even if you're moderately hooning around, but at autocross you don't even feel like you're using the 50% of the rest of the car.

[Desertnate]

Originally Posted by mr.whiskers

Regarding the price, its kinda hard to pintpoint exactly what the price difference will be. And in Canada the prices are probably quite different from USA. But so far I did a bit of research and it seems RT660 are quite a bit cheaper. Who knows, sales happen. Of course if price difference is less than $50 for tire I'd get Bridgestones

Even in the US, timing is a big factor when it comes to price comparisons. If you can hit a good sale/rebate or even just the right fluctuations in prices it might work out, but it's not a given. This spring when I ordered my wheels/tire set, I saved around $250 by going with the 660's vs the Bridgestone's.

[mr.whiskers]

Well I did end up finding a 25% sale due to a fellow autocrosser from our club pointing it out to me. Got myself a set of 225/45R17 Bridgestones RE-71s. Too bad they arrived exactly on the same date of our last event. So I will wrap them up in some plastic bags and store for the next season. Really excited to see what kind of times I will see on these.

This year was my second season on the Primacies and I feel like I grew as a driver and learned to push with more aggression. For sure starting to feel the limitations of the tires now so I figured it is time to upgrade and push more.

Question: what pressures do you run in Bridgestones? I know its situational but I want to have an approximate idea.

[cmiovino]

PSA: Check your gear, especially tire gauges.

Loaned mine out to a buddy in grid (actually Alex Piehl) and he immediately hands it back to me saying it's reading way off as he just put 36PSI in his tires. Double checked with someone else's gauge and mine's reading 6-7 PSI LOW. I was targeting ~38PSI and actually running more like 45PSI all year, if not since I got the gauge 5 years ago. Fuck.

Come to find out this is relatively common. Every other person I told said they had the same happen to them. Some people just toss them after a year of use.

With properly inflated tires, I was in the top 10 in PAX out of 126 drivers in a first gen the next day. Funny enough though, when I was running the RT660's last year at 33/31 on my gauge, I guess I was actually running them at a true 40/38, which wasn't ideal, but closer to where 660's need to be apparently.

In other news, my Yoks now have 149 runs this year and have 3 more events (~18 runs) to go.