One more Time "Tire Help"...

[toro73]

Ok about me and my goals:

Driving lvl: got my license 22 yrs ago
racing exp: (2 track events stock). lots of drag racing.
Goals: Enjoy my Daily Driver at the track for a long time.
Mods: Drop in filter, and maybe a tune later on (too expensive right now)
Events: Mostly tracks (solo 1), not a lot of Autox here in PR

So, I've gone through almost all 22 pages in this forum section, and found a lot of good info here, thank you all who contributes to it. and now hopefully some of the guru's here will send me on the right path

So here we go:
Recently I got some used 5zingen FNO1R-C 17x7 not sure on the offset ( hey $500 bucks can go wrong with that ) so almost stock rims. So The question is, What tire size???? of course...

As I stated before I want to to reduce the stress on components, my driving lvl is novice, so they are not getting to stressed out as it is right now , but eventually I will get better (I hope) and start getting close to the limits of the car. I am getting seat time, instructor help and reading a lot to avoid and correct bad habits (the shifter is for acceleration not slowing the car down ) and so on.

So 215,225,235,240 /40 or 45/ 17. I've seen and read all this tires sizes on the FRS, with the stock rims. Just don't want to over do it and get tires I don't really need or are going shorten the life of suspension components unnecessarily or even worst end up making me slower and mess up with gearing and what ever other theory's the conspiracy aficionados come up with in the forums.(they do get pretty creative)

Oh yeah not competing against anyone or anything like that, but I do want to avoid getting placed with a lot faster cars that are e going to catch up to me pretty quickly and increase my stress level while i'm trying to learn and practice, so that's also the reason for stock as possible.

Just trying to get my confidence level up a little. the Stock Michelin tires are tail happy and not very confidence inspiring, and there is a Lot of cement walls and tire mountains in the track, so I really want to avoid those, and still learn my lines, smooth out my driving and improve little by little.

[CSG Mike]

Do you want to practice car control, or go fast?

215/45/17 RE-11A is a great tire to start with; it lasts a long time, can handle heat, breaks away progressively, and provides great feedback, both noise and through the steering. However, the catch is that it's on the pricey side.

The Hankook RS-3 is fast, but it gives minimal feedback, and isn't great to learn with, because you won't really know when you're approaching the limits.

[Hanakuso]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Do you want to practice car control, or go fast?

215/45/17 RE-11A is a great tire to start with; it lasts a long time, can handle heat, breaks away progressively, and provides great feedback, both noise and through the steering. However, the catch is that it's on the pricey side.

The Hankook RS-3 is fast, but it gives minimal feedback, and isn't great to learn with, because you won't really know when you're approaching the limits.

Is the "A" much better then the old version for car control and life?

[toro73]

Practice car control, fast comes with control and practice , and yes I'm pretty green on the track so being predictable and controllable is important

The bridgestone are a little bit pricey about $40 bucks more than the avg for that size but no a deal breaker for me. So staying with the stock size stickier tires would be the best way to go for a rookie like me ??

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by toro73

Practice car control, fast comes with control and practice , and yes I'm pretty green on the track so being predictable and controllable is important

The bridgestone are a little bit pricey about $40 bucks more than the avg for that size but no a deal breaker for me. So staying with the stock size stickier tires would be the best way to go for a roolie like me ??

My recommendation for the stock sizes are two fold:
- Your rims are 7" wide
- It's easier to approach the limit of smaller tires (they reach the limit at lower levels of grip, and therefore, lower speeds), which have a side effect of making it a little bit safer (more margin for error)

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Hanakuso

Is the "A" much better then the old version for car control and life?

I'm currently driving on them now, but don't have enough seat time with them to comment yet. I don't want to wear em too much since they're on loan to me from one of our clients.

[Hanakuso]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

I'm currently driving on them now, but don't have enough seat time with them to comment yet. I don't want to wear em too much since they're on loan to me from one of our clients.

That's cool. I'm just trying to decide between the two.

Right now it's $484 for the RE11 and $648 for the RE11A

[GTM_Challenge]

Originally Posted by Hanakuso

That's cool. I'm just trying to decide between the two.

Right now it's $484 for the RE11 and $648 for the RE11A

Thats a tough one. Pretty significant savings to go with the old version.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Hanakuso

That's cool. I'm just trying to decide between the two.

Right now it's $484 for the RE11 and $648 for the RE11A

RE-11 all the way. They're not $170 faster :p

[toro73]

just doing a quick check on the RE-11 they are already starting to phase them out, tire rack got em on close out well there goes those $148 dollar super nice tires ! ohh well

will probably go with stock size Maybe even 225/45/17, Try to look a little bit more aggressive

Thanks for the feedback Mike, There is an event this Sunday , but, only problem will be getting the R-s3 or the RE-11a here in Puerto Rico, racing with this really shitty economy has taken a big hit here, so a lot of the Tire places are not stocking this type of tires regularly anymore, and the $262 dollar shipping price on top of the tire price is brutal, so probably will end up going with the stock tires again for this event and order them through one of the local shops and save a little on those shipping prices, but really appreciate you feed back.

[toro73]

Just found out that a local tire shop has an special for the club racers here in PR.
what they are offering are Kumho ECSTA XS KU36
235-45r-17
245-40r17
UTQG: 140

This are super sticky tires, I will only use them for the track of course as I have separate rims for this, but at $138 dollars a tire, that's pretty tempting...

What you guys think!! and what size would be better?

Edit: they might be 180 UTQG, still super sticky!

[CSG Mike]

They're a bit wide for 7" width rims. They'll be pinched and compromise feedback.

[Hanakuso]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

RE-11 all the way. They're not $170 faster :p

Thanks, i'll probably go with those. I'll try to wait it up and see if they have a July 4th deal going and sweeten the deal