I think this is my final decision.... I guess.

I bought a set of 17" OZ Ultraleggeras and an identical set except in 18's. After much thought, I decided to use the 18's on the street. (they have Yokohoma S drives on them) and keep the 17's for the track with a set of high performance street tires.

I didn't want to do the R compound track tires only because I don't feel I have enough experience on the track and feel that track tires will allow me to overdrive my abilities.

So my dilemma is I drive to FL from NC to see my mother at least once a month. (before my father passed away in Dec., I was driving there every two weeks) Point is, I felt comfortable with the runflats.

Now that I'm running the Yoko S drives, I'm leary about driving 7-8 hours worth of driving one way without a spare or runflats.

Soooooo, I've decided to put the runflats back on the 17's and drive them. I figure when they wear out, I can buy next to new ones pretty cheap (With roughly 3000 miles on my Dunlop runflats, I couldn't even sell them for 300 bucks. I see them all the time pretty damn cheap on the forum)

I'll run the S drives at the track until they're gone and depending on how long that is, I found a set of Hankook RS2's that have been discontinued at Tire rack for about 80 each. After reading the reviews, it seems that they are a great tire for the money for the track.

By then, my skill should increase enough that I can use R compound tires. I did note that the difference between 17's and 18's for a decent tire is about 70-80 bucks per tire. Even if it costs me an add'l 300'ish for a set of track tires, for the amount I'll use them (6-7 track events per year) I'll get a year out of them.

Doesn't this sound logical?

Thanks,

Mark

 

Sounds ok but the runflats are not going to help that much if you have a really long drive. Just enough to get to a safe point and fix the flat.

Another option is to find a spare wheel and tire even 15 or 16" to take along with you in the boot covered by bag to keep clean and use it if you get a flat to get to a safe area but you'd still have to do a tire change in the dark or on the side of the road. If you have larger brake calipers then you'd have to make sure the spare wheel will fit.

 

You could also get even smaller miniature doughnut spare to use when traveling.

 

I agree but better to be able to drive a bit to somewhere I can buy a tire than be left sitting on the side of the road.


Two issues... with the JCW, brakes are definitely bigger but more importantly, not only will I have to carry a tire now but a floorjack, tire wrench, etc, etc....

Think I'll stick with the runflats.


Mark