They're being discontinued in favour of the ZII Star Spec, which is supposed to be even faster. The ZII is now on closeout at TireRack. Supposedly the ZIISS will not arrive in the US until November/December.

Now the question is will our tires last for the rest of the season. If they do expire before Nationals, there may not be any left if we need some more. On the other hand, I don't want to stock up and be left with uncompetitive tires at the end of the season.

 

I saw that announcement last week. I was worried because in the size we run (235/40/17) there is only the Z2 and the magical R1R but we don't run the R1R because we don't have the rim width to properly support it. So I bought 8 more and threw them on the stack.

 

I see 10 new tires there.... is there a another pair missing?

 

One pair is for the rear of the s2k

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using NAMotoring

 

Ahhhh yes. I suppose you might go through the rear tires fairly quickly on that one huh?

 

Interesting. I was just looking at new tires for a (non-Mini) car a few days ago and was struggling to choose between the Rivals and the ZIIs. I ended up going Rival again, but I remember what the ZII prices were.

The sizes of ZII I was looking at on Tirerack were 18", and I don't really see a substantial discount yet from a few days ago when they were "regular" price until today on "closeout." The one size I recall is $10 cheaper today per tire, and the other size I think is still the same price as before.

As time goes on, I suspect that Tirerack will continue to lower the clearance price. This is based on my experience a few years back when the Bridgestone RE-01s were discontinued and sold at bargain basement prices near the end of the stock clearance.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, if you need ZIIs for the season, buy now before they are gone. But if you want a bargain, you can try to wait it out as the prices come down further over time and you gamble that your size will still be available...

 

Problem is once they are gone they are gone. And there will be no replacement till the end of the year in December

 

jeez. i heard about this too :( but at least the rs3 v2 is coming. i'm planning on doing ~30 events this year, including a number of test n tunes. i'm kind of pretty much expecting to burn through a full set of tires part way through the year. if that's the case, i may just go r1rs or rs3's midway through the year, maybe just before nats.

 

Or stick with Rivals year round

 

no rivals in the size i was looking for (205/45-16 or 205/50-16) :(

 

Ahhhh...well you can go down to 15x6.5s and get 205/50-15 anything. For H street that's probably the way to go.

 

yeah i think that's probably ideal, but wasn't able to find any price/wheel that i was able to go for reasonably..

 

You must be kidding. 15x6.5 is THE MOST common 4x100 15" wheel made. There are litterally probably 40 different kinds you can get. Here's a set that took me litterally 30 seconds to find. Under 13lb a wheel. 40mm offset and only $383/set shipped

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191106197044

 

ah.. :(

 

Point taken that there are several inexpensive stock-legal 15x6.5 wheel options available, but the ones you linked to are technically not legal as the offset is only +40mm. It would need to be at least +42mm to be 100% legal under the 2014 rules (+/- 1/4 inch) and +41mm if that rule gets changed to +/- 7mm for 2015 since stock offset for a 16x6.5 factory wheel is +48mm.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111065632693 +45 offset

 

I went through a period of trying to find 15"x6.5" wheels for H Street last year. There are lots of places which advertise lots of wheels, but when you come to order them they're not in stock, most companies just advertise the wheel suppliers catalog and have to order them for you. Then you find they're no longer available. The 15x6.5 is going out of fashion. Once you're looking for +42" offset you're basically screwed. I told several suppliers if they could get me a wheel of reasonable weight I'd pay almost anything. None of them could come up with a suitable wheel.

I did finally manage to get some from ASpec wheels, who are behind that last Ebay link. They're local to here and actually have a warehouse stuffed full of wheels. They supplied me some in a +40 offset. If I'd found they were faster than 16x7 I'd have gone got them shaved. Luckily I found the 16x7 are faster.

Now I'm going to be careful about what I use the 16x7s with ZIIs for, and hope they last until nationals. I was planning on using alternate wheels for BMW club events, now I may use them for other events as well to make sure the ZIIs last. I was thinking of getting some R888 for track and BMW events, they wouldn't affect the class I'd run in at BMW. Maybe I'll end up running HSR at some events (as long as no one objects to the +40 offset).

 

^ thanks for all the testing you're doing!

 

Why not do what I did and get the highest offset possible and the longer studs which make life worth living for tire changes. You can then space the front out to a 42mm offset and tuck the rear in as narrow as it will go.

 

I'm pretty sure stud conversions aren't legal in Street. At least when I checked the rules I couldn't find it. I've been poking the other guy with a MINI with studs about that.

I couldn't find any wheels with a high offset either.

 

Wrong...page 73 of the rule book. They have always been legal. That's why all the fast guys nationally with minis have them. Do you really think we would do something like that and risk getting protested? LOL

--------------------------------------------

Wheel spacers are permitted provided the resultant combination complies
with the offset requirements of this Section. On vehicles supplied
with an OE wheel spacer, the wheel spacer shall be considered as a
part of the wheel. Wheel studs, lug nuts, valve stems (including pressure-
relief types), and/or bolt length may be changed. Tire pressure
monitoring sensors may be removed.

 

http://waymotorworks.com/m14-to-m12-...rsion-kit.html

Best $89 you'll ever spend Tire changes become a breeze

 

I've read page 73 several times, and I don't see where it says bolts can be changed for nuts.

I see
Wheel studs … may be changed
lug nuts … may be changed
bolt length may be changed

Nothing which says bolts may be changed for studs. If there's a common interpretation which everyone uses, it doesn't show up to me.

 

And it seems even more non existent when SP spells it out in 15.4

 

received mine and they're on the car now!



not sure what im gonna do when these are toast (which will probably be around august-sept