Hey Guys, Im looking for a good set of track tires and some cheap wheels to mount em on. Ive looked into track slicks and they are a bit too pricey for me. Right now I have Yokohama S Drives for my daily tire. Im heading out to the track in a few weeks and I dont want to burn through my daily driver tires. Thanks!

 

How much experience do you have (for example, full on slicks aren't a good idea unless you have some track time)?

What size rim do you want to run?

No one will be able to help you until you put that up.

 

I dont have much experience. I go up into the mountains and haul *** in the twisty roads (goin 50 through 10mph hairpins) with my other friends with MINIs. I took the Bondurant racing school weekend program... But thats about it. My dad has been racing his whole life and races a 66 Shelby GT350 in vintage classics, so the racing is definitely in my blood.

TLDR: Im looking for 17s (Thats what I have now). If there is a better size for track let me know. Thanks!

 

At your level you don't need track tires. No matter if it's in your blood or not You might want to try a different high performance summer like a Dunlop Direzza Z2 or Hankook RS-3. Only until you run with a more experienced and open passing run group would I move on up to a competition tire. If you're not experienced, they cover up a lot of your mistakes and will really surprise you in the wrong way when you make a boo boo.

 

RS-3 have my vote. Love my set, but I will be trying a different set, maybe RE-11A or a set of ZII this time.

 

You might check with Alex@tirerack.com (call toll-free, extention 294) for the following-

With lightness and a budget in mind with decent performance, can be driven on the street to the track.


Kosei K4R light grey finish
16x7.5" $159 each, et 43mm, 13.6 lbs each
and

BF Goodrich g-Force Rival (Extreme Summer tire)
225/50-16 $143 each, 200 treadwear

You can also get 17" wheels and tires but they will cost more and not really offer much better overall performance.

Have fun.

 

I'm quite partial to Bridgestone RE-11 tires, they've worked best for us for track use. Its about as good as you can get as a street tire, not the most comfortable, but I'm not worrying about that in a track tire. You can put them on at home and drive to the track on them. As mentioned the RE-11A may be even better if its available in your size.

As for wheels, I stuck to the stock sizes with the thought I might want to use them in competition sometime (and indeed I now do). For 17" that's 17x7, for 16" that's 16x6.5. As mentioned, 16" wheels will be cheaper and lighter. If you buy them as a package from Tirerack, they'll mount and balance them for free, and you get the wheel/tires delivered to you ready to mount on the car. I looked on Tirerack at what was available for the car in 16", sorted them by weight and bought the lightest wheel which looked reasonable.

With our 08 Cooper-S we had 16" wheels and I found that RE-11 tires in 205/55-16 worked pretty well. That was the only reasonable 16" size available, but I found the extra gearing actually helped on some tracks, you can get going faster before you have to change up. The RE-11A are available in that size.

 

+1 for RE-11's for summer/track tires.

I am actually on RS-3s right now, and they do last a little bit longer before they overheat, but at the expense of higher wear and droning road noise. Not worth it, unless you are competing for something tangible.

a

 

Now you have a place to start...

I run 15's, 225/45/15 on a 15x8 rime but you have to be careful with rim selection, there's really only one in this size that I know of that works, and that's with a spacer.

You can run 15 x 7, there are more options.

There are advantages and disadvantages with each size--I still like 15's the best for the track, smaller diameter helps with gearing, less weight, and I can get them in the width I like. 17's are relatively heavy, and aren't as favorable from a diameter standpoint.

The 16's are nice too--I have azeni's on my 16's for my daily driving, and if it's cold or wet, I use these on the track. There are more rim choices in 16's, but fewer tire choices than 15 or 17; 16 is kind of "no mans land" for tires, but you have some good suggestions above that will work for you.

Lot's of choices in 17's, but IMHO it's too big for our car. But there are a number of people that run that combo and love it.

And I'd definitely stay away from slick for awhile. Slicks will hide mistakes--if you carry slightly too much speed into a turn, you can still make the apex by using the tires to scrub speed, so your line may look good, but you've lost speed--can't do that in street tires, they reward you by keeping you line and speed optimum. And slicks give almost no warning when they let go--and their limits are high, so when they do let go, you're already going at a pretty good clip. You have to learn from how the car feels, and how you feel in the car seat, where the edge is, the sound of the tires from street tires gives you warning when you're reaching the limit. With time, you don't need the howling tires anymore to tell you you're getting close, then it's time to move up to a stickier tire.

Minihune and Btwyx are very good people to listen to, you kind of hit the jackpot with your thread....

 

R comps with **** 16 stock wheels. I just did my first track day at Streets of Willow on Saturday. I have Hankook Vemtus V12s right now. They offered a great amount of grip, were very predictable, and made my first day fun. The only thing is that they don't hold up well because I have done an autox and this track day and I have shave of some serious life. I am looking at something with a little more grip and will hold IP better on the track.

 

IMHO, going straight to R-comps is a mistake, if you really want to learn. They're very forgiving; they hide mistakes. If you're eating through them that quickly, then I'd definitely go to street tires...

Better to start on a high performance street tire, which forces you to hit the right line at the right speed, then work up to R-comps.

R-comps versus street tires is like learning the track on a 450HP Porsche, or a 170 HP MINI. Initially the guy in the Porsche will be faster, but when the guy who started in the MINI graduates to the Porsche, it'll be no contest....

 

Wow thanks for the replies! I would like a good track & back tire... My friend who tracks out at Firebird Raceway in his R53 runs Yokohama S Drives and he likes them because they work well and they are only $104 a tire on tire rack. Ill look into the R-11s. Thanks!

 

I run the RE-11's in a 215/45/17 in autocross and have been running them while my daily wheels get some refinishing done. The grip is amazing, they are decent in rain and to me they aren't too hard or noisy. The tread wear is 180 on them but I have probably got about 30 or so autocross runs on them and about two months worth of daily driving and they still look great. They aren't exactly cheap but you get what you pay for in my opinion I think I paid about $140 each for them.

 

In terms of wear on RE-11s, I got about 17 months (minus 2 winters or ~6 months on winter tires) and ~12K miles on them. Those miles included exactly 10 auto-crosses. Including one FTD in the rain.

By that point the 205/45/17 RE-11s were down to the wear bars, but still good for at least 1 more autoX. Alas, I didn't want to drive on them in the rain on the street any further.

Now that I look at the data, I'm pleasantly surprised how well they lasted.

YMMV,
a

 

Have you considered Sumitomo tires?
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....Model=HTR+Z+II

They have great reviews. I'm going to be getting them myself as my buddy has them for his tuned GTI that he does track days with. They offer good performance, not as good as some of the other options listed, but for around $300 for a set of four that's really hard to beat considering they last about as long as other high performance tires. Great for thrashing IMO.