What do you guys recommend using for auto X wheels? I was going to order a set and slap some hoosiers on them for Autoxing.

I made my first Autocross runs today. All I can say is AWESOME!!!!!

The first run I had a friend tide with me. Ran a 74.XX

Kicked the friend out and ran a 69XX

I had an instructor ride with me to give a few pointers and ran a 72.XX and knocked down 2 cones

Ran the last run by myself, ran a 67.4 with room for improvement.

Man this Z handles great.

The national champion who's been autocrossing for 25 years had his IS300 on Hoosiers and ran a 65.XX so the Z with a new driver can hang with the big dogs.

Beat a modified ZO6 by 4 seconds and ran really close to a new M3, I can't remember if he ran 66 or 68

I had the I-Forged 19" wheels on my car which probably cost e a bit of time, what would you guys recommend for wheels for my Z to bring me back to the stock class, I was also going to slap some Hoosiers on it in order to get a bit more grip.

 

If you're new to autocrossing or road racing, you might want to hold off on the Hoosiers for now. They are very grippy, but also very delicate. They flat-spot very easily: a single lock-up can ruin them. I've seen inexperienced drivers cord a new set of Hoosiers after just a couple of sessions on the track. More experienced guys can get a couple of weekends out of a set.

So, unless you have a huge budget, maybe check out some cheaper r-compounds. The Kumho Victoracers are very popular as they are much cheaper and much more durable than the Hoosiers. The Toyo Proxes T1-S is pretty good, too. My personal favorite is the Falken Azenis Sport. These are not marketed as r-compounds, but they are almost as good (performance is comparable to the Yoko A032R) and dirt cheap.

But beware...if you run Azenis Sports on the street they will spoil you! It's hard for me to take them off at the end of a track weekend. I sometimes drive them on the street just for the hell of it.

Emre

 

I agree with Kayaalp. When I instruct my autox students I teach them to build speed slowly. What that means is to learn the basic autox skills and master them before trying to make your car faster. A common mistake of newbie autoxers is to try and make their car faster as soon as possible. Most of the folks that make that mistake are disappointed when they find that they are not that much faster despite the fact that the car has more capability.

I usually recommend running street tires for the first several events you attend. The streets will let go earlier but they will also communicate more as they approach the edge. This way you can learn how the car feels at the edge of adhesion and how to correct in order to keep the car under control. Most r-compound tires, and the Hoosiers especially, don't communicate much and once they do you must know how to react quickly and instinctively or you will go for a spin. And like Kayaalp said, one spin and you are likely to have ruined those *very* expensive tires.

Once you have 5 or 6 events and maybe a local school, then go get some stickier tires. The Yoks and Falkins are good transition tires, but the Kuhmos would be fine too and will have more potential than the Yoks or Falkins. Once those Kuhmos cord, then you will probably be ready for some Hoosiers. But I would recommend an Evolution school on the Kuhmos first.

 

Great posts guys. You saved me hundreds. I had no idea that the Hoosiers would wear out that quickly!!! I will get some Khumo's after a few more events.

What about wheels. I have the 19" I-forged and would like to have a dedicated smalled/lighter wheel for autocross.

What size do you guys recommed, I will be in the SM2 class

17 or 18 X 8.5 and 10?

thanks for the input

 

Oops, I posted under my old ID, 3502go. Thanks for the Info.

 

Just look at a pic of them when they are NEW and you can see why they don't last long. The pattern is called holographic tread.



Unfortunately, it will take some research to figure out the best set-up and the car is pretty new. Obviously, you want the lightest wheels you can afford that let you run the widest tire possible without rubbing.

The other thing to do is to look at the tire sizes that you could possibly fit and are available...you want the widest tread patch and generally the smallest diameter for a given wheel size. If the tire manufacturer does not make an 18" tire in the sizes you would like to run at the front and rear, then you may be limited to a 17" rim and visa versa. For example, if you want to run the Kuhmo Victoracers, you are stuck with 17"s. There are only two wide 17" sizes to choose from, 275/40 and 315/35...lets assume that the 315 won't fit but the 275/40 will, then you can figure out what size wheel you need to run that tire. That size works well on a wheel that is more than 9" wide, so you would be able to get away with running 17x9 at the rear...although 17x9.5 would probably be ideal.

If you want to run 18's, then you will have to run the Kuhmo Ecsta, which some say is not as good as the Victoracer. It will also means that you only have two choices for the front tires: a 225/40 or a 265/35. Will the 265/35 fit without rubbing up front? If not, then you would be stuck with the smaller front tire, and it maybe too small unless you decide to run 265/35 in the rear to offset the difference. The bad thing about that would be that the 265/35 has a smaller tread width than the 275/40-17! Now once you move up to Hoosiers, the 18's would be great since you could run the 245/35 up front and the 275/30 in the rear.

BTW, the numbers above are based on mental masturbation, I haven't tested any of these sizes to know if they would even fit on a Z. I would find Carter Thompson on this forum or another forum (he may still hang out on the MR2 forum...I've not seen him post here much and can't recall his ID right off...cboost something or other I think). He is setting up a Z for autox and may have a good idea what tire sizes would fit well.

However, I think if I were setting up a Z to have fun on the autox course in SM2 (ie, not looking to win Nationals anytime soon), I would go with the 17x8.5 and 17x9.5. You will have sizes for Kuhmo Victoracers, Ecstas, Hoosiers, Yok, and Toyo tires. Plus, it should leave you room to get coilovers for lowering...adjustable coilover shocks should really help with the understeer problem too. And chances are they will be less expensive than the 18's leaving you with some cash for swaybars.

 

Yeah, that's the problem with gumball tires. Great stick, ridiculously short life. Until you're smooth enough to drive them, stick with street rubber over r-compounds. Then start with a relatively durable r-compund. Believe me, it will be quite a while before you "need" Hoosiers.

That's some great advice from negcamber! Get wheels that are relatively small and that will work with a nice selection of rubber. A savings of $25 or so for 17" vs. 18" tires may not seem like much, but when you start going through a set of r-compounds each weekend, you'll be pretty happy to pocket that 100 bucks! Plus, 17" wheels and tires generally weigh less than comparable 18 inchers. That makes a big difference out on the auto-x circuit.

BTW, there seem to be a lot of guys on this board that immediately upgrade to 18" or 19" rims in their Z's. I'm sure a bunch of these cars came with 17 inchers from the factory. There are probably a whole lot of brand-spanking-new 17" factory alloys sitting in peoples' garages. There are certainly lighter or stronger wheels out there, but you probably won't find a sweeter deal than factory take-offs.

Emre

 

I'll be purchasing a set of stock wheels most likely, and then running Kumho's this year. I ran Hoosier's on my Fstocker, but due to the increased car payment, Kumhos will be my budget for now!