Stones SO-3?
or TOYO T1-S?
in terms of handling and wear
i always thought toyo will have better wear because it's rated at 280AA but ppl said it melts like ice~

 

Try Kumho MX instead...

 

I put 8500 miles and 8 track events on my set of T1s. I have found that if you keep the hot psi right at 40, they are fine. I am usually in the high intermed or highest group, so I am definetly pushing the tires. I also have the 14" stoptech kit up front and am regularly outbraking the tires at the end of each straight (VIR, CMP). I have been very pleased. The Speed World Challenge Touring raced on T1s untill last year. Soon I will switch to RA1s. T1s are also cheaper than SO3s.

 

I'm going to second the Ecsta MX recommendation. Having driven all the street tires mentioned in this thread on various racetracks, they hold up best. The T1S gets greasy quickly in my experience. It's not a bad tire (and is affordable and light) but it doesn't last very long and as a result of its lightweight construction, doesn't have much "feel" to it. It just feels mushy in my opinion relative to the others in its class.

But they're all decent tires and pretty similar, really. We're kind of splittling hairs here. The big performance jump is when you go to real R-compounds like mcckaskz is doing.

 

What about going to same size tires for a street some, track a lot use schedule? All 245"s??,, 255"s?? to be able to rotate to get more wear out of a set of tires on the OEM 18x8 wheels??

 

I'll recommend against the S-03s. I've worn my fronts down to slicks in only 4,500 miles and 10 track days. I got 11,000 miles and 13 track days out of the stock RE040s, and had more tread left then than I do now on the S-03s. And the handling on the S-03s was no better than the RE040s, contrary to my expectations.

I'd like to get the RA-1s, but there's nothing close to matching the rear tires on a Track model. The 245/40 is off by 3.6%.

Leaving speedo/odo issues aside, can anyone tell me what will happen to handling if I use 245/40s all the way around?

 

Commasense - handling WILL be better with the same size all around. I'm running 245/40-18 Hoosiers alla round on my track wheels (OEM Rays). Last year I had an old set of 235/40-17 on OEM 17s for the track. They were old and beat-up Yoko A032Rs (from my BMW) and didn't have much grip but the handling balance was great. But talk about odo/speedo being off!

tomzz - I currently drive 235/45-17s in front and 245/45-17s in rear on the street but that is only because I didn't want to stretch a 245 on my front 17x7.5" wheels. Otherwise, I'd go 245 all around. I drove on the 235 R-compounds all around for all of last year's track season (both street and track) and it worked very well. But I would stick to 245s on an 8" wheel. 255s would be stretched beyond my comfort level. A lot of people do it but you get very little benefit because your contact patch rounds out and you can't really use the inner tread much unless you have a lot of negative camber and at the same time you increase the odds of slipping the bead off the tire. So I'd recommend a 245 all around. You may find that you trigger traction/stability control a little bit more frequently without a stagger, but honestly it's not abig deal.

Edit to my previous post (above): When I say that the T1S doesn't last very long I mean within a session, grip drops off noticeably as they overheat and get greasy. I don't mean that treadlife is noticeable shorter than the others.

 

Great info being shared here! VERY soon I'm going to commit. The Tire Rack wasn't very helpful for my quest of light, cheap, wide 17" rims, and they recommended S-03's.

So my plan is to run 17 x 9" rims, with Kumho Ecsta's MX 255/45 tires all around. Much cheaper than the Bridgestone's, with nice LARGE outer tread blocks.

I might go with 255/40's, but the 45 series diameter splits the difference of my 040's 225/50 fronts 25.9" OD and 235/50 rears 26.3", at a 26.1" OD.

What do you guys recommend?

Still not sure on getting them shaved.

 

I have the track rays with 8.5" rear so
kumho MX won't fit rite
wanted to try the new pilot sport 2 but they only offer 265/35 which is too wide
that's why T1S and SO3 are my only choices

 

EntthuZ - Sounds like a good choice. You would be fine either way but you might as well go with the 255/45 setup to be closer to stock OD. You could also theoretically go to 255/40 in front and 255/45 in back to maintain an offset but if you do that you lose the ability to rotate. So that's probably not worth it. But it's an option.

Z33@TOR - You can get a Kumho MX in 245/40-18 that will work just fine on your track rays. That's the setup I'm running (but with Hoosiers) for the track and it's perfect for these wheels. Throws off your speedo by a bit but no more than being down about 5psi on the stock tires. Tirerack has the 245/40-18s for $165 too (I just checked to make sure they existed in that size).

 

Jason Bourne : how long did your 235R-compound tires last drving both on street and track?

so which good tire would fit on my track rays?

thanks guys

 

Thanks Jason. What seems odd is that the 255/45's are listed in their specification sheet as being 5 pounds lighter than the 255/40's! Not sure how accurate Kumho #'s are though.

Light is right, right?

 

I used them for about 4 months which included 12 track days and probably 4,000-6,000 street miles. But this was spread over two seasons (last bit of 2002 season on my BMW and early half of 2003 season on the Z). Towards the end, the tires were killed from having gone through too many heat cycles. They still had enough rubber on them to clear the wear bars but the rubber compound had started breaking down and they just weren't very grippy any more. The last event that I tracked them, they had less grip than a decent street tire. But they were still fun to drive and they pretty much lost grip progressively over time in a linear fashion.

To avoid all that, I bought a second set of wheels this year and will not do any street driving on my track tires. I also wanted to get back to Hoosiers and driving those on the street is just dumb.

EnthuZ - that sounds like a typo - no real reason for the 45 profile to be lighter than the 40 profile. In theory, they could be using a different, stronger (and heavier) type of banding for the lower profile tire that ends up making it heavier but I would be surprised - 5 lbs is significant. Anyway, I don't think tire weight estimates are ever very accurate. Most manufacturers are pretty cagey about them and often the numbers you see (if any) are made up.