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Originally Posted by I Love You  Dont get R-compound i was just at a auto-x/road course orientation today and they kept stressing "please dont get R-compound" they dont allow the drive to feel how the car really acts, it hides your mistakes. |
They are saying that because you don't have much experiance in driving the car. I have gone from competeing really well on the local level in STS for a couple of years, then I did my Kswap. This puts me in SM, which is against 400whp STIs, EVOs etc. It was not a mistake, I compete and really only lose to cars that have racing tires. Really the cars that win our class locally are both Bswap civic hatches
. Racing tires help a ton, what they are trying to say is that it makes the edge so much sharper compared to street tires. With street tires you get some indication that the car is about to go, with racing tires you don't get as much. I have learned the car and have a good racing platform from my experiance, so I don't need feedback as much as I need a tire that will do what I want.
With that I ended up going with the RT-615s for a couple of reasons: First I do daily drive my car, while DOT race tires will allow me to do this they will not even last a full year and run around $170 a tire compared to $100 for the RT-615s. Second is that locally they are talking about making a TSM class, which will be a street tire SM class, in this class my tires will be at the limit between racing tires and street tires and will be as good as it gets.
As far as the tires go I know that the treadwear is a nominal #, but it does mean something, a 200 treadwear will be stickier than a 300 or a 400 of a different brand tire (which is why SCCA partially bases Street tire vs race on treadwear). There are two main tires that are at the pinnacle of street tire boarder line race tire and are still economical (not $200 a tire) the Hankook RS2 Z212s and the Azenis RT-615s. The hankooks are a great tire and are cheaper, I even have a friend that does well at nationals with these, but I think they reach their max performance when shaven (hence why my friend shaves them). Shaving them reduces the life a ton and makes them less street friendly. The RT-615s do not shaved are almost as good as the Hankooks shaved, so for what I want the 615s are the practical choice.
Another thing was size avalibility, I could not find a race tire that I liked (the Nittos) in the 215/40/17. This size makes the type S gearing optimal, for autox IMO. Most tracks are designed to not allow you to go much faste than 60-70mph, 215/40/17s get me to 62 in second @ 8300 rpms , even on the fastest courses it is more practical to stay in 2nd and bounce off of the rev limiter than the time it takes to shift and then down shift.
They are ordered and are being heat cycled before I get them, my only concern now is that I ordered to soon because I will not drive my car until mid March or so, and if the tires sit to much the have a chance of drying out and will be no good. Hopefully the cards fall right and there is a TSM class this year, if not I will pick up some rota 16" rims and throw full race slicks on them for next year.
