Grassroots Motorsports

Register Log in to GRM
- Community

Birthdays
Recently on the Classic Motorsports forums

Subscribe get a full year for only $23.95 Sample Free Test Drive—no strings attached

Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Would you rock these for $53 each?

June 16, 2011 12:39 p.m. Klayfish Reader

I'm hoping to get my HPDE car that I bought….oh, let's see…almost a year ago… up and running and hit the track soon. It's an '87 Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S. The guy I bought it from ran it in SCCA. It needs minor stuff, such as a new starter and brakes. It also needs tires. Including the ones on the car, I got 8 or 9 rims and about 12 tires. They're all 14" triangle rims from the first gen MR2. The mounted tires are Victoracers, but they're old, really old. 10 years. They're probably junk.

I know, I know. Star Specs are a fanstastic tire. But by time the starter is changed, brakes are done and a few other small odds and ends, plus the cost of the track day, I don't have the funds for them. Tire Rack has a closeout sale on the Sumitomo HTR200. $53 each. I've never run the HTR200 on a track. I've run some HTR Z tires on a track and I was very happy with them overall. I just want to get some seat time this year, as I haven't done HPDE since 2005. Anyone run the HTR on a track? Will they hold up in the novice run group for a few events?
June 16, 2011 1:08 p.m. mw HalfDork

I'd be running the victoracers. They should hold up, but be not as sticky as they once were. My best ever set of track tires were some yokohama A008R's that were 20 years old. They didn't seem to wear at all, but were reasonably sticky once hot.
June 16, 2011 1:18 p.m. AngryCorvair SuperDork

go to home depot, get a 4" wide foam roller and a gallon of low-odor mineral spirits. stack the victoracers and roller on a liberal coating of LOMS. when they're dry, do it again. and again. and again. for about 3 days before your first autocross or track day. it worked for me.*

*LOMS smells just like FormulaV, so I'm guessing they are very similar. and it did indeed work for me, on a set of V700s on my V8 944 $2008 challenge car.
June 16, 2011 1:29 p.m. alfadriver SuperDork

me, too. Bring a couple of the sets, just in case, but they should be fine for the weekend, not exactly lap record setting, but fast enough to really feel the car out.

BTW, one year isn't too bad. I just got my car racing for the first time this last Sunday- and I bought it in 2006.

And it sounds like you can get it running?? Cool beans!
June 16, 2011 1:39 p.m. oldsaw SuperDork

You have two complete sets of wheels and tires.

Drive to the track on the "lesser" of the two, run on the "better" of the two. Keep a very close eye on their wear and feel. If they don't work you still have a way to get home.

And, yeah, treating the tires before the event cannot hurt.
June 16, 2011 1:44 p.m. motomoron HalfDork

That's an awesome car. My wife had one. I stuck it through a Taurus wagon some dumbf*ck rich kids U-turned ~right in front of me~ in the dark, in the rain, and going downhill. I'm a big fan of driving the car as long as it's possible to influence the outcome of the situation you're in. In this case I was screwed the instant he pulled out. Lights off, full left steering lock, didn't even look - he just punched it and in about 2 seconds he was perpendicular to my direction of travel. He looked at me (as did the terrified kid in the backseat - there was about 6 of 'em) and nailed the brakes.

It was a crying shame. That GTS-FX16 was really fun. 4AGE motor, some racy white 14" wheels. Totally totaled. Like seriously shortened.

A few minutes after the accident I asked the kid if I could use his cell phone - aka his parent's cell phone - to call a friend's towing company. He said "Dude - I don't have free weekends" - which played out nicely in court some months later.
June 16, 2011 1:47 p.m. 92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork

Yeah, FX16 GTSs are awesome. Unfortunately, i gave up my search a couple years ago because they're all rusty around here.
June 16, 2011 1:50 p.m. Woody SuperDork

I bought a set of HTR200's from Tire Rack when I was building my Miata. I just wanted a set of cheap tires to move the car around on when I was setting it up.

Once I got the suspension upgraded, I wanted to do an autocross as a shake down run before taking the car to the track for an HPDE. I autocrossed on the new Sumitomos and they showed noticeable chunking after a single event. They also howled like crazy. They are not track tires.
June 16, 2011 2:12 p.m. Klayfish Reader

Wow, I'm surprised, and thrilled, to hear that the Victoracers may still be usable. I know two of them on the car have dry rot, so they're trash. The others have been in storage, I'll have to go check them out. If I can get a run or two out of them, that would be huge!

I remember when these cars were new. I thought they were awesome then. So I was thrilled when I got this. You don't see many of them around anymore. Until the starter crapped out last month, the car ran and drove (strange enough, someone just resurrected my thread about that problem). I started it monthly. I even drove it home from a local race shop when I got it last year...I live in a small community, no cops normally around. The last logbook entry is '07, but if I remember the PO said he did an HPDE or two in '08 and '09. Here's the car...it's the white one in the front, not the little black/green 3 wheeler in the back.
June 16, 2011 2:39 p.m. oldsaw SuperDork

In reply to Klayfish:

You have a really cool 80's era car!

GRM used one as a platform to promote the magazine and the grassroots sport known as autocrossing. At the time, I didn't really like the "getting parts cheap/free from sponsors" concept but it didn't take long to realize that was an inevitable trend.

That "moment" happened when I ran against Tim and Mark Chiles at an event at TGP in CSP. I had a seriously under-prepped Crx Si, but had a set of BFG Comp T/A R1's (generously discounted by my employer).

Chiles made numerous efforts on the grid to distract me before start. I already knew (because of my experience and talent level) that I had a lot to learn and I wasn't the competition he was looking for.

And, yeah, there's a reason I associate the words Chiles and AZZ when I see his name.

You'll need to log in to post.