Any tips on where to get a good deal on sticky 14" tires
Edge Racing (a GRM Advertiser), and get the Falken Azenis Rt615's. I have a set of 195/60/14's on my FB RX-7 and I love them. Very sticky for autocrossing at a very, very good price.
petemc53555 wrote: any other suggestions
Those are really your only choices other than a set of 15 or 16 inch wheels. See if someplace else has them maybe?
Travis_K wrote:petemc53555 wrote: any other suggestionsThose are really your only choices other than a set of 15 or 16 inch wheels.
+1. And even then, they are both dated in the ST* tire world
OK maybe not so sticky, these will be for my daily driver in the 8 non-snow months we have and I'd like them to last more then 1 year. Maybe 1 or 2 autocross events per summer. What is a good 2nd tier tire 195/60/14?
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compare1.jsp?width=195%2F&ratio=60&diameter=14&startIndex=0&search=true&pagelen=20&pagenum=1&pagemark=1&performance=HP&RunFlat=All&x=79&y=13
I'm looking at these for myself in the spring
petemc53555 wrote: OK maybe not so sticky, these will be for my daily driver in the 8 non-snow months we have and I'd like them to last more then 1 year. Maybe 1 or 2 autocross events per summer. What is a good 2nd tier tire 195/60/14?
Second tier? You could go with a Yoko AVS ES 100 or a Sumitomo HTR 200. I've had both in 185/60/14. Save your money and go with the Sumitomos. Sure, the sidewall has a lot of flex. But with proper tire pressure they work great on the street and just fine for an occassional autocross.
I've had the es100's too. more grip than the sumitomo's, but once it's gone you're backwards and it's just over.
how are the sumi's in the cold...in my case, early "winter" at the end of Oct. , no studded snows before Nov 1
Well, it's late October here in Virginia and it's cold (for Virginia) and I have a set of Sumi's (175/70/13s) on my VW Fox and they're working fine. It is a performance tire, however, so it will suck in even light snow. At least I'm assuming it will. We don't get snow here anymore. ...
I wouldnt call the HTR200s high performance tires really. They arent terribly good in the rain, and they dont have alot of grip in the dry. They are pretty good cheap daily driver tires though, cheap without being unsafe. I dont believe in using cheap crap tires on anything no matter how you intend on driving it, and they are several steps above that level. If the dead neon in my driveway ever gets bgought back to life and used as a daily driven again, I might try the BFG traction ta tires on it though, they are supposed to be somewhat decent.
hit the nail on the head about the HTR200 tires. I got a set. I hate driving in the rain in my miata. the grip pretty ok, but if you auto cross its gonna sucks pretty bad. (actually sometimes i got with in a second of R-comp guys )
Your call though...they are really inexpensive which is what your looking for
The Sumitomos are not terrible autocross tires for what they are: a cheap 3-season performance tire. Over the years I've autocroseed ocassionally with them on three different cars I've owned. Are they an R Compound or an STS tire like a Falken Azenis -- or even a an ultra-performance tire? No. Of course not. But I would buy a set hands down over any comparably priced all season tire (actually, probably any all season tire regardless of price) unless said tires would be called on when snow falls.
I have some cheap kumhos on my car right now that are considered all season toruing tires of something to that effect and they are about the same as the sumitomos were on the car i had them on (a mildly modified b13 sentra). If you are looking for something that is good for autocross or snow and rain, look elsewhere. But, for a daily driver they arent bad at all.
Sumitomos are not cold weather tires!
I bought a set from Tire Rack online 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. The Tire Rack rep called me and said "It's November and I see you're in Connecticut. The Sumitomo compound is not designed for cold weather". That didn't matter to me as I didn't plan on driving much on them.
Also worth noting; 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 in warm weather They showed noticeable chunking after a single event.
I would still buy another set because they're so cheap, but I wouldn't count on them for an autocross or cold weather.
I've had two sets of ES100's on my WRX and I love them, but they're definitely three-season tires. Even a Subaru is useless on a half inch of snow with them.
HTR200s actually taught me a ton so i cant dog em too much. Because of them i can drift fairly well, i have increased my driving distance from other cars in the wet, i have autocrossed a whole season on it and they dont complain, alsoi think because of them i wil do better in AutoX becasue i had to pick better lines in order to take advantage of the tires.
I dunno i could be full of it, and its 1AM but thats MHO
What about the Hankook Ventus RS-2's? We're considering putting them on our 24hrs of LeMons car for the December Thunderhill event...
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Hankook&tireModel=Ventus+R-S2&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&partnum=96VR4Z212
They're only $75/tire in the 195/60/14.
I liked my htr200's. They worked pretty well for me in an autox. Not R compound good, but decent. I would buy them for the street and occasional autox. Just up the pressures for autox
You'll need to log in to post.