sjfehr

A reviewer on another forum found them to be about 0.5 seconds slower than RE-71R on a 41 second autocross course, which means they may not be "the tire to have" but they're pretty quick for the money.

mopar bob

I have RE71r's 285 x 30 x 18 on my car and I'm liking them. The tire diameter is just over 2 inch smaller than my 19's. I checked max speed in 2nd on the way to EVO school yesterday and I hit the rev limiter between 65 to 67. Got to love the new gearing that the shorter tire gives you over the 72 mph of the 19's give.

Sprockett

I got these 285s in last week as well and have them paired with 255s for the front. I'm shocked at the apparent different in diameter...I was expecting a marginal difference reading TireRack spec sheet but an unscientific measure says the 255s mounted are over 1/2" larger diameter than the 285s. Looks pretty ridiculous actually.

Also, the actual tread width is small for a 285. They are nearly an inch narrower than my random 295 Conti street tires. Comparing specs, this 285 lists narrower than same other makes 275. Stretched over an 11" rim and with pressures in the high 30s it still looked like I scrubbed halfway down the sidewall on our bumpy lot yesterday.

At a track day on Friday they also proved too small (unsurprising) overheating easily. I think I'm going to have to consider moving to a 315 Rival S.

mopar bob

I don't think the RE71r is a track day tire but only a AutoX tire.

majormojo

Do you mean they felt too small in diameter (gearing) or width and you wanted more rear grip? I'm guessing the latter. With the 11" wheels, maybe the Rival S would be better suited?

majormojo

Bob I agree, I don't think the RE71R is a great track day tire, at least for our cars. I do know of at least one team that successfully used them in a 24hr chumpcar race on a second-gen RX7 FC. Possibly if the car is light enough and has plenty of neg camber they can be made to last longer.

Sprockett

Sorry Jim, my 'typo'. I meant to imply the 285 wasn't enough tire for the back of a 911. I've never felt one so hot as we had mine after that third session.

sjfehr

RE-71R is an autocross tire but GRM's track testing found that RE-71R was a fantastic sprint/time trial tire, falling off a slight bit on multiple laps. (RivalS is an autocross tire, too, and also did well at first but dropped off after multiple laps.) Other testing has RE-71R pulling virtual identical lap times to MPSC2, which is pretty amazing.

Another new tire, Maxxis VR-1, was designed to be a drift tire but reportedly has characteristics that sound just about perfect for HPDE: great grip (a tick off RE-71R/Rival S, but similar to Rival, R-S3 & ZII), high heat tolerance, and tolerance for VERY high slip angles (which would help recovery if you get out of sorts). Limited sizes thus far, but keep an eye on it.
http://www.maxxis.com/catalog/tire-513-victra-vr-1

burglar

I'll chime in on the VR1 since I ran them.

Not as fast as an AX tire, but a stupid fun to drive tire. Love, love, love slip angle, very good grip, super easy to drive, great feel.

I elected to sell mine, a Chump Car E30 driver practically broke his neck trying to get to my house as fast as possible to grab them. He says they are fantastic track tires, the best they've used. The RE71/Rival S are two lap heroes according to him, the Vr1 can be driven, even hard, through a full stint.

While I maybe only put a dozen or so runs on mine, they showed virtually no wear either where the RE71 has a pretty gnarly beveled center rib at the same run count. Seems like they would be a pretty perfect tire for a summer DD Ax/track toy that wasn't gunning for overall wins.

joew7777

I read this post about autocross tires earlier in the year regarding the RE-71's being available in August in 20" 991 size. Checking with Tire Rack this morning they project delivery to factory August 25th, so I pre-ordered.

Fyrftr50

Where did you buy your spacers?

sjfehr

New wheels! I'm maxing out SCCA Street class rules with a set of custom 8.5x18+49mm & 10x18+42mm" Forgestar F14 wheels. No rubbing so far and the geometry of my 255/35-18 tires on the front is WAY better than on the 8x18" wheels I was running before. I'll be adding 3mm spacers in the rear as soon as the longer lug bolts arrive.



Unrelated, but new sizes of Maxxis VR-1 will be out next year, which adds that to the option list, though it seems like more of a track day tire than a competition autocross tire.

GKLipscomb

I think you're onto something, there! At least, all of the "math" makes sense. Please post some closeups, once your rear spacers are installed.

And if you don't mind, share with us your sources for wheels, tires, spacers, lugs.

Rumor is: The RE-72 is to be released early next year. No one knows the sizes to be offered, but you know these will be in the Top 3 of every AutoX Tire Shootout.

sjfehr

Yep, these perfectly match an OEM 8.5x19"/10x19" option in 18" with -6mm and -4mm offset, which is within the 7mm allowance. Thus maxing out the SCCA allowances for us.

My tire guy was about ready to kill me if I asked him to mount another set of 255/35-18 Bridgestones on 8x18" OZs, lol, I just didn't want to spend a lot of money for 0.5" of wheel when my car was already working so well on the OEM-size/offset wheels. But when I bent one of my rear OZs on a pothole, figured it was time to jump. (Speaking of which: my other three OZ wheels, the ones in my avatar, are available super cheap if anyone's interested. 2x 8x18" & 1x 10x18".) I transferred & flipped the 255/35-18 & 275/34-18 tires I already had, and they went on "like butter." I'm tempted to try even wider rubber but I don't think anything wider would fit, so my tire guy should be much happier. The better sidewall geometry should help increase sidewall spring rate and I'm hoping it will improve tire performance & grip by a noticeable amount.

These are Forgestar F14 wheels, all of which are made-to-order. With the restrictions between model series, they can only make the size we need in F14 and CF5. http://www.forgestar.com/wheels/ I ordered mine through Sam Strano@ http://www.stranoparts.com/ You'll have to call/email him for a quote, but just ask for exactly what he gave Steve Fehr, hah. Or once I figure out what offsets work in the rear, you can order the rear with the right offset without having to mess with spacers.

You'll need new lug bolts because Forgestar only does conical lug seats. You can buy them from Forgestar (you'll need to call sales if you want black bolts since they're not listed on the website). Forgestar only stocks M14-1.5 x 28mm, so I ordered some longer M14-1.5 x 31.8mm Gorilla Auto bolts through Brandsport.com (p/n 17020BC) to use with the spacers in the spacers in the rear. I used Brandsport because they had them in stock with fast shipping; you can find Gorilla bolts slightly cheaper on Amazon and Ebay if you have time. http://www.gorilla-auto.com/lug-bolts They came highly recommended from other racers so I'm more confident with these than cheaper stuff off amazon/ebay. I picked up cheap 3mm spacers off amazon as a just-in-case but they seem good enough for permanent use. The rear wheels work without spacers, but there's only a couple mm clearance.

Another option are OZ wheels off Tirerack (8.5x18+53mm & 10x18+40mm) which are lightweight and really nice wheels. The Forgestars are about 2lbs heavier per wheel but I'm hoping the extra weight helps them hold up better to DD use. They're similarly priced, but the Forgestars are a little cheaper.

I'll be testing these at our SCCA autocross next weekend. I'm a bit nervous about how they'll do as our regional championship is down to this last event and I need to take top PAX to win!

e: It's amazing the difference 1mm makes. Use hub rings!

PedalFaster

Source? Nothing of the sort had been mentioned on other forums, including one with an active discussion involving both Bridgestone and Tire Rack employees. Bridgestone is also still releasing new RE-71R sizes, which would be a very odd thing to do if the tire was about to be superseded. Consider me sceptical.