nile13

I think they are 8s fronts, Bill. Which would still be 235/40 and 275/35.

Bill Verburg

yes, 8" fronts, that was a typo

alternative rear is 285/30 w/ it's gearing advantage and the use adjustable RS sways to tweak undsteer out

the best solution of course is w/ proper springs/shock and bigger front wheels, the wider wheel even w/ the same tire helps a lot.

spruden

I'll 2nd mpruden's advice...big surprise. Your goal in a DE is to learn and there's no better way to learn than on inexpensive, predictable but capable street tires.

The Sumitomo HTR Z IIIs are tailor made for this purpose. Based on your words I quoted - if you're new at this you should focus on car control, balance, and learning how to drive your car safely at speed. Sticky tires mask all kinds of bad habits.

Don't form bad habits by using tires outside of your experience level.

You'll likely burn through the Sumi's in a few DEs anyway - if you feel good about your skill level then upgrade. Seems premature now.

Mark in Baltimore

Thanks, Mike. Race911 and many other people are even more qualified than me since my Miatas have never seen the track.

Sure, the Miata is an incredible car. However, when I started tracking my 993, I wanted to track (and race) a 911. Years and years of reading about Gregg, Haywood, Ongais, Whittington (), Paul (), Donohue, Holbert, et al. cemented that stupidly romantic notion. Whatever. Guessing the OP just wants to track his 911 and is not considering a more flingable affair. Hard to fault that approach.

Foxman

The RE 11's are still available at Tire Rack. Great learning tires for DE and AX. Not as much grip as the the RE 71's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for learning. And they last twice as long as the RE 71's. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=34WR8RE11XLV2

I spent a weekend at Palmer running one day on the Contintental DW's, and the next on the RE 11's. The Continentals held OK, but they screeched like crazy even when just mildly pushed. The RE 11's handled MUCH better, and no screeching until you pushed the limits. The tires talk to you when you need to listen. A great DE tire IMHO.

nile13

I think you quoted the wrong words. Here: "I ran my street set of Conti DW's (stock sizes 225/285) and frankly felt like I lacked traction on our challenging course (Mosport). ". Do you truyly feel that HTR Z will have better traction than DW? In my experience, they both don't have enough and HTR Z certainly doesn't have more than DW.

craina

I agree that the Sumi HTR ZIII will be worse than the Conti's on track. I don't see any harm in getting something like RE-11, Dunlop Direzza Z2 star spec, Nitto nt05, or Hankook RS3 (if you can find them) and working up to the grip level they can provide. Quick search shows that the nt05 provides a pretty good value proposition in 235/40, 275/35.

e9stibi

I could not have said it better.

e9stibi

RE11 show on Back Order on tirerack and they will not be back. They are out of production. I searched hard for 235/40/18 10 weeks ago and there was only one offering on ebay which was $$$.

squidge

+1

Last year at a Thunderhill DE, a coach told our novice group something I thought was pretty clever: When starting out at DEs, choose tires with a treadwear rating *higher* than your car's horsepower rating. That'll help you avoid masking bad habits or getting into dangerous situations.

NYC993

For 1-3 DEs a year I would not overthink. Any decent tire will do. I started out on Bridgestone SO4s that are even less extreme than RE11s. I used stock 225/285 tires sizes. Now I run nt01s for durability in 225/275 size on 9 and 11 inch wide rims.

nile13

Experienced racers understand that. Inexperience novices stuff their expensive cars on crappy tires into the wall and get upset. Why? Precisely because they don't know how to tell where the limit is.

At autocross, I really, really advise against R comps. But never against the best stickiest street tires. Having grown two students from their first run at their first autocross event to 4 Nationals victories in my 12-13 years of instructing... I'll stick to that. But will always defer to track people to give specific track advise, as it's a different environment.

_snowbird_

Thanks again for all the input guys.

It seems like the RE11's are what I'd ideally be looking for: better traction than the UTQG 300-340 DW/V12/HTRZ tires, but not quite as advanced as the other 180-200 options suggested (RE71, AD08R, Direzza, NT01). It's a shame if it's out of production now.

_snowbird_

This pretty much captures my concern. My Conti DW's felt out of place on the track. I think Foxman's feedback echos this.

And despite what a good learning experience it is to run the track on poor tires, I think there's a practical limit to this.

But I'm also open to the thought that I'm being a bad carpenter blaming his tools...

squidge

It breaks the treadwear rule a bit, but I'm a big fan of Michelins if you don't mind spending a little extra. I'm running PS2s on the 911 (due to wanting to stick with OE sizes on the Cup 2s for now) and loved the Pilot Super Sports on my previous 128i both on street and at a DE. I liked Conti DWs on a 335 I had several years ago but never tracked them.