The days of running Hoosiers and RA1's are over for me. I'd like to run some type of high performance street tire at Ax this season (and be done with constant changing of tires). I've got a 1993 RS America. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

 

The hot tickets right now seem to stack up like this:

BFG Rival - sitcky, consistent, forgiving neat the limit. Not great in the wet, and seem to be surface dependent.

Dunlop Z2 - Sticky but peaky. Don't mind a bit of a pinch (running wide for the wheels.) Good in wet, too.

Hankook RS-3 - Still a good all around tire. Needs heat. New compound coming out basically right now in the same tread pattern, no testing has been done yet.

Bridgestone RE-11A - Gives up a touch of dry grip, but an awesome dual purpose street / autox tire.

Yoko AD-08R - new compound this year. Initial reviews are positive, but pricey.

Toyo R1R - Fast on light cars. Fast wearing on heavy cars.

The latest crop are very, very good - most are inexpensive. No problems with running them daily and playing on Sundays. They wear pretty good for how sticky they are too, and stay sticky until the wear bars. Not a ton of void though, so watch for standing water, and the Dunlops at least aren't exactly quiet.

 

Thanks Burgler, A few friends like the Dunlops. I'll look into your other recommendations.

 

I reached the same conclusion a couple of years ago with my 964C2. I have been very happy with Yoko AD08's....all the "Extreme Performance Summer Tires" are good, but the consensus seems to be that the "best" ones today are the BFG Rival, Dunlop ZII, Yoko AD08R and the Bridgestone RE11A...I'm sure you can get a lot of opinions on the "best" one!

 

+1 for the ZII. There are a lot of great tires and you'd probably be happy with any of them, but they all have their pros and cons, which means the "best" tire is best described as "it depends...". ZII, Rival & RS3 seem to be the favorites for SCCA autocross right now. One big plus for ZIIs is that they do very well in the cold, which I imagine may be an important consideration for you. I've found locally that Rivals & ZII both do well above 50, while ZII has an advantage in the 40-50 range. Below that (down into the teens), ZII is fine for street use, but needs to build heat for competition-level grip. They're definitely not snow tires, though.

Hankook RS3 needs heat to work well; the new compound is supposed to come out this month and might work better cold, but that remains to be seen.

 

Hi George,
A lot of the fast guys on streets at Devens are on the ZIIs.
Aaron went to AD08Rs and shaved a quick second plus.
I'm going to try the 08Rs this season as they're the newest tire available in my stock sizes.
Ed

 

Thanks guys. Appreciate the input. I'm leaning towards the Z11 Dunlop at this point. Assuming the mountain of snow that's blocking the garage door were the RSA is sleeping ever melts.

 

Early Days... love the 50th anniversary 911 decal. Were can I get one??

 

A UK vendor.......lots of interesting car stickers

http://www.isaydingdong.co.uk/oursho...Sticker-4.html

 

That website is going to get all my money.

 

Thank you Early Days! Placed my order!

 

I ran ZII's at an auto-x this past weekend, and they worked pretty well.

The day started out very wet with standing water and about 50 F. For those runs I believe my Conti DW's would have been faster. But the afternoon cleared up and in dry conditions at about 60 F ambient I was able to get the tire temperatures up to about 125, where they worked OK. I don't think these guys really grip at their best until you get them up at 140 F plus. I don't know what temperature they start falling off - anyone? anyone?

 

I don't have a pyrometer, but I had a co driver at almost every event on the z2 last season. I'm a serial overdriver, and I felt I overheated the tires only once. Oddly it was a single driver day, but a very hot one on a long course on very abrasive worn asphalt.

They seem to be relatively tolerant of heat. I've heard some people in heavy cars at nats felt they could have used some cooling.

 

What sizes did you get? You must have at least 16" wheels if you are getting the ZII. The widest 15" is 205/50.

The Hankook RS-3 is out of stock everywhere while they produce the revised version.

Since I have 15" wheels I went with BFG Rivals in 225/45-15 at all 4 corners.

 

I have 17" Euromeisters and run a 225/255 combo.