ep3_lol

It's about time for me to replace the Continental DWS tires that were on my Boxster when I bought it. Pretty excited to get something below a 500 treadwear rating, not gonna lie! I am looking for something in the "extreme performance" range- R1R, Star Spec, RS-3, etc, and have a couple of questions.

First, can anyone tell me what kind of mileage you've gotten out of these types of tires and if you have any terribly extreme camber settings? I'm just -1.0 all around for the time being.

Second, I have the 17" Sport Classic (I think???) wheels:

The stock tire sizes are 205/50 17 and 255/40 17. I want to switch to 215-245 as I autocross fairly frequently. My research indicates that 215/45 and 245/40 would be the best sizes to go with to keep my speedometer as close to accurate as it is now (without making it read higher), does this sound correct?

Finally, I have friends who have had good autocross and HPDE results with the RS-3 and Star Specs. Are there other options out there worth considering that would be around $700 for a set? I have also looked into the R1R as I autcrossed an old RX-7 on old Toyos and really liked those tires despite their age. Most of the tires in the class are comparable in price and it's pretty hard to discern any differences between them over the Internet aside from the look of the tread pattern.

Thanks for reading!

brad@tirerack.com

Please give me a call. I'd be happy to help you into something that works best

mwood

^Hey, say "hi" to my pals..."Trent" and "Woody"

Mike Wood

San Rensho

I just put some Hankooks on my 17s and they seem to be very good tires. 280 treadwear. Only thing I noticed was a lot of squirm, but my understanding this is normal since new tires have a lot of tread which makes the car wallow a bit when new. My old rears were down past the wear bars, so they were handling very well in the dry and there is definitely a noticeable difference with the new tires.

They are dirt cheap, about $480 shipped + $80 mount and balance.

mwood

The OP was referencing the 'kook RS-3, which is a 140TW, which is also a good bang for the buck.

To the OP, where do you live? The RS-3 is poor in the wet. The R1R can't take heat very well and also only has the sticky compound down to about 5/32" and then falls off very fast. The Star Spec is a great all around tire and, if the sizes work, is the easy button.

To complicate things further, there are a bunch of "next gen" tires soon to come to market, including the Star Spec II and the Kumho 720, to just name a couple. You might want to wait until after SEMA and publication of early test data before making a choice. Rumor has it that the new tires are really going to be worth waiting for...

ep3_lol

It gets hot in the summer, Charlotte, NC. Rain isn't a huge concern but it does happen, and the heat is pretty bad in the summer but you can find worse. How long does it take to get to 3/32? If that will prolong tread life for a bit near the end of the tire's life I wouldn't mind too much.

mwood

The problem with the Toyo: once it gets to the hard rubber, it really falls off in terms of performance. So, yeah, they may last ok, but at the expense of performance. They also get very greasy when autocrossing in hot conditions...but, they are great when it is cool out or wet. We ran them last year on the STX RX8 I co-drove at Nationals and they required a fair amount of spraying between runs to keep them happy. This year, I co-drove the same car, but this time on the Dunlops and (although we missed the set up and I was pretty far down the trophies) we had no problem managing the tires. I liked them better than the Toyo.

VGM911

Many of us have used Tire Rack with great success. Give Damon a call...he's very knowledgeable and helpful.

mwood

I don't know "Damon" (I use quotes because the names used in public are not their real names, as I did above in my reference to my two autocross buddies who work for Tire Rack "Trent" and "Woody"...), but agree Tire Rack is a great source of info and their prices are competitive.

Tire Rack is also the title sponsor of SCCA Solo and we are very grateful for their support

Audi Junkie

I just got Cooper RS3-a. There is a summer HP version too. Very good product.

Audi Junkie

Cooper RS3-a

sjfehr

I don't like the amount of heat it takes to get Hankook RS-3 to grip. It's great for track and fine for warm autocrosses, but not so nice driving to work on 30F winter mornings. Personally, I recommend Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs. 225/45ZR17 front and 255/40ZR17 rear will work great on your tires.

If you can wait until next year, though, I'd wait- whole new crop of tires coming out. Dunlop is claiming the Direzza Z2 is 1.3% faster than the star spec and will last longer under race conditions. Might not sound like much, but 1.3% is a second! Rumors of other new tires coming out, too, which is exciting- tire tech has increased leaps and bounds nearly every year, but has been stagnant the last 3 years.

Also, SCCA will most likely limit road tire to 180TW and above next year, which means R1R and RS3 would bump you into r-comp classes.

ep3_lol

I'm actually waiting because I don't have other wheels for cold-temp tires and don't want to leave the Boxster parked all winter, I've decided. Sounds like the selection will be an added bonus, or maybe I can pick up some of the current ones on the cheap. I don't care about SCCA classing rules, my club uses NASA classing and I can go down to 120 before getting bumped into D. That's also why I'm doing 245s in the back, I'll go up to D class with 255s and anything below 200TW. How does tire width affect SCCA classing?

sjfehr

Depends on the class, but SCCA stock class only cares that you're using OEM-size wheels; doesn't have to be OEM, just match the size and be similar offset, and you're allowed to cram whatever rubber you can fit onto it and still fit inside your wheel-well. 245 square is popular, but I run 225/255 star specs with a GT3 front swaybar. Present rules for stock class allow r-comps, but most regions have street tire classes with 140 treadwear limits, and this was the first year they had provisional "road tire" classes at nationals. There's a proposed rule change to set this to 180 treadwear next year.

The only SCCA class that limits tire tread width is Street Touring, which has various limits for different sub-classes, but SCCA is afraid Boxster/Boxster S would be too fast and would unbalance the classes, and doesn't let it compete in street touring. The most appropriate class, STR (street touring roadster- AKA spec S2000CR), is limited to 255mm treadwidth.

I like NASA classing. The only club up my way that uses it is NASA Mid-Atlantic, though; all the other clubs in Virginia (Tidewater Sports Car Club, Virginia Motorsports Car Club and the 3 SCCA regions) use SCCA classing. I think SCCA base classing is better for autocross, as NASA classing is more track-borne and doesn't scale well to tighter/slower, but NASA mod classing is a lot less brutal for newcomers who might have made one insignificant mod that unfortunately slams them into an entirely uncompetitive SCCA class.

ep3_lol

Which is why we use it, the club is a student-run organization at Clemson and a good number of our attendees are newcomers who see the displays around the beginning of the year fairs and such and come out in whatever they happened to bring to college. It's also a lot easier to class your car- I have x modification, I add x points. Clemson students CAN do math...barely

But I more into driving and flagging DE anyway