VorsprungTT

By the way who run's 16's and how do they handle? Do you loose the rear end more compared to 17's or 18's? My comparison between 17's and 18's seems to be that the 18's are a lot more stable but have a horrible turn in. Huge reduction in performance.

Alright so to start I'm selling the 18's that are in my signature photo. They are selling on the vortex (link below).

My current situation is that I have a set of winter wheels and I'm going to make the fat-fives my summers.

So the question I have pertains to specific tire size. 225/40 would be my perfect size, but I haven't found that size yet so 215/40 or 225/45 are my choices. To me the less profile you have the less flex there will be, however, the less width you have would give you less traction. I know it's only a few millimeters but I'm making a big deal out of it in my head.

235/40 is also available in all the tires I'm looking at but I think that would be oversized for our 7.5" wide fat-fives when the requirement for a 235 tire is a 8" wide wheel.

Also I wanted to know if anyone had experience with Falken FK-452s?

So what would you AutoX/Track guys do???
Recommend any other specific tires?
I was looking at Nitto but I found their treadwear ratings to be very low and tires expensive.

Pretty much I want a tire with amazing grip, stiff sidewalls, good treadwear and okay wet-performance. I am open to suggestions : )

I'm a Falken guy, I've owned a lot of different sets. Currently on my 18's that are for sale I had ST-115 Azenis which are my favorite now. They have the same grip as the newer RT-615's (owned 2 sets of these too) but have water channels so the don't hydroplane everywhere and also have a treadwear rating 160 points higher than RT615's and they are also 60 points greater than FK452's.

So the good/bad is:
ST-115: I know how they drive, spectacular grip and good wet driving performance. But they are discontinued & I won't have a problem getting them but their upgrade is the FK-452 and that leads me to believe that newer is superior.

FK-452: Replacement for the ST-115, lose the Azenis name and hopefully keeps the traction. I'm very hesitant to go with this tire since I owned a set of Falken Zeix 512 (225/45/17) they lasted me 8k and not a mile more. I have a photo of them in the garage and they are BLAD. I have never seen a tire handle this ****ty and wear so fast. Horrible tire period. The FK's are supposed to be performance oriented all seasons but I just don't know if I believe that and don't want to waste $500 and an Auto-X season finding out.

So here are my choices:

Series: Falken Azenis ST-115 "Luxury Performance"
Treadwear/traction/temp: 360/A/A
Size: 225/45/17 (Reinforced)
Weight: 25.4 lbs.
OR
Size: 215/40/17
Weight: 21.2 lbs

Photo: <img src="http://www.falkentire.com/media/tires/6/wheel.png">


Series: Falken FK-452 "Maximum Performance"
Treadwear/traction/temp: 300/AA/A
Size: 225/45/17 (Reinforced)
Weight: 24.5 lbs.
OR
Size: 215/40/17 (Reinforced)
Weight: 21.0 lbs.

Photo: <img src="http://www.falkentire.com/media/tires/1/wheel.png"><ul><li><a href="http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4267370">My Private's for sale lol - the signature photo 18's</a></li></ul>

M power this!

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/50555/cimg8366.jpg"></center><p>they're not designed for that temp range. i'd seriously bet you'd chunk them the first time out. to be competetive you'd also over drive them. these Toyos last surprisingly long and WILL make you smile.

nikhil

in street tire classes, the RE01R seems to be a great tire these days.

ArTT Vandelay

there are a couple "cheater" tires out there. a few years ago it was the Kumho Ecsta MX, which are my street tires, i've run them at the track and was impressed. The Falken Azeni's are a popular street tire for autox, i think there is a new BFG that is dominating. you need to check the SCCA forums for that info.

Is this your first year autox'ing? what class will you run in? what is your budget? what wheels will you be using? help me help you

J. Patterson

I would go with the Falken RT 615s Best bang for the buck. A little iffy in the rain though. I had a set that I tracked. Got 12 days out of them. They are great till they get hot. You won't have that in Autocross. I use Pirelli P Zero Nero Summer for street and they are very good. That might be an option if you can find them. Seem to be kind of rare though. I used the All Season version P Zero Nero M&amp;S prior to that for street, and the summer version is far more agressive though it looks identical.
FYI I bought a set of Nitto NT 01s for track only and mounted on my fat fives. Thankfully I don't need snows though today was a close call.

InTTruder

Checkout www.soloatlanta.com and their Forum on tires. None of yours did well.

bubba j

I *think* it was a BMW, but I don't recall off hand.

They found the 17" to be the best combination of weight/handling.

And it's simply unpossible that any of those tires perform as well as the RT-615.

JohnLZ7W

I was curious why RT615s weren't on his shopping list too

VorsprungTT

M power: What does Chunk mean? Heat them up so much that I will have little rubber bits on them and pretty much chew through the life of the tire in one day???


Anyone daily drive and autoX an RE01? I'm positive they have good grip but whats the treadlife with a rating of just 140 how long do they really last? If a suitable AutoX tire is going to run me that much and last me that little I will get a dedicated set of 16's for the season.

I know with heavy vehicles it's optimal to have a wider tire on them for stability and grip. Would it be good for me to buy a set o f 16 or 17's x 8 or 8.5 instead of using 7.5" wide fat-fives?

J. Patterson &amp; ArTT Van.:

This will be my first season of AutoX yup! I'm really excited. My best friend and myself have been building our cars for this for years, making excuses like "I'll track my car when I get this or that, coilovers, sway bars, tires ect". We've both had enough and just have to own up and get involved.

I was planning on running a performance summer only tire on my stock fat fives. I'm borderline selling the fat-fives (breaks my heart) and buying a wider set of 16s or 17s. I really want to go for handling this year. Unfortunately unless April comes with an awesome raise I doubt I can afford to have three sets of wheels like I do now (already trying to sell the 18's since I'm steering away from the looks crowd). As I said in my post before I have a lot of experience with Falken tires and have always found the Azenis to offer more than enough grip to suit my needs, however, I've never been on a track or AutoX course. By the way although my focus is AutoX I'd like to do a few quater-mile events and one track day. SCCA runs an AutoX course about 40 minutes from my house at the Nassau Colosseum I understand. I'm going to try to attend most of the events the have this year- looking to improve my driving skills and with cones as obstacles instead of trees just seems like a good place to learn!

Although I know the driver's skill/experience is the greatest modification of all, this is the suspension stuff I've currently got on my TT:

-H&amp;R Coilovers &amp; front/rear sways/25mm DRA Spacers
-Defcon's w/ Urethane
-Kmac full rear camber kit
-urethane dogbone inserts

To be installed:
-Powerflex poly A-arm rear bushings
-SPC front camber kit

In the past I've run cambers of F:-1.8 / R:-2.4 with both slammed to the ground. This year I plan to slam the rear and do the same -2.4 then even out the front control arms with the subframe for maximum handling and so the powerflex bushings don't fail. Run a -1.5 with the camber plates set to 0 so I can have +/- 1 degree control under the hood. I do have a lifetime alignment contract with Firestone and they just put the car on the rack and let me toy with it.

I'm just kind of running this all by you track guys to see if I'm even relatively on the right page. Obviously I'm nowhere close with my tire choices! I take criticism well just hit me!

bubba j

Check out the new Nitto NT05 if they release a 225, or even a 245/45.