Hey Guys - feel free to boot my post over to the vintage owners side of things. Original MY2000 s2000 owner here, looks like the last order I have from Tire Rack for autocross tires was in 2008. And that is when my son was born so that makes some sense.

Fast forward a bunch of years and my son now has his drivers license and we are going to do some SCCA Solo2 events this season.

Help an old guy out - my last R compound order was for
225/50ZR-16 F 265/45ZR-16 R Kumho Ecsta V710 tires.

I'm on a set of stock AP1 wheels.

What is the equivalent of these tires today? I ran the Kumho's instead of the Hoosiers back then because I would generally get some longer life out of them and they were a bit less expensive.

I'm used to a stagger, so 225/265 works for me but if that isn't the exact size to run in new tires please let me know.

I'm way out of the autocross loop and just looking to get out there and help him learn some car control and have some fun times together at the track.

Thanks - and if this has been answered a bunch of times - sorry I'm old and I couldn't find recent info.

Tom

 

You're going to be CS now for C Street instead of B Stock. Assuming you're still essentially stock but maybe you have a front swaybar. Street also means you now run 200tw or higher tires and no R Comps.

There are a lot of options and a few new entries this year. Best in street classes for competitive purposes is the Bridgestone RE71RS. Fast right away, decent heat tolerance, decent in wet, pretty high wear but not as bad as the Yokohama A052. The Yokohama is not worth it for street class but has been the fastest in street tire cars with camber.

Kumho V730 - This is a great tire that is underappreciated IMO. It's cheaper than most of the other 200TWs, not quite as fast as top tier tires but still quick, great heat tolerance, very good wear, great lapping tire on track, decent autocross tire in warm weather and especially with 2 drivers. Downsides are that they need a little bit of heat to work and are pretty bad in the wet. If you can deal with those, I think it may be a good tire for you. I really liked them for the year I wasn't competing in my car but still ran it locally.

Falken RT660+ - I do not know what to make because it's a new variant of the outgoing 660. I'm not a fan of the old 660 but the 660+ seemed to do well at the first national event. Better than I expected. If you can get old 660s on close-out, they're not a bad tire if they're sufficiently cheap. They're just not a top tier 200tw, bad in wet , heat cycle out, don't deal with heat well, and can delaminate. They're not as bad as that made them sound but their sub-par quality was unacceptable for their lack of pace and they were not cheap enough to justify. For cheap enough prices, they can be justified. The 660+ seems to be faster and the carcass of the tire was updated so hopefully they fixed the quality issues I'm complaining about.

Vitour P1 - This is a real wild card. There has been a lot of drama surrounding this tire and a some conflicting information. They shamelessly promote themselves as the best tire to the autocross community and have had some paid shills to advertise for them. They were previously on the banned list for SCCA but are legal this year (check street class, I'm not totally sure on that one). They appear to be doing well nationally so they should be fast, I think they need some heat to work, wear is supposed to be good, no idea about wet behavior.

With the new tires, I can't really place them. I have used the Bridgestone RE71RS, Yokohama A052, Kumho V730, and Falken RT660 myself in competitive environments. If you can give up outright pace and wet weather handling, the 730 is great. Easy button and quality tire that I really like driving is the RE71RS. RT660 might suit you if on clearance. The 660+ and P1, I can't give real world feedback on.

Sizes: Street tires don't pinch as well as old R comps did. Assuming stock AP1 size wheels, 205/225 is fine on stock swaybars. If you have a big front swaybar (Karcepts, Saner, etc.), you can run 225 square or even 225/245 if it's available in your tire. 16 sizes are pretty limited. It's been many years since I ran a BS AP1 on street tires. My last setup was the old version of the RE71 in 225 square with a front swaybar. The car was great and I'd recommend that setup.

 

Jub - thank you so much for all of the useful information. When I started autocrossing with my s2000 we were in AS and then BS and now we are in CStreet - ok got it.

I'm going to take a look and see what is available out there based on your recommendations.

As far as I can tell I'll still be in CS, only mod is my Comptech front sway bar that've I've kept on the car from back in the early days.

Lots of good info. If a Mod reads this and wants to change the title of my post to mention CS instead of BS it might make Jub's information a bit easier to find.

Thanks again.
- Tom