Since I've been running in STU, in one form or another, since 2006, I'll tell you why we chose to run what we did.

Let me start by saying which tires we've used on our 2006 STI:
I'll start by grouping them as soft or stiff sidewalls:
I'll make a somewhat arbitrary association and say the soft sidewall tires are at home in the sweepers, the stiff tires in transition.

Now I'll re-arrange in temperature tolerance:
Finally, I'll jot down some notes about the STI:
Needless to say, the cars ask a lot of the front tires, the tires in generally, really. They need to be heat tolerant, they handle a lot of load, and they need to have great longitudinal grip. All of the tires work, though some feel vague, slide around a lot, wear incredibly fast or unevenly, or give less than one full run before falling off.

As for the Dunlop and Hankook battle. On both the STI and the S2000 we have seen no significant difference in time between the two. They have their individual strengths and weaknesses. For us, it comes down to weather extremes and driving style.

 

I'm on my phone at the moment so can't really look, but how many of the top STR cars on kooks were two driver cars?

As a single driver I have been debating switching from rs3s back to star specs because in most weather conditions I am not getting enough heat in the tires to make the rs3s really work unless it is >95 degrees or so.

 

I was a single driver at Nationals last year on Hankooks but am one that prefers the Dunlops feel a lot more. I might be running on Dunlops for most of this season depending on how it shakes out. Want to do a lot of tire testing at the Lincoln Tour.

 

I'm rooting for Colin and Matt because I strongly prefer the Dunlops and believe that they are close enough to the RS3s but due to the lemming factor no one wants to use anything other than what is currently winning. If the top 5 guys arbitrarily switched to Dunlops I think this conversation would be completely flipped.

Seems that more testing will reveal when each tire is best and I predict the tire choice will come down to temperature, course type, pavement conditions, and driver preference in feel. Dunlops to me are a better overall tire, but the lateral grip of the RS3 under specific conditions is what people gravitate to.

Is this somewhat right??

 

Awesome post -- thanks!

 

Maybe another difference worth mentioning is that the Dunlop 245/40-17 isn't a dual compound tire and can be shaved unlike the STR-sized 255/40-17. The local STU guys always ran shaved sets and never saw the same tread delamination and whatnot that shows up in some of the other Dunlop sizes.

 

Uhh my set of shaved lops (245) delaminated just at or below 3/32.

 

Any issues with fender or fender liner rubbing or tire contact on 17x9 +60s in STR trim, ie stiff spring/bar, low ride height, good negative camber, fender lip rolled?

 

You can always go too low but generally you should be good.

 

So would the 3mm offset difference vs +63 reduce the obtainable low ride height, ie to 12.75" instead of 12.25"?