Now that I will hopefully be needing competition tires I have spent my morning looking at what is available in 16' (stock wheels) 17" (volk wheels or kinesis) and 18" (ccw wheels if i were to order some).

I could only compare the Toyo Weights since that is all that i found

18*10 CCW wheels - 20 lbs (roughly) + 29.6 (275/35/18) = 49.6lbs
17*9 volk wheels - 15lbs (roughly) + 26lbs (255/40/17) = 41lbs
16*7.5 (stock) - 18lbs (rougly) + 25lbs (245/45/16) = 43lbs


So basically..... is it worth the extra 8-9 lbs to have an additional inch of rubber on the ground, and less sidewall flex? Most races will be for 15-20 laps and approximately 25-40 minutes long.....

Are the hoosiers a good bit lighter than the Toyo's?


Sidenote -

These new Hoosier A3S04 come in 225/50/16's and 255/50/16's..... will the 255's fit on the back stock wheels? Anyone know much about the A3S04? (i know they are new... and according to Jason Sanini they were almost 2 seconds faster per lap than the other Hoosier tire).

I assume Hoosiers in general are the stickiest and lightest? They are generally the most expensive.

I don't really want to spend $2k on wheels and $1200 per set of tires to find out I would have been faster on 16" stock wheels and $800 per set of tires.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scot
Now that I will hopefully be needing competition tires I have spent my morning looking at what is available in 16' (stock wheels) 17" (volk wheels or kinesis) and 18" (ccw wheels if i were to order some).

I could only compare the Toyo Weights since that is all that i found

18*10 CCW wheels - 20 lbs (roughly) + 29.6 (275/35/18) = 49.6lbs
17*9 volk wheels - 15lbs (roughly) + 26lbs (255/40/17)

 

i goofed on the A vs R... duh...

Where did you get the 245/40/17's? They are not listed for sale at www.tirerack.com which i assumed (ya ya...assume) would have the best selection.

Now that i see the choices (www.hoosiertire.com) I can chose between 245/40/17 rears or 245/45/16 rears...

thanks Pete

Anyone else have any insight about the width being worth the extra weight?


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Yellow Streak

 

Scot-

I get my tires from Paul at Radial Tire. I'm not sure if Bob Woodman Tire is going to be supporting the NASA events this year or not. They probably will, but I don't depend on them.

Using a bathroom scale (not the most accurate), I found the Volks with Hoosier tires to be 4 pounds less than OEM rims with Hoosiers. So, gaining 1" to 1.5" in width plus losing weight made them an obvious choice. Send me some PM on Volk wheels - there are a couple places to get good prices.

We are keeping our OEM rims to run Hoosier's new rain tires on. I am under the impression that a little bit thinner is better for rain.

And lastly, apart from weight, Jason ran .7 second faster with the Volk setup than he did with the OEMs.

-Pete

 

I just sent you a PM.... i should have bought S2k Mugen's used CE28's yesterday for $650 for a rear pair, but did not.....

Thanks for the tip on where to get the tires... i will look one of them up soon.... i am sticking with a set of used Road Race Yokohama a032's for my rain tires (i think)...???



[QUOTE]Originally posted by Yellow Streak

 

I've been trying to work through this exact problem. The solution I came to for rims: stock 16s aren't wide enough and are heavy and narrow when compared to 17" Volks; 18s are too expensive and the advantages over 17s is unclear. 17s seem to offer the perfect balance of weight, price and width.

Selecting a decent tire combination still eludes me. I want to go with Toyo's RA-1, but the issue there is I'm limited to a narrow (and light) 205 or a wide (and portly) 235 front....I'm leaning towards 235/45-17, but this means I'd have to go with an even heavier 275/40-17 rear to keep the F&R stagger balanced.

The only other combination I've considered is perhaps running a 225/50-16 (24.8" diameter) on the stock front rims and a 255/40-17 (25.1") rear CE28Ns. Bad idea?

 

Oh and BTW, Scott--thanks for not buying S2KMugen's rims yesterday!

 

ya.... i PM'd him before there were any replies to his thread......... I was dicking around thinking no one would want them.... duh!!!!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nobody
Oh and BTW, Scott--thanks for not buying S2KMugen's rims yesterday!

 

now that I spend the better part of the day pissing around on this stuff..... looks like i will most likely be going with 225/45/17 fronts and 245/40/17 rears in the Hoosier R3S04's.... which I thought supposedly last longer than the older R3S03's.... and they are faster......

I would like a longer wearing tire like the Toyo's (or a cheap tire like a Kuhmo) , but with all the little hybrids and a nother S2000 on Hoosiers, I don't think I would do very well running those.......


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nobody
I've been trying to work through this exact problem.