I'm not going to argue the point, but even more so in this case, you don't even need to buy any actual parts to get a much more track appropriate alignment... the car is built with the option of running a "better" alignment than the stock numbers in the service manual. At this point I'm not even saying to go buy camber adjusters since you're not fully utilizing the stock alignment options available that are engineered into the car from the factory.

The way to drive around it is by driving slower...

Anyway, you seem to know what you want. I just don't quite understand it... As an added for this discussion, the stock 215 RE050 that comes on the car is closer to a 205 in width...

 

Tread width being the most applicable bit here. It would be nice if tirerack would consistently measure this on any performance tire.

 

If you wanna handicap yourself, don't get RE11s in any size, just get the cheapest tires you can find that will survive track use.
Point: tire make/model selection is way way WAY more important than 215 vs 225/245 vs 255. Fretting over the 215 or 225/245 or 255 question is a waste of mental effort. Save it for when you're buying wheels.

There's no logical reason you should stick to the middle of the "stock" aligment range for track work. The sooner you begin driving a car with semi-reasonable aligment settings on the track, the sooner you'll make progress.

My approach has been to always try to optimize for my level of equipment. Suggest this as your approach as well. Get in the habit of trying to optimize for what you have instead of trying to tie one hand behind your back, so to speak. The best way to learn to go faster is to prepare the car to be as fast as it can be given its state of development. IMO...

 

Ive been asking myself these same questions lately. Even on a 17x9" wheel I preferred a 245/40 to a 255/40.

There was too much traffic to get a good idea of differences in lap times. But I will say the 245 feels better on a 9" wheel than a 255 and communicates how much grip is left much more effectively IMO.

 

I agree with everything you guys are saying trust me, but my crazy person method has been my approach for many years and it has worked for me well. I am not just starting to learn to drive the stock car fast, i am trying to extract every little bit that I can out of it, more for my own enjoyment than anything. This is the R&C forum, so I will keep it mostly at that, but there is A LOT of extra things you can learn street that don't apply at all to most on track or autocross driving, this gives me many extra things to focus on and learn. If I was only driving at the track, trust me I would maximize the car for the track. My competitive spirit loses out to being able to have fun and drive as much as possible.

But again, didn't want to make this thread about setting up my car in particular, as my car isn't a race car, the theory is what is interesting to me here. Just all the time I have spent looking at racing cars (SuperGT, GT3, etc.) and it always seemed like they had big meaty tires with much wider tread width than wheel width, but if you look closely that isn't necessarily the case.
(I do appreciate all of the suggestions though! They match pretty closely to what I already have planned)

 

This is what caught my attention the most when I started looking into this more. Obviously from a competitive point of view it would be better to move to a wider wheel size, but it would be interesting to see if people could go faster on 245s on 9" wide wheels, simply because response and feedback is increased. It seems like it is easy to get a significant increase in feel while 245 to 255 may only give a small increase in grip, that is now more difficult to maximize since the feel is decreased.

 

Lots of supposition there... You could as easily *suppose* that a slightly pooched tire might have a broader grip-to-slip-angle range to play around in than the same tire slightly stretched on a wider wheel, which might offer slightly more grip over a narrower range. In the end most of us will never have the time/money to absolutely optimize wheel/tire widths for our individual setups an driving styles.

Anyway, go ahead and run 185/205 and let us know how it goes

 

I don't think a 215 will have more grip than a 225 but a 225 on a 7" wheel vs an 8" wheel will maximize the grip and or feel of the tire. Feel will often equate to time so maybe that's where time comes from vs gaining grip. Just a thought


lol I should have refreshed this page from this morning. Sorry if that was covered already, I'll catch up now

 

I can't wait to see your lap times with those at t-hill

 

I was just about to give you a but you recovered nicely. As odd as I know it sounds, I want to stay on a staggered setup just because I am interested in learning first hand about different setups. Should be interesting to go to a 225/255 setup with more appropriate wheels widths at some point down the line, and then go to a full square setup.