All,
This week I ran over another nail and made a bee-line to Discount Tire. They couldn't repair the tire because the tread was worn past legal limit.
I went with Yokohama AVS ES100 thinking that they were decent replacements. NOPE

There's too much lateral play and the traction is not as good as the OEM Bridgestone Potenza RE050. In effect, I chose poorly and lost a bunch of performance that takes away from the daily driving fun.
Today, I did a little test on a piece of road where I usually do my checkouts. The springs and Euro modifications with the OEM tires was fantastic! I tested that setup on this nice chicane close to work. So, this morning I tested the new tires and MUSH ... the whole car went sideways throgh the turn - plowing the front and sliding the back. YUK.

I wore out the Bridgestones over 5 track events and one year of street driving.

The Yokohamas have a smoother ride and are quiet. They have a deep rain pattern that should keep me safe in the upcoming monsoon season - but I won't be able to do any track events with these tires.
To remedy this situation, I'll have to throw out more money to get some track wheels and tires... something I'm guessing will cost around 2 grand. I don't know if I can stay sane missing a HPDE season.

For those of you replacing MY04/05 tires that want to have a little weekend fun with your daily driver street setup, stay with the OEMs - or perhaps go with the more all-season S03s.

Anybody have a good lead on track rims?


C 'bummin' B

 

If you want an (relatively) inexpensive solution, I recommend using some OEM 16" rims with Toyo RA1s on them. If you run 205/55/16 up front and 245/45/16 in the rear, you will have good balance at low cost, approximately $400 or less for the rims and under $1k for the tires.

 

I have considered that.
I did watch a Japanese race video where the MY04 and MY03s swapped wheels and the MY04 experienced more oversteer.
I'm assuming that they were running OEM rubber.

Thanks!