I noticed that my front tires are getting real low on tread... at the wear bars across and little to no tread on the outside edge. My rear tires are in great shape, I have maybe 5000 miles on them and lots of tread.

For my next tires, I was planning on going with some non-oem tires, probably 225 up front, 255 in the rear.

Question: is it wise to put a different brand of tire on the front now? or should I go with another set of RE050s in the front now and hope this set wears evenly and get 4 new ones that match later?

I have a track event coming up in a month, which will surely put an end to the fronts' life. I've been having alot of understeer (even on the street), which I attributed to the stock alignment and the skinny front tires. Should I get new tires before I start making alignment changes?

 

Yes.

 

I'll give you a more useful answer than the snark above...

Yes, get new tires. No, don't go with RE050s - it's 20+ year old tire tech - tires have come a long with in the last 20 years. If it's mainly a pleasure, weekend, track vehicle, find any modern 200 TW tire - Kuhmo v730, Falken RT660, Bridgestone RE71RS, Hankook RS4, Yoko A052, etc.

In general, I'd switch away from the RE050 for all of you next sets of tires. They're expensive for what they are.

 

Thanks very much!

The reo50 is a Hoosier?

(Yeah, what is with the snark?)