Went from 225 direzza 2s to r888 and 245 square set up and what a transformation. The direzza were pretty sticky already but the car always had a tendency to step out coming out of corners. These wider r888's made the car much more confidence inspiring and easier to push to the limits even with a stock set up with the exception of eibach springs. Can definitely feel more glued to the road. It's like falling in love with it again. One of all times great driver's car.

 

Just think how much more you'll love it by going to the uprated sizes. Still OEM.. just running 245/40/17 in the front and 255/40/17's in the rear. The sudden snap oversteer is a thing of the past when you upgrade the tire width. Even running a vehicle with alot more power, the stock OEM sizes still provide alot for street use and the occasional track day.

 

Also tires are one of those overlooked things. I've seen cars with tons of mods with crap cheapie tires - power is no good if you can't hook it up, and suspension is no good if you don't stick. Tires are the foundation.

Dale

 

People forget the basics. The tires are the only things making contact with the ground. You want to increase performance without touching anything hardware wise on your vehicle, get decent tires. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference it is to upgrade from an OEM all season tire to a dedicated summer/extreme rubber. Nite and day.

 

I ran 245/45 on my stock wheels for years. Improved performance, better looks and speedometer was still good. For a while it became an obsolete size and pickings were pretty slim for good HPS tire. That forced the move to 17”. Good to hear they’re making them again.

 

Still very few available tires in 245/45/16 which may be a reason why it was not the stock size though it is much better with it. Haven't tried staggered but so far there doesn't seem to be too much oversteer with a square set up. Unfortunately with treadwear of only 100, I'm hoping they last at least 3k miles.

 

Yeah, triple 8’s seem like just R compounds with a little tread thrown in for laughs.
I think they still qualify for pax though.

 

Good tires make a world of difference, particularly in a car like the FD. I never understood why people buy sports cars and try to run bad tires on them.

 

Haha... :-)

Reminds me of when I tried some Firestone SVX tires that were designed in the mid '90's for a Ford "Super-Coupe", IIRC. I thought that having some OE sized tires for the street that had a bit lower grip might actually be more fun because you could drive at the limit at somewhat slower speeds. Boy, was that a lousy decision. The FD alternated between understeer and oversteer like I was driving on a greased track. There was no in-between where I could have any fun. So I immediately traded those in on some Firestone Firehawk SZ50 tires and got the car back to where it was fun to drive. Now I'm on the latest OE size (225/50R16) Firestone (asymmetric, non-directional) Indy 500's that are really good.

 

Holy. That’s the type of tire I recommended to my bro who drives a Mazda 3. 😂
I think it’s safe to put a higher grip type on an FD. Even if you don’t want an extreme tire, you can give the S04 pole positions a shot.

im making a fair amount of power but since the car doesn’t really see the track, I still want decent grip. I was hoping the new Re71RS would be available when I changed the tires out this past season. Unfortunately they didn’t make it over to our side of the pond at the time. I still settled for the re71r’s. I don’t think I would do well with a less grippy tire...

 

The Firestone Indy 500's I mentioned are a semi-clone of a similar Bridgestone, but at much lower cost. They are very highly rated on Tire Rack.