Do you keep multiple sets of tires around for racing?
 

I'm getting a new set of tires for my car for my birthday - my old ones still have good tread life, but are just old - the rubber is cracked around the edges, and two of them have slow leaks (as in fill up every time I get gas).

I do mostly highway driving, but also plan to get into autocross & possibly some track events. Would it be worth getting another set of wheels & keeping the old tires around for autocross and general sliding around? I don't know what kind of wear it puts on tires, but I'd prefer to keep the new set in good condition for highway driving.

How do people usually handle tires & racing?

-=Russ=-

With the leaks and cracks you may not pass safety with your current tires. Get another set of stock rims to mount your race tires on.

Hrm. I'd sort of been planning to use the new tires for highway & such, and use the old ones for screwing around & racing.

How much wear does autocross put on tires? I just can't afford to be replacing tires every 6 months or so. If it's not that bad, then I'll probably just use the new tires for everything.

-=Russ=-

well it's NOT a good idea to track/autox in shitty old street tires to begin with, you won't have ANY fun running those.

my recommendation is, ditch the old tires, put nice track-only tires on them, and buy a set of 'normal' tires for daily driving.

if you do that, you'll save track/autox wear and tear on the daily tires, and also reduce unnecessary wear on your track tires on the street.

it's the best setup IMO

I'm doing basically what Zoom said, street tires/rims and then track tires/rims..


http://mahjik.homestead.com/files/FD...s/MVC-001F.JPG

*nods* I know that's the best solution. However, I'm going to be paying off the repairs & such on the car for the next 6 months already (rebuilt engine, generally fixing all the stuff that goes wrong & preemptively replacing some things like the PD). I'm getting one set as a birthday present (and because my dad doesn't like the condition of the tires any more than I do), otherwise I'd just be keeping the current ones on. So, the option of having "track only" tires is still quite a ways off, and somewhere beyond "a good set of brakes."

-=Russ=-

Oh, yea, I have a 4 lug setup right now. :D I'm not sure what's available in terms of wheels for that.

-=Russ=-

The old ones should be fine for everyday driving just monitor your tire pressure constantly.
A stock set of rims with an option for tires, take your time, or you can do tires that do double duty.

try something like the Toyo Proxes T1-S for a dual track/street duty tire.

great performance on the track and on the road :)

I always have street tires just for the street. After that I usually have two more sets of wheels with race rubber mounted on them. One set is "prime" and used for competition the other set is a little harder due to use and these are for "fun" at the track. When the current prime set begins to give up grip (this happens before the tread is gone) they will become "fun" tires and I will buy a new prime set. Then you fill up your garage with used race tires so you start giving them to friends ;)

How much does a full set of race tires cost?

I'm just getting into autocross & such (planning to go to my first one Aug 8), so I don't exactly have a lot of skill to work with. Will a good set of street tires work for a while? I assume they'd be decent, just not great.

How much cracking is too much on a tire? The corner between the sidewall & tread has a lot of small cracks in it, they look like just age/sun cracks. I've driven 6000 miles on them so far and they haven't had any problems - am I pushing my luck, or should I just keep using them for now?

Finally, what does a set of 4-lug wheels usually go for (used)? If I have two sets of tires, I want two sets of wheels.

-=Russ=-

If you're just starting out you don't want to learn on race tires, it would be like setting your money on fire. You can have just as much fun on street tires and later if you decide you want to go faster then you can buy race tires.

Tire prices are all over the price as to brand and size but in general they cost the same as an expensive set of street tires. I pay about $130 each for Victoracers in 245/45/16 and about $180 each for Hoosiers in the same size.

I got about 15k miles out of my last set of Dunlop SP8000s. They were used at 5 auto-x and three HPDE. Slightly less performing tires with greater treadwear should last quite a bit longer.

Also, overdriving at either the auto-x or HPDE will have a much more negative effect on treadlife....

It's not safe to drive hard on old, worn-out tires. Most clubs will not let you run an HPDE with them -- and for good reason. You are much more likely to suffer a blowout, which wouldn't be too much fun on the track (or even worse, going to the track!).

i say for now, cost-wise, your best choice is to get a set of high quality high performance street tires (see my recommendation on Toyo T1-S :) )

My garage looks like someone broke into a local NTB and made off with all the stuff in the lobby .... except none of the tires have actual tread and they're all sticky to the touch. Once you start getting serious about racing (whether it be auto-x, HPDE's, time trials, or actual club racing), you will find that you need all sorts of extra sets of wheels and tires. As someone who tries to compete in all sorts of racing, I have 4 sets of wheels and tires .... 1 for street usage, 1 for auto-x usage, 1 for auto-x rains/time trials (Kumhos), and 1 for HPDE/time trials (Hoosiers).

At any rate, my advice for the new-to-racing is to buy a decent set of tires and run them on the street and in your local street tire auto-x class. You WILL burn through them faster ... but you'll learn what you need next without the expense of buying new wheels and tires.

Thanks for all the advice!

Most likely what's going to happen is I'm going to get a set of decent tires from Cosco (Sam's club, whatever the local discount warehouse is) from my parents. There's some sort of deal going on right now, and I'm not going to be picky about a free set of tires.

Is it worth keeping a set of partly dry rotted tires around for anything? They're cracked, but seem to be holding up. Is there a way to make them into cheap snow/ice tires or something? :D

-=Russ=-

burn them to the cords! that's always a fun thing to do with junk tires. i certainly wouldn't use old dry cracking tires in snow or ice. you need good condition cold weather tires for that.