looking for a street tire for the summer. have searched but not much on straightline performance. alot of autocross info on this board and on a lot of the comparison tests, such as the grassroots motorsports article from aug 05 that everyone likes to link when a question comes up. thinking hankook ventus rs2 z212, toyo proxes tr1, Bridgestone Potenza re750, Kumho ECSTA SPT, etc.

any recommendations for a rear summer tires that have good straightline performance? less wheelspin, more traction, if properly driven not light them up in 1-3. let me know what you think and what experience you/friend has on what car (type, power, rims, etc)...

 

bump. this is for an fc w/ fd rims. approximately 400whp.

 

have you searched on tirerack

 

i have looked on tirerack, vulcan, grassroots test, discount, etc. alot of the comparison tests for these tires are done on lesser powered fwd vehicles and/or with different sizes like 225/40r17. and alot of the tests do not give an accurate idea of forward traction. i have looked at the rankings and all the rankings are very close and given by various customers w/ various vehicles. jus wondering if anyone has any experience with some of these tires on a rear wheel drive vehicle with a little more power.

 

All the top tires are no longer available in that size.....your best bet would be the Bridgestone 750 or the Toyo T1-R. If you can deal with the low treadlife and other concerns of an R-compound tire, the Toyo RA-1 may be your best bet.

In reality, you need bigger wheels to get the best tires these days....

 

seems like alot of the fd guys liked the T1S and now like the T1R, so they are good for straightline traction? no go on the ra-1. i would rather do a nitto 555R DR than those. really interested in the Hankook's.

 

ttt. any other experience, opinions...

 

Only experience will tell you what works for you.

I will tell you what worked for me.

100 treadwear Toyo RA1 have over lasted TWICE as long (10,000 miles VS 4,000 miles) as any of the 200 treadwear max perf summer tires I had because it only spins through 1st and 2nd instead of 1st-4th and because they have the same traction all the way down to the cords.

Is the only reason you would prefer 245/50-16 555R to 245/45-16 RA-1 the price difference? I ask because the Nittos need a heat up to get sticky whereas normal driving will get the RA-1 up to sticky temps on all but the coldest day.

 

thanks for sharing info from your experience. i was very interested in the RA1's but someone talked me out of them after chatting in person for sometime. said not good for the street, run out of tread real fast. how do your tires look between 5k-10k mi? what max perf tires have you had experience with? maybe i will have to reconsider the RA1's as an option.

 

bump. anyone else have experience/opinions about tires with good straightline traction? jus dont want to spin 1-3. would like to grab some traction in second gear. from other boards i have been told Goodyear GS-D3 and Toyo T1R. dry straight line traction. sticky compound. street tire.

 

I don't understand what you are looking for, you've already been given all the recommendations there are......very limited options in that size now. If you can deal with shorter tread life and the other restrictions inherent to an R-compound, run the Toyo RA-1. Otherwise run a Toyo T-1R.

You have more options in the 225/50 size, but a stickier 225 may not have more grip than a pretty good 245.

You can't have your cake and eat it too, you're not going to find a sticky tire that has good treadlife. My suggestion is try out the RA-1s and if you can't deal with that compromise, then either deal with wheelspin or get wider wheels. Those are the choices as I see it.

 

I only tried the older cheaper max performance summer tires. I had Pirelli P7000 summer, Yokohama A520 and Dunlop 8000.

Most of my tire wear comes from our Auto-X course as it is gravel over old chunked blacktop.

Still, the RA-1 had legal tread for the 1st ~5,000 miles and 4 race days and then race tread pattern from then on.

The real advantages the RA-1 has over other DOT legal race tires is that they can take heat cycle after heat cycle and maintain their sticky whereas the others have very limited number of cycles in them before traction drops off..

The RA-1 advantage over max perf summer tires is that they have more traction cold and when warm actually gain traction.

So, try a street tire and if the car is undriveable go to the RA-1. If the street tires aren't hooking up you will only have them for a couple thousand miles anyways.

RA-1 made a night and day difference in my car- which went from frustratingly twitchy w/ throttle inputs street or track to scary fast and only twitchy at the track where it is possible to get into the power band.

Oh, and my gas mileage commuting dropped 3-4mpg since I was able to get into the boost a bit on the street