Ok , well in my last car I ran Hankook R-S3's and I loved the ever living hell out of those tires .

They lasted a year LOL . but thats normal its what I expected . I bought a set of those same tires for my FD 245/40/17's in the front , and 255/40/17's in the rear . for every day driving they have been fine . I've had them for 8 months now .

and I finally got the car ready for some auto-x duty . Now Obviously without some Rcomps I dont plan to win any national championships . I'm more forcused on driver mod at the moment . But I felt the car was a bit loose so I adjusted softened the rear suspension .

But I was told repeatedly that my major flaw was that My rear tires were to narrow. For Very hard driving .

So i'm wondering is there anyone else out there that well is ok dirving the hell out of 255's? or do I need to go wider .. as going any other brand will make each corner cost 50 dollars more.

A little Extra info on the car's setup ,

17x9's F , 17x9.5's R

650 lb spring F , 500 lb R

Gab Super 8 Shocks 4 f , 1 R

-2.5 camber F , -2.0 camber rear .

 

Most high performance street tires don't even come wider than 255s (in 17s). They're completely fine for autocross...

how much power does your car have?

sure 18s with wider rubber would make the car faster... but aren't necessary.

 

only the Toyo R1R's do LOL

and honestly my car is barely braking 300 . I'm guessing I just had the rear shocks set to stiff . Put them down to 1 from 2 .

 

Kumho XS are available in 275/40 as well..... your gearing will suffer though, and for an auto-x it probably isn't advisable, especially with 300 rwhp.

I'd focus on getting the most grip that you can with the 255/40 backside, and along with the RS3 your best bet would be the AD08 and either Dunlop Star Specs or the new Dunlop Z2 coming out.

 

Another note to consider is tire temp. Much easier to get the 255 up to temp vs something wider during a short auto x run.

Work with what you have now and perhaps next season switch out the fronts for 255 also.

 

Yeah , Getting them up to temp takes a couple runs

 

I found the R-S3s like higher pressure than I normally run and later verified that others have found the same thing.

I had aired them up to 45psi cold to stiffen the sidewalls for some sideways hooning and was surprised to find they had more grip everywhere this way.

If you haven't already, try mid 40s tire pressure.

I got top time of day once with these 225/50-16 R-S3 on my 400Rwhp FC (spins with 3rd gear roll on), you just have to be smooth with your inputs. Since I am not always so smooth I just leave it in 3rd gear and drive it like a Miata if I have to.

Yes, wider wheels and tires will make you faster at auto-x - but you already know that.

 

Work with what you have now and perhaps next season switch out the fronts for 255 also.

IDK, the Tire Rack specs used to show the 255/40-17 R-S3 had narrower tread section than the 245/40-17 R-S3- so you might want to look carefully at your front and rear tires before deciding to go to the 255.

Tire Rack has since taken the tread section spec off of the 255/40-17 so it is blank.

 

LOL thats interesting may explain why the 245's were actually mroe then the 255's LMAO I will look into it


And I've been running 29 psi on the back , 30 at the front .. I will try upping it to 45f , 43 R when cold so when they heat up I can bleed them down LOL But I really find that strange since my little sidewall marker arrow seemed like I was rolling right onto it .

But hell cant hurt to try . =) Thank you for hte advice ..


Now I'm a little curious how would running such high PSI affect tread wear on daily driving LOL

 

im curious I might be picking up some rs3 soon as well

 

I was off the ultimate pace by quite a few seconds , but this is driver mod

after upping hte psi to over 40 the car responded and felt better and had more grip then my last event . and using a pyro my temps were flat in the fronts not 1 degree difference between out middle , and in .


in the rear there was a bit more of a change But the temps were very close .

the issue was getting heat into the tires , as I live in miami . during the warmer months I dont have this issue . BUT in a cold front I could not get much heat into them .

They behaved well , and I was quite close to the top guy in my calss and alot of the very fast drivers concidering i havent auto-x'd in over a year and half and my second event in the car I think the car made up alot for my lack of skill . And when I did do right the car surprised me by howmuch grip it had .

I like the hankooks . I would probably buy them again .


But you may also wanna look at the Federals

 

40+ psi is A LOT! I have been running 25psi cold and thought they felt better since they climed up to 35psi hot. This is a roadcourse however not an autox.

RS3's really do have great grip. I am just curious HOW LONG they will keep such adhesion without heat cycling out. My old toyo r888 had much less grip than my new rs3's due to just being dried out. new vs new will be a diff story.

 

It entirely depends on tire/wheel setup and camber.

RS3s have very soft sidewalls so they like running at higher psi.

On my corolla I'm running 225/45/15s on 15x9s (popular miata combo) and even with the tire stretched and on a very light car I still have to run it at around 35 psi.

 

I run essentially the same thing for Autox. Maybe just a few PSIs lower, but not by much.