I've got the New Dunlop Z1s on right now, 255f. 275r. I'm going to give them a shot at the track on May 3rd & 4th.. I will let you know what they are like.

Last track day was on 4x245 Victoracers, so I'll have a decent comparison of track vs street tire.

IMO: The falkens mentioned earlier in this thread are not sticky enough.

 

Rich,

What tires are u using these days?

How do you like them? Which gears do spin through at high boost?

I'm looking for a set of tires but i don't know jack squat... All I know is that I don't want through spin through second gear at 15 psi (GT35R).

Any help greatly appreciated.

M-

 

I've run the old style azenis on my miata for the past 6 months. They're great when it's warm and are pretty grippy at an Auto-x site with old asphalt (to rough to run R compounds with any expectations to last a season). I haven't run these tires on a roadcourse yet or our better site but i expect them to behave and stick well. I expect the new azenis to be the same or better.

The only trouble with them is that they have no grip at all ever when it's below 50-60 degrees outside. At about 20 degrees you can't pull out onto a busy street at anything other than a grandma's pace or else you'll be coming out completely sideways (as in 90 degrees from straight). I'm not sure if the new azenis suffer from the same problems. Just be warned if you drive on them in the winter be careful and definately be able to hold it when the car goes into a huge tankslapper whenever it's least convenient.

In a friend's miata I found the Kumho MXs to be VERY grippy on the same loose pavement. I'm seriously considering getting a set once I wear through my azenis. In CSP we were down 2-3 tenths from a very skilled driver in a well-prepped miata on R-compounds. While we had stock struts riding on the bumpstops with "sport" springs and swaybars.

edit: unforntunately I have had little experience with modern rotaries in Autocross or Time trials so i can't comment on those tire choices for our heavier, more powerful cars. No clue about a fat tired 3rd gen. For the record, My Azenis are 205/??/16s his Kumho's were 205/??/17s

 

i have a new set of S02's with about 300 miles on them and i love them to death so far! i will be running them at mazdafest this year at buttonwillow july 12th-13th.

 

FALKEN azenis RT-615 FTW!!!

 

Holy bumpage from 5 years ago!
in the market for a set of tires again probably going to be the Azenis,who has the good deals theese days?

 

http://www.edgeracing.com/

 

^^ Thanks

 

I run RT 615s on my car for autox and am currently running SM2 (RX7) and GS (Sentra) in my region. Tire I think is a great dual purpose tire (for autox and street that is). I have it on my Sentra for the summer (I am in love with its grip). I have been constantly taking 1st and 2nd in GS with the RT615s in my Sentra. I usually lost to a certain Mini Cooper S with cheater slicks. Car has awesome cold to warm temp traction and a warm to hot temp traction similar to other street tires in its class (not including cheater slicks though). Some of the guys (in my autox region) that have used cheater slicks and the Azenis tell me Azenis for autox are borderline cheater slicks. I have raced in a car with cheater slicks and let me tell you they have a definite advantage, but are very impractical for daily or even weekend street driving.

For road racing though I never have tried it, but I had a friend who used a set for his Evo and went through a set of Azenis after only 2-3 HPDE and open track events at MAM.

 

For track days Azenis tend to overheat and get "greasy".

 

I haven't found a street tire yet that doesn't do that to some extent. I have seen that the 615's like a lower pressure than some other tires. If people don't work with their tire pressures, they will get slippery pretty quick. However, they don't seem any different than other street tires on the track IMO. A lot better than some of the others I've tried which have sidewalls so soft, I swear the tires is coming off the rims in each corner.

 

I suppose, but they've got a reputation as doing it moreso than others. The Kumho MX for instance is said to be much more resistant to the heat.

I never particularly noticed either my Falken FK-451's or Kumho SPT's doing it. Pirelli P3000's are incapable of generating enough grip to generate enough heat to do this apparently (first driving school was on these, they came on the car). I'd come in after 30 minutes on track, which was preceeded immediately before by 30 minutes with my dad driving and the tires were barely warm to the touch.

 

If you use those back to back, the 615's at the same tire pressure, will overheat quicker. Most people don't adjust their tire pressures per the tire they are running which is the problem. They just know "I always use 30 PSI, and that's what I'm using with this tire". Then they overheat the tire and call it crap.

When used properly the 615 is a great tire for the track. But just like any tire, it needs to be setup properly. The MX is a lot more user friendly in that respect.

 

I went with the MX's for that reason alone. I wanted a tire that could take the heat and not decide to chunk out on me. I can't wait to try them out this season.

In my opinion, it really depends on what type of "tracking" you will be doing. Autox just needs a sticky tire period. It won't see much for high temperature situations in autox. Now HPDE will need a tire that won't get greasy, not chunk the tread, and will feel comfortable. The last thing you won't is an uneasy tire coming off the straight doing 140+mph.

 

Just got back from a two day HPDE on the Z1s.

I drove 3 hours to the event and 3 hours back. The car saw some very hot laps and the Dunlop Direzza Z1s were awesome, awesome, awesome... After a total of almost 3.5 track hours and all the road driving, they still have well over 50% tread.

They warmed up relatively fast, good even wear/melting.. No chunking, no issues, tons of grip... It took me a while to find the perfect pressure, which on this weekend, ended up being 28.5psi front and 27psi rear..

Good road manners.. A little noisy at times, but very supple and smooth..

 

Have you considered Nitto NT01's? The compound is hard enough that you can drive it to the track and drive it home. They have a higher temperature operating range specifically for road racing. If you want to be competitive in Auto X then
V710's are going to be one of your best bets. I would drive to events about 30 miles each way on my v710's. My car weighs about 23xx lbs. I have two seasons on them, and still have life left in them. Of course V710's are the fastest for their first 5 or so events. I also heard that the new Toyo R888's are supposed to be pretty good.