Tires

[MoeBawlz]

I posted this in the wheel and tire section with no luck so I thought this might be more appropriate. On to the discussion on the most important part of our cars.

With all the threads on tire sizing and wheel fitament I thought I might start some new stuff up here. Hopefully we can get some good input rolling.

I am currently getting more and more into Auto Cross and it has become blairingly aparent that I need to improve myself as a driver however I also am looking to do a tire upgrade. I've been using my Penske K mart specials for the past two events and have still done pretty damn well on them. I keep lockin up the brakes real bad and I feel like my car is on ice most of the time so its about time to look into some decent tires.

I've been looking at several R compound tires but as usual cost is an issue. My question is what do you all run? what purpose do you use the tires for? (street driving, auto x, road race, drag race) What do you think of your current tires? I am looking into Azenis or Hancooks due to the fact that they are relatively inexpensive and something to get myself started into that will help to plant my car a bit more.

Also if we can bring some tech in to this that would be great. Such as how do we figure out exactally what the coeficient of friction is for tires? is there a calculation that can be done? Who here shaves tires? (How do you do it for that matter?) I am interested in any and all tech on tires so please feel free to jump in this.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

I run Kumho Ecsta MX on my '01 SS and I'm very happy with them. Sizes are 275/35/18 front and 295/35/18 rear. They're not R-compounds, but they're Kumho's top street performance tire, and they're priced noticeably lower than most comparable performance tires from competiting manufacturers. My car is primairly used for hard street driving (i.e. not a DD) and I've been extremely satisified with the tires performance when ever I push them. I do plan to do some Autocrossing this summer, so that will be the true test.

Mary Pozzi runs these tires on her 2nd gen (possibly even the same sizes) and that car has seen several open track events. From what I remember after speaking with David, he was very impressed with how well the tires performed at the limit. Perhaps David or Mary will comment on them.

[MoeBawlz]

I use to have Kumho Escsta Supras on my car and they were very nice tires. I was happy with them but i wanted stickier for auto X. Perhaps the MX is a choice. Ill have to look into those.

[importkiller69ss]

what do you think the kumho ecsta 711 will be like. i will not see and auto x or road course but accosionally a strip.. daily driver 60 bucks a tire is what they say for my size at tire rack has anyone used these

[David Pozzi]

I'm moving this to the Tires section, it has no advanced tech and has been here for a while...