I did several track days in my old Evo VIII, and always chewed through the street tires I was running.

Now I've got a '10 X GSR and am thinking about tracking it. But memories of all the money I spent on tires for my VIII are making me reluctant.

Any suggestions?

 

I've had really good experience with the Dunlop Direzza Star Soecs and the Hankook RS-3s. The RS-3s will wear faster that the StarSpecs due to the lower teadwear. But both are good tires for the price.

 

NT-01 is a great R-comp, and usually cord before they heat cycle out.

 

Sounds like the OP is looking for a tire w/a bit higher tread wear rating so it will last.

Try the Nitto NT05 w/a 200 rating

 

I am a little biased to bfg. I have a set of KDW's that have lasted 3 weekends so far and about 30k street miles. Since the KDW's are now discontinued I will be switching to the comp2's as they supposedly are a little stickier but degrade at the same rate as the KDW's.

 

Appreciate the replies, guys (chu, gotpsi?, MinusPrevious, ReaperX). I know people ask about tires quite a bit, but my searching did not come up with anyone coming at it from quite my angle (i.e., the top priority being durability).


Yes, that is exactly what the OP is looking for!

I'm working under the ASSumption that a durable tires will be harder/slower. And that's fine. I'm not trying to "win" the DE.

OTOH, I've gotten the impression that the most durable street tires are not suitable for track work and can be easily chewed up at an HPDE. I was buying decent street tires for the VIII, rather than buying a good street/track compromise tire.

And to clarify my original post, I'm currently interested in both street tires that can be tracked as well as dedicated track tires. When I owned the VIII I lived in an apartment and had no place to store an extra set of rims/tires. But I have a new-to-me house/garage now, so extra rims are an option.


This is the exact type of info I'm looking for. Thanks! I'd like to know what real world usage people are getting.

Reaper: do your tires make it through a weekend without needing to be rotated? When I tracked my VIII (always with stock alignment), the outside front would need to be rotated during the course of the weekend. At my very first DE the shoulder was actually starting to cord before an instructor noticed it and made me rotate the tires.

 

I actually went 2 weekends before rotating them. The first weekend was at Road Atlanta, which was very hard on the driver side. The next month I did the roval at Charlotte Motorspeedway, which was a lot harder on the passenger side. So I finally swapped them on the rims and been fine since. They will get me one more weekend in December when I am back to Road Atlanta, but will need new rubber after that. So they should total 35k-40k street miles when that happens.

I am currently on stock sways with the suspension in my sig, notched in the front with -2.6* up front and -1.5* in the rear.

I attributed a lot of the longevity of my tires to my experience on track. You mentioned that you almost corded the outside shoulder. I have learned well how to manage my tires during a DE event. It's alot about feeling and listening to the tires to know when you are over driving them.

You can trash a high tread wear tire just as quick, sometimes quicker, than a stickier tire from over heating and over driving it.

 

So.... I normally run Hoosiers or BFG R1s but this year I purchased new street tires and new track tires. For the street I purchased Hankook RS3 in 255/40/17 and for the track I bought 255/40/17 NT01s. After having run both at various events I would now recommend you buy RS3s (or Dunlop Star Specs) in the biggest size you can make fit..

If I could do it all over again I would have purchased a 265/275 RS3 to use on the track.... they are simply that good! I would say they are nearly.... (if not) superior to the NT01. It seems that the newest street tire compounds are surpassing the older mid range R-comp tires. That being said they still aren't as good as hoosiers or the BFG R1 but those cost a fortune and heat cycle out quickly. I once logged and calculated the cost of the Hoosiers at $1 per minute of HPDE activity LOL!

 

I have been super happy with the NT05s. They are far better than the Star Specs imo.

 

^ you would be the first person that I've heard say that.

 

What I was thinking...

I've always heard Direzza Star Spec > all other street tires.

blackenedwings - Glad to see you're having good luck with the NT05's though. I've been following your build thread and I love it! Keep up the good work, and update it with some pics/vids damnit!

 

^ The RS-3's are actually faster than Star Specs

Guys remember.... he is asking for a more durable DE tire, not the stickiest or fastest.

 

I'm happy with my NT-05's as well, but I use the 01's on the track. The 05's held up better than my brakes when i did have them on the track, boiled my ate blue with DTC-60s. And the tire didn't feel greasy.

 

This is my second and last set of Star Specs. They get too greasy once heated. They are great at communicating when at the limit, which is useful for those drivers that need that feedback. NT01 will be my next choice once these are toast.

 

Yes. This.

And he is asking for some data about how long the tires lasted. Like the the data ReaperX gave. e.g.: number of DE weekends

Bought myself a GoPro today. I'm inching back towards the track...