Tires

[slowautoxr]

You know back a long time ago, I used to air up street tires well over 40# for autox. I don't think I ever went past 50# though.

[g1teg]

This is what you want, if you're not going for actual rallycross tires. Firestone Winterforce work great!

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?width=195/&ratio=75&diameter=14&manufacturer=Firestone

[Jedi1]

when the tax return gets here the winter forces shall be ordered! Thats a darn good deal!

[slowautoxr]

List of rally tires

I made a little list of rally tires and where to get them. I'm sure I missed some suppliers.

[TouringBubble]

when the tax return gets here the winter forces shall be ordered! Thats a darn good deal!

Just don't get those 195s Chris linked. That's a bit large for the Mazda. The 175 or 185 over 65 variety would be great though.

[Jedi1]

they shall be 175's

[g1teg]

Charles, thanks for the info. Maybe someday....

[RUSSOM]

Charles, thanks for the info. Maybe someday....

Yep, thanks Charles! btw, I had plenty of time to chat with Shelton yesterday working a corner and one of his comments was "my dad really gets into the details, he does a lot of research".

[slowautoxr]

I'm an engineer. That's what we do.

[87RX7RACER]

Are rally tires just as important in the front as the rear on a RWD car(i.e. my RX7)?

[Jedi1]

That all depends, do you want the car to turn or just go straight regardless of whether you've turned the wheel or not?

[slowautoxr]

You want rally tires on all four corners. You'll notice that the fronts tend to wear more on the shoulders.

[87RX7RACER]

Yeah a big problem I had was rear grip. I kept thinking that if I had tractor tires on the back that I could just drift the whole course Saturday...lol. I plan on getting some tires soon(money permitting).

-Vincent

[X-RAT]

<Just my opinion, no scientific testing or statistical studies involved>

On a RWD vehicle, I can see where rally tires (or similar) would be useful on the front due to the steering that goes on up there.

However, I'm not sure how much good they would do on the rear of a FWD vehicle, since there is no pulling or steering going on back there.

[TouringBubble]

I agree with the above. 4 corners are 100% needed for RWD and AWD as all 4 wheels do something important. With FWD, the rear just kind of hangs out behind you. Better tires in the rear may make the rear end more predictable and controllable in a slide, but you should still be able to use the throttle to pull the rear back in line if the front tires are good enough to find some grip.