Which R-comps for next season?

[YoursTruly]

From what I can tell, R-comps are legal in C-stock, so I am thinking of running R-comps next season and I have been shopping around to find the right model and size.

First question: I have 6" wide stock miata rims, should I go with a conservative 205/50r15 or go all out at a 225/45r15?

Second question: Which model do you recommend and why? The options I have so far are the Kumho V710, Hoosier A6, Hankook Z214, and Nitto NT01. I have read/heard both good and bad things about each tire.

Unfortunately, I have searched high and low for definitive pros/cons to each tire and all I have gotten is that each track/car has its own characteristics.

Which tire has worked decently well and lasted more a precious few events on our surface?

[Erv]

Budget will determine your rcomps. The A6 is the hands down tire to have though.

[YoursTruly]

Budget will determine your rcomps. The A6 is the hands down tire to have though.

True enough. I am sort of leaning towards the Hankook because of its price, but I was told that they wear out really fast on our surface. Fast enough that it may actually be a worse value than the Hoosier. Any thoughts on this?

[cjwsrt]

True enough. I am sort of leaning towards the Hankook because of its price, but I was told that they wear out really fast on our surface. Fast enough that it may actually be a worse value than the Hoosier. Any thoughts on this?

Ive used the V710, A6 and Z214 hankooks. The a6 is definetly a better tire but $100+ more a tire and they dont last very long on my car with 2 drivers. The hankooks I am very happy with, heat up well but same as the a6 dont like 2 drivers. For us it is the v710 next year, fast tire, heat up good with 2 drivers and will last. A lot of the miata guys I see run the a6's and are very fast with them. May be odd of me to notice but I see a lot of heavier cars run the kuhmo's and lighter cars run a6's
also the a6's run about 1/2 inch wider the the z214 in a 245
Just my 2cents

[Erv]

I certainly had no complaints for the v710's, I bought z214's but never ran them

[JohnW8]

Look also for "freshness". Tire rack hasn't had a new shipment of Kumhos for a while and some of their stock is literally 3 years old. The Hoosiers are king at the moment but BF Goodrich has a good R-comp as well as Goodyear but they are as expensive as the Hoosier.

The kooks are decent and hold up well but at the expense of grip. IF you're going to spend the money for grip wouldn't it be nice to have all you can get?

On a 6" rim go with the 205 for less weight. You'll use all of the tread of a 205 whereas the 225 on a 6" rim will physically fit, the shoulders will be off the ground most of the time. There's no need to pay for a wider tire if you only use 80% of the contact patch.

If you want to try 225's A6's I have a used set for sale for cheap.

[Cholewa]

Prod around on the national forum to see the average life expectancy of most of these tires.

I recall someone saying the new hoosiers only last 30-40 runs, which in our region, is 5-6 out of 10 events.

[JohnW8]

Hoosier will get you fantastic grip for 10-25 runs, great grip for 30-50 runs, Hankook grip for 50-60 runs and decline from there.

Darryl has had great life span on his 275's

[engled]

An alignment that will get the most grip and life out of Hoosiers will leave a lot to be desired on the street in fact it might even be a little dangerous.

What shocks do you have on your car?

[kilgojr]

You could also look at past use of people that have Rcomps and people that use low treadwear (Hankook RS-3, Toyo, etc). John Waight sometimes run quicker on his Toyo's then with the Rcomps.

There are MANY ways to get a tire soft. Our surface is not exceptional. So there are ways to cheat it. There are rubber softeners out there, that Karting guys, dirt track guys, and many road racers use.

My opinion would be, get a durometer. Test your tires. Go to Darryl's tires before he runs and see what the durometer of his A6's are. Go to the Webb's and see what theres are. Then go to Rod's tires and see what the durometer says on his RS-3's. Write all of that down. That will give you a good idea of what the "real" softness of each tire is, as opposed to the treadwear rating (which is really just a number that companies use to rate their tire).

Then look at companies like this http://www.hdmworld.com/tirepreps.htm and you could potentially get a "140 to 200" treadwear tire to be as 'soft' as a "0 to 40" treadwear R comp for way less money.

[JohnW8]

John Kilgore is right. Our current lot is such that R-Comps don't give you much of an advantage. If other cars in your class are running R-Comps then it's a no-brainer to run them in order to be on equal footing. IF the rest of my class was running street tires I would run them as well.

[Chuck Baader]

Have two sets of Hoosier A6 225-45-15 for sale. One set has 4 heat cycles, the other 3. $200/set. Chuck

[Sparky]

On a 15x6 rim I would get Toyo R1R 195/50-15s and be done with it. Just look at the ST and STS times at any national event and you will see how good these tires are. The street touring cars in STS run the same times as their stock class counterparts on R compounds. Sure you can attribute about a second of that to suspension tuning and other allowed mods but that tire is as close to a R-comp as you can get in a street tire. So good that the SCCA is thinking about banning them next year.

Make sure and get the 195/50-15. It's the only one that features a soft compound all the way through the tread depth. Other sizes transition to a harder compound at the wear bars. 195 is more than enough for a 6" rim. The ST guys run that size on 7.5" rims. Street tires don't benefit from going wider the way r-comps with their cantilevered sidewall do; they just get numb and difficult to control at the limit.

[SamC]

On a 15x6 rim I would get Toyo R1R 195/50-15s and be done with it. Just look at the ST and STS times at any national event and you will see how good these tires are. The street touring cars in STS run the same times as their stock class counterparts on R compounds. Sure you can attribute about a second of that to suspension tuning and other allowed mods but that tire is as close to a R-comp as you can get in a street tire. So good that the SCCA is thinking about banning them next year.

Make sure and get the 195/50-15. It's the only one that features a soft compound all the way through the tread depth. Other sizes transition to a harder compound at the wear bars. 195 is more than enough for a 6" rim. The ST guys run that size on 7.5" rims. Street tires don't benefit from going wider the way r-comps with their cantilevered sidewall do; they just get numb and difficult to control at the limit.

Would they be better than the rs3s if you couldn't get that size?

[revvhappy]

The 195-15 R1R are the gold standard if you're going to run street tires. Nothing else is even close.