autocross tires?

[rdgonzo]

Rick Gonzales here. Hey I just bought a 1994 miata. I am thinking about new tires, And need some input. I want tires that I can leave on the car, that I can run stock class, and fit on my 14x6 wheels. Which tires are getting the best times?
Are any autocross tires considered race tires with the Honda & BMW clubs? I am also wondering the best shock choice?

thanks, rdgonzo

[Miatamoto]

Rick,
I'd suggest some of the Falken Azenis RT215s if you can find them. I'm running them on my 14x6 wheels and they are a great street/autoX tire. I don't think they are in production anymore, but if you can find them they are a great bargain.


Another tire you should check out is the Hankook RS-2. They are a little more expensive, not much and a lot of the guys on this forum have had good luck with these.

[sammm]

Welcome aboard Rick! Not sure what part of town you're in, but we have a 'club' deal for tires at the Discount in Hurst on Pipeline. Drop me a PM if you're interested and I'll give you the info you'll need.Azeni's (old model) or Hankook RS-2 seem to be the tire of choice for AX.

[gabkwong]

You can still find the Falken Azenis RT215s at Edgeracing.com. It is rated as 2nd best AX tire by Grass Root Magazine. Second only to the new Falken by a small margin! The new Falken cost 50% more! Get a set before they all gone!

[juxt3r]

I recently saw 195/60-14 RT-215s on vulcantire.com for a whopping $47 each. I see that the edgeracing.com price is the same. Not sure what your budget looks like, but at that price point, you might consider just picking up a set to try out.
edgeracing has the tip on shipping by a few bucks, by the way.

[Miatamoto]

Forgot a couple things about the Azenis RT-215s (since you'll be using them for daily driving also):

- Noisy as hell
- not very good wet performance (at least in standing water)
- low treadwear

The Hankooks seem to be better at the first two bullets but neither of them are going to last too long. I believe that edgeracing.com also has a pretty good price on the Hankooks.

[altiain]

Rick Gonzales here. Hey I just bought a 1994 miata. I am thinking about new tires, And need some input. I want tires that I can leave on the car, that I can run stock class, and fit on my 14x6 wheels. Which tires are getting the best times?
Are any autocross tires considered race tires with the Honda & BMW clubs? I am also wondering the best shock choice?

thanks, rdgonzo

Welcome to the board, Rick!

As mentioned above, the Azenis (RT-215 or the newer RT-615), or the Hankook RS-2s seem to be the most popular street tires for autocrossing. They're all available in sizes that will work on your wheels, and you can run TES with SCCA and ER, Miata (instead of Miata R) with S2k, and Z Class with BMWCCA. The three tires are close enough in performance that I'd probably opt for whichever one I could find the cheapest.

As for budget shocks, a lot of us are running KYB AGXs, available new on ebay for less than $300 a set shipped. I've been using them this season, and I'm very pleased with them. I like them better than the Konis I used to have.

[Miatamoto]

Welcome to the board, Rick!

As mentioned above, the Azenis (RT-215 or the newer RT-615), or the Hankook RS-2s seem to be the most popular street tires for autocrossing. They're all available in sizes that will work on your wheels, and you can run TES with SCCA and ER, Miata (instead of Miata R) with S2k, and Z Class with BMWCCA. The three tires are close enough in performance that I'd probably opt for whichever one I could find the cheapest.

As for budget shocks, a lot of us are running KYB AGXs, available new on ebay for less than $300 a set shipped. I've been using them this season, and I'm very pleased with them. I like them better than the Konis I used to have.

Correction: X class with BMWCCA

I'm also running AGXs from from Ebay along with a Racing Beat front sway bar. I'm very happy with the shocks for the money and the package as a whole works great.