What wheel/tire combo would you choose for autocrossing fun?

[303mike]

Hi all,
I am currently in the weeds trying to decide on the best option and I'm hoping you can help. I am looking to get back into autocrossing just for fun. I'm not concerned about building a nationally competitive car, I just want to have fun. My 2017 FiST is stock, except for Swift Spec-R springs and a Mishimoto intake. That puts me in GST and I'm fine with that, but I don't want to go into SP. My street wheel/tire combo is 16x8 Konig Dekagrams wrapped in 215/45 Falken Azenis RT615K+s, but my tires are just about done. I could either keep my current setup or get dedicated wheels and tires for autoX and a street setup with a little more longevity that still yields fun on the occasional on or off-ramp. Money is a factor, of course. The easy, and not necessarily wrong, answer is to buy another set of 16" Dekagrams with 215/45 Azenis RT660+s (or, ?) for autoX, get 205/45 Firehawk Indy 500s for the street, and call it done. Another easy answer is to keep doing what I'm doing - buy another set of RT615K+s, and run them both on the street and at events. Then there is the option of going a little crazy with 15" wheels and something like 225/45/15 Kumho Ecsta V730s, but I'm having trouble finding 15" wheels that would fit.
My head is spinning.
Help?
Thank you

 

[fk8fist]

I plan on going with these next. I run 15x8 team dynamics.
Here’s your size.
https://soloperformance.com/product...7JeT5NCz0DQULSN7hoFPkt9VPea1ldDYBAmxp84SXoajh

 

[dhminer]

Two sets of 15s made for our cars. I’d just run the dekas and 615k+ for street and auto x though, unless you’re planning on running quite a few events or the surface is awful at them.

https://philstireservice.com/product/classic-pro-race-1-2-ford-fiesta-and-focus/

https://philstireservice.com/product/ke-motorsport-pro-t12-15x8-4x108-ford-fiesta-and-focus/

 

[M-Sport fan]

I plan on going with these next. I run 15x8 team dynamics.
Here’s your size.
https://soloperformance.com/product...7JeT5NCz0DQULSN7hoFPkt9VPea1ldDYBAmxp84SXoajh

Damn, that is a lot of coin for that size tire in a non-brand name!

I paid way less than that for my AD09s in a 215/40-17.

 

[WannabeST]

I'm always a fan of an extra set of wheel for the track vs the street. Get a set of 15x8 and slap some endurance 200tw tires on it, in a 205/50/15 size and just have fun

 

[dhminer]

I'm always a fan of an extra set of wheel for the track vs the street. Get a set of 15x8 and slap some endurance 200tw tires on it, in a 205/50/15 size and just have fun

I’ve always just ran track-capable tires on the street. I’m a shit driver though, tires don’t limit my lap times anywhere near as much as my skill level does lol.

 

[WannabeST]

I’ve always just ran track-capable tires on the street. I’m a shit driver though, tires don’t limit my lap times anywhere near as much as my skill level does lol.

I usually drive my track tires on the street too lol. But I hate wasting my good expensive tires on things like canyon runs. It's extra heat cycles and wear and just makes the tires slower for the track, where it matters lol.

 

[Downsy]

Hi all,
I am currently in the weeds trying to decide on the best option and I'm hoping you can help. I am looking to get back into autocrossing just for fun. I'm not concerned about building a nationally competitive car, I just want to have fun. My 2017 FiST is stock, except for Swift Spec-R springs and a Mishimoto intake. That puts me in GST and I'm fine with that, but I don't want to go into SP. My street wheel/tire combo is 16x8 Konig Dekagrams wrapped in 215/45 Falken Azenis RT615K+s, but my tires are just about done. I could either keep my current setup or get dedicated wheels and tires for autoX and a street setup with a little more longevity that still yields fun on the occasional on or off-ramp. Money is a factor, of course. The easy, and not necessarily wrong, answer is to buy another set of 16" Dekagrams with 215/45 Azenis RT660+s (or, ?) for autoX, get 205/45 Firehawk Indy 500s for the street, and call it done. Another easy answer is to keep doing what I'm doing - buy another set of RT615K+s, and run them both on the street and at events. Then there is the option of going a little crazy with 15" wheels and something like 225/45/15 Kumho Ecsta V730s, but I'm having trouble finding 15" wheels that would fit.
My head is spinning.
Help?
Thank you

If you're not dead set on having a 200 treadwear tire for the street, then there are options out there in summer tires in the 400 TW range that will last much longer and still have good grip for spirited driving. I've personally run Kumho PS31s on Miatas, a Speed3, Mustang GT, and a now the FiST, on 16 in Lockouts. My only gripe with them is they're directional, so if you want to do rotations the proper way you have to dismount and re mount them. I usually just do a front->rear rotation and let it roll so to speak. To me, it just seems kind of redundant to have 2 sets of 200TW tires to do different jobs. If you're going to go through the hassle of swapping wheels/tires around, might as well get tires that do different jobs better than the other. My "other" tires are RT660s (Edit-will probably be RT615K+ soonish) on 16 in Dekagrams for autocross or if I'm going to make a weekend trip to Arkansas to drive around on nice twisties.

 

[fk8fist]

Damn, that is a lot of coin for that size tire in a non-brand name!

I paid way less than that for my AD09s in a 215/40-17.

Okay? They’re a better tire

 

[Downsy]

Okay? They’re a better tire

I had never heard of them until your post. I think that's what M-Sport meant when he said "non-brand name", and that is a steep price for an unknown tire when other more established brands and tires exist for 100 dollars less? After doing some digging, they seem to be a relative newcomer to the US market as of 2ish years ago or so. Looks like they're sponsoring Formula Drift? From what I found they were possibly Chilean at some point but are owned by a Chinese company with the tires made in China and imported. I stumbled across a REDDIT autocross post saying they're not legal for SCCA Time Attack or Solo use, or at least weren't at some point, and that their "200TW" isn't accurate and should be closer to 100TW. Apparently, it's quite the pot stirring tire lol.


REDDIT AUTOX POST

An interesting quote from that thread

The P1 is a 100TW tire (the Tempesta Wraith, now rebranded as the Tempesta P1), being imported by a company owned by Sammy Valafar, who's banned from SCCA for life for repeated cheating, rebranded as a 200TW tire. Oh, and the company is super questionable, and has been shipping tires that for some reason have information on the tire sticker ripped off (very intentionally).
Oh, and those tire stickers also say "COMPETITION USE ONLY - NOT FOR STREET USE".
So, they're probably totally fine as tires go, and maybe even faster than the current crop of "super 200s", but they're almost certainly not 200 TW tires, and the US distributor is sketchy to say the last. And yes I realize that treadwear numbers aren't regulated, but when a tire is listed as 100TW elsewhere then gets imported as 200TW, that's clearly gaming the system.

And a link to a thread on Grass Roots Motorsports about it as well.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/the-vitour-p1-drama-is-getting-spicy-today/261486/page4/

 

[hawyee]

The P1 drama is pretty old news, Sammy got fired as a distributor and it's legal for SCCA use now. If you're trying to go the fastest with this platform I think the 245-40-15 on a custom 15x9" wheel up front and 205 or 225 rear on the 8" wheel will be the way to go. If it's just a fun/endurance setup the 15x8" TDs square are great, that's what I'm currently running with RS4s for Nürburgring lapping. 16s are also great with the 215-45 size, can't really go wrong there but I'm using my 16x7" rpf1s as the daily setup.

 

[303mike]

Sorry for the late response, but thank you for all the advice. I decided to stick with the Falken 615s for dual use and track how many events I do. If I attend events consistently, then moving to the 15x8s and whatever tire is the most popular at that time will make sense financially.