A what tire question: new to autocross

There are only two pieces of homework that I give students. The first is usually hand position. With rare exceptions, your hands are between 10-2 and 9-3 and they don't move. They don't shuffle. You don't reach one hand over the other. You don't spin the wheel on your palm. You don't let go of the wheel and catch it as it unwinds. Autocross mode is hands on the wheel, elbows free of arm rests. Steer the car into turns, unsteer in out. Consciously practice that at normal speeds and put it into muscle memory. When our minds are at peak processing power we fall back on our habits. 

Second is to really practice looking through corners. Eyes up off the front of the car. Again, the idea is to take control of something you don't consciously do. As you approach from far off you notice how a corner is shaped, where the apex is, what hazards are around and what is on the other side. As you enter the corner force your eyes up so you're looking 100-300 feet down the road and not at the corner. Day to day we corner looking at the front of the car (so we miss curbs and potholes and what not) and 100-200-300 feet ahead are in our unconscious vision. The goal is to flip that so that our focus is ahead of the car and the small corrections happen almost without us thinking about them. 

I never tell students to practice speed based things on the road. A car with high limits is doing everything too fast to make that possible. What you're doing with hands and eye exercises is like the slow motion stuff that martial arts students do. You create the neural connections and habits so that when it is time to punch, the punch just happens. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

The hands i already do except for backing up in parking lots.

Looking ahead: ill work on tgat! I drive 500-1000 miles a week on rural two lane roads. Perfect place to practice. And, i can do it in ANYTHING  not just the challenge car. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

In all hoestly the hands thing is on the forefront of my mind because four and a half years ago I got a very enthusiastic spacecadet as a student at a PCA autocross. I sent him home with only one thing to work on, hands. His were terrrrrrrrrrible. Yesterday he won a trophy at nationals. 

I like to think it's my hands homework that did it, but it's really a ton of hard work on his part. He came to the event thinking that he just needed better lines and he'd totally be fast and he left with a very open mind about re-making himself as a driver. I'm currently over the moon for his success. 

The looking really far ahead is surprisingly difficult with all the rolling hills and trees ive driven so far today. But, good practice! Generally max sight distance is about 100 yards 

Trying to out think mother nature for the challenge, im debating pulling the trigger on a set this week. For rain tires at the challenge. 

Since nationals and autocross season has come and gone in much of the world, fo we have any new feedback between the falken and federal? 

Which works over a broader temperature range? We autocross year round here, from freezing (30s) to boiling (100+ in the shade) 

What about wet weather? 

Or is autocrossing in the rain one of tjose things that as long as theres tread, its all equal? Same with really cold weather. 

If Stampie isn't actually running that Miata with the wheel/tire package on it he bought from me, that is the perfect wet weather setup for you if you can borrow it in budget.

In reply to ProDarwin :

I doubt they would be on budget, but i texted him.

HOWEVER, for my education, can we discuss cold/wet autocross tires? Or am i completely overthinking it again?

ECS was the top dog in the wet last time I saw a test from GRM.  The Firehawk and the PS4S are both on bar/better even in TR testing, but the Michelin is not available on <17" wheels.

IIRC it really needs to be WET for the advantage over 200TW stuff.  If the track doesn't have standing water, I'd run 200TW.

As fars as which 200TW is currently best in wet... I dunno but I am curious.

Best all around would be either the RE71R or A052 probably. For seriously wet stuff the ECS is better in pure standing water but for just wet conditions the michelin is better. Not sure where the line is on the wetness scale of where the michelin becomes better than the RE71R. All the comments I've seen are that the falkens are atrocious in the wet and worse in cold/wet. My personal experience was that they worked reasonably well in the wet on the street, but I never autocrossed on them so that's not a great data point. I can't imagine the federals are any better in...any conditions. If the choice was those two tires or michelins or ECS I'd pick one of the latter two, the ECSs if I was budget limited as they're super cheap. Compound and tread pattern are definitely factors, not just tread depth, don't try driving rivals through standing water.

In reply to dps214 :

The issue with the Michelins is that they are only available in 17"+ sizes.

I had been planning to buy a set of the ECS after my very good results with the the Conti DWS. They're the best street tires I've had.

I ordered a set of Firehawks instead due only to the price difference. I'm sure the Contis would be better, but cost is a factor.

We'll see what I think. I swore off Firestone for life after getting burned on the belt slip on the Firestone 500s, and again on the tires that Firestone replaced the 500 with (the 721, which came on a car I bought).

Since I bought a set of RE-71r for the ES miata, I had already compromised my commitment. I hope I don't regret it.

200tw tires dont work below 40-45 degrees right? UHP Summers?

Duster mentioned winter autocross in the 30s

Do they just not grip, or does bad stuff happen to them in the cold?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Basically just not gripping, but the degree of not gripping is very dependant on the tire. There was some talk of certain tires cracking in the extreme cold but I don't think that's any of the current crop. Someone will soon correct me if that's wrong. The more all seasony the tire is (like the Conti ECS or PS4S) the better they seem to work as real tires and not just pure autocross tires. The downside is that they're slower as autocross tires. Always a trade off. 

What about A7's in the rain? Better or worse than a street tire in the rain?

maschinenbau said:

What about A7's in the rain? Better or worse than a street tire in the rain?

A7 doesn't have any tread pattern - it's a DOT slick. Pretty much any street tire will be better in the rain.

In reply to collinskl1 :

For standing water I agree, but what about just wet pavement? I imagine the compound would have an advantage.

The CSR i talked to said below 45 degrees a lot of UHP summers "turn off unpredictably" which can be a big safety issue if you drive your Miata like me.