How to pick the right tires for endurance racing | Project Endurance Race Miata

As our LFX-swapped Miata inches closer to completion, it’s time for an easy task: Ordering wheels and tires.

Except, well, that’s not so easy anymore. Because our Miata is destined for amateur endurance racing, we’ll need to shoe it with 200-treadwear tires. And, thanks to …

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It smells like a new tire test may be needed as well, a 12-15 flying lap test to see which ones keep their speed beyond 20 minutes without becoming greasy and falling off. Knowing how well the nankangs perform under braking, on a platform such as the Miata that doesn't suffer from brake fade issues when properly setup, I feel that you made the correct decision. For a heavier platform with brake cooling concerns, the Rivals or RS-4s may have been the answer. 

Curious about the reasoning behind eliminating the Falken RT660 right out of the gate. We're planning on doing an AER event or two in my E36 this year and I was targeting the Rt660s since they seemed like a decent across-the-board option from the Ultimate Track Tire Guide and are very reasonably priced. (Awesome tool by the way!) What made it seem less durable? Obviously durability is a major factor for AER.

Ed Higginbotham said:

Curious about the reasoning behind eliminating the Falken RT660 right out of the gate. We're planning on doing an AER event or two in my E36 this year and I was targeting the Rt660s since they seemed like a decent across-the-board option from the Ultimate Track Tire Guide and are very reasonably priced. (Awesome tool by the way!) What made it seem less durable? Obviously durability is a major factor for AER.

I believe testing has shown them to be very RE71 like in terms of speed and durability. So a true ripper, but not long for this world.

So what I'm hearing is paying a couple extra doll hairs for the Rival S is probably a good call for AER, yes? It's not a high-horsepower car. It's a NASA Spec3 car. So max power is 189 hp. Weight around 2800.

Ed Higginbotham said:

Curious about the reasoning behind eliminating the Falken RT660 right out of the gate. We're planning on doing an AER event or two in my E36 this year and I was targeting the Rt660s since they seemed like a decent across-the-board option from the Ultimate Track Tire Guide and are very reasonably priced. (Awesome tool by the way!) What made it seem less durable? Obviously durability is a major factor for AER.

Of the tires on that lis the only ones I have experience with are the RT660s.  They're our spec. tire for the Spec. Miatas at Sandia speedway.  At the pointy end of the field we get about 3 hours from a set before the cords are showing.  That's in 20 minute sessions with tire rotations.   Sandia does have a notoriously abrasive surface but even double that life won't get you nine hours.

Disclaimer: I haven't personally driven on RT660s. 

But Andy made it clear that we wouldn't get 9 hours out of them in our Miata. Your BMW might be better thanks to less power and aero, but it's also heavier. The Rival S is a fantastic choice. 

Rivals it is. Thank you everyone for the excellent feedback. I very nearly made a pretty terrible tire choice for our application. 

Tom, are you guys running the AER race at VIR??

We just destroyed RT615k's at the VIR North race in Champ Car with a whacked out alignment after some agricultural excursions. I cannot thank Falken enough for making the tire that resilient to damage as we cooked the E36 M3 out of them lap after lap.

Ill post up pictures of the tires and our alignment settings after i went off and flat out ruined the alignment in hour 4 of the first day.

I'm sort of surprised the rs4 and maxis vr1 (v2) wasn't considered to be on the pace.

Also, do they not yet make the continental (hoosier) in that size yet?

Also, what about the rs3r?  They make it in that size (not sure if available yet).