The great tire quest. (or atleast some decent ones...)

Okay so I purchased a 1991 Camaro RS for autocross use to take over the SAAB's place. Since this car will be pretty much auto-x use only, I'm looking for something close to the limit in street tire class. After reading the reviews in GRM, the Kumho XS seems the tire of choice, bad news is they don't make a 245/50 16" tire, next size up is a 265/45 16", now I'm all for the increased width, but I'm concerned with fitment on the the stock wheels up front. Has anyone tried this combo yet?

And if I can't get those tires to fit, how do ya'll feel about mixing and matching tires..say the 265 Kumho's in back (there's plenty of room in there) and running the stock 245 sized Yokohama AVS ES100's in the front.. I'm open to suggestions

Thanks, Aaron

I would not reccomend doing the kumho's in the back and yoks in the front. I think you would be much better off with any of the following sets of 4 assuming you can get them in your size: toyo R1R Bridgestone RE11R Dunlop Star Spec Hankook Rs3

Are the stock wheels staggered on the camaro?

In reply to mw:

Stock size all around on a Z28 is 245/50 16". and No they don't make any of those tires in that size, at least that I have seen on Tire Racks site. The lowest UTOG rating performace tire on there site is the Yokohama AVS ES100, and the Goodyear Eagle F1, both rated at 280.

How much street use will the car be getting? You can get toyo R888's (a harder R compound) in 255/50/16. If you don't mind the shorter gearing, you can get the 245/45/16 Hankook RS2's. The 265/45/16 kumho's should have an 8.5" rim. I wouldn't use them on anything less than 8".

In reply to mw:

Yeah I saw those come up in my searches but, I'm sticking to the Tire Class in my region so no R compound tires, have to have at least 140 UTOG rating on the ones I get.

Thanks

I ran RE01Rs last season in STU (140+up treadwear) on my e36 M3 (the car, not the smelly brown stuff) and they were good but didn't manage heat well.

I bought a set of Direzza Z1 Star Specs this spring and have left them on the car for street driving, autocrosses, and track days at VIR, Summit Shenandoah and Summit Main in conditions from cold and torrentially bucketing rain to hot, dry and grippy. They have worked really well in all of these arenas.

They offer very good feedback as you get close to the limits and if you get 'em a little hot n' greasy pushing too hard on track, they'll come back in a half a lap if you give them a bit of rest. They're comfortable on the street, turn-in is pretty good, and steady state grip is very good. I was doing T4 on Summit main at about 100 w/o braking and it felt solid...For the money I think they're great.

At the autocross I've seen folks w/ RE11s and Kumho XSs though, so the tire de jour may be trending that way this week.

Are you running a region-specific "normal class but with street tire" designation, or the ST category? If the latter, you might have some better luck going up to 17" wheels...

In reply to szeis4cookie:

It's a regional street tire pax class, so for right now I'm staying in F-Stock with it.