225/45/15
Used Hoho A6s from John B - $145 each @ 75% tread left.
New Hankook Z214/C71s from TR - $173 each @ brand new.
WWGRMD?
Caveat #1: Currently have old hard 205/50/15 Khumo V700s on the car.
Caveat #2: I may want to go with 225/50/15s in order to stretch 2nd gear a bit. Currently I'm stuck between 2nd and 3rd on many larger courses, because I don't like to go over 6000-6500 for more than a second or two because of the blower.
Brand new. Used Hoosiers are a crap shoot. They heat cycle out so quickly they almost never wear out the tread before they are hockey pucks.
I like my $300 set of used 225/50R15 V710s. Of the options you listed I would go with the new C71s. I am not a good enough driver to benefit from wasting money on either yet. In fact, I spent last month autocrossing on a free set of Kumho XSes to save the cheap V710s--it may have even helped once I swapped back to the V710s this past Sunday.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Brand new. Used Hoosiers are a crap shoot. They heat cycle out so quickly they almost never wear out the tread before they are hockey pucks.
I ran some used Hoosiers for one event. It's difficult to wrap your head around how bad they can be. Plenty of rubber, but no grip at all. I agree with GPS - new Hankooks. I've not used them, but seen guys go plenty fast on them.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Brand new. Used Hoosiers are a crap shoot. They heat cycle out so quickly they almost never wear out the tread before they are hockey pucks.
That's more or less what I was thinking. New A6s are out of the picture because I need to buy 15x9 wheels at the same time so I just cannot buy a grand's worth of rubber AND 6 large in wheels at the same time.
Matthew Huizing wrote: I like my $300 set of used 225/50R15 V710s. Of the options you listed I would go with the new C71s. I am not a good enough driver to benefit from wasting money on either yet.
Well, I started with a $300 used set of V700s. 2-and-a-half autocross seasons later, I'm still on them, they were old when the PO had them, and mine are 700s anyway, not 710s. I'm not a great driver yet, either, but I just cannot get the power or the braking down with these. I will keep them for track days, probably, but I need moar width and moar freshness.
Duke wrote: I'm not a great driver yet, either, but I just cannot get the power or the braking down with these. I will keep them for track days, probably, but I need moar width and moar freshness.
Autocross tires just don't get power down in general. I would actually suggest getting RS-3s or one of the softer sidewalled tires (DW, R1R, S-04, AD08.) Otherwise just lowering the air pressure in the rear can help.
If you want to try something really crazy look at UHP winter tires, my used 245/40R17 Dunlop SP Winter Sports put power down pretty well. Great, now I feel compelled to test those on the 325i. I need to find a pair of dirt cheap wide 17" rims...
Used Hoosiers should really be measured in number if autox runs. If its over 20, kooks will be faster and last longer.
The tired old R6s on the Mustang have no grip at all.
Looking forward to getting some new, budget exempted Khumos.
For value pricing in new autox tires the BFG Sports Comp-2 put down power pretty well. Decent for street use as well.
To build on what the others have said, the only real reason to run used tires is if they are exceedingly cheap or free, otherwise buy new, you'll get more heat cycles/life out of them and when you add in the cost more frequent mounting and balancing you'll eat that small price gap up pretty quickly...
That said I do run them but I get continental cup take offs in the ~$50 range and have on more than one occasion picked up sets of hoosier SM6's for free. Tip hang around after an SCCA weekend at the track you go to chances are the hoosier dealer there will be getting rid of them and let you have the pick of the take offs (less tires for him to move into the trailer) before they go to resellers like john b.
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