Tires for my Miata-HPDE/street

[TPolen]

I want to buy a set of tires for my 1990 Miata. It is my daily driver and I want to do HPDE also. Any thoughts? Also, I live in Sonoma county and I want to find a shop to work on my car. Any shops that specialize in Miata's in the area or just a trustworthy shop that won't pull my pants down.......Thanks

Thaddeus

[Jon62]

I use a set of Kumho Ecsta XS, 205 / 50 / R15 on my "91 Miata. Got mine from Tire Rack around $97 each.

 

I drive the car to the track and run them during sessions. So far so good and appear very stable...Great grip...

 

Going out with about 34 PSI in them, coming in around 41 - 42 PSI...

 

Appears to be lots of choices in the smaller sizes...

[STRINGER]

any performance street performance will serve you well for a while. Dont be cheap, but dont spend a ton of money either.

 

Kumho, Falken, Hankook, Bridgestone, etc all have a good line of performance street tires.

 

Considering you have 15 inch rims...get 205/50/15's. If you have 14 inch rims...get the cheapest 185/60/14's you can find in a decent tire...or try to find a 185/50/14 if you can. In the 14's expect to loose 1/2 inch of the outside of the tread as they will roll over.

 

http://www.tannerdog.com/stuff/100_1086.JPG

 

Notice the 1/2 inch of blue on my Falkens from a couple of years ago. They were 185/60/14's. Thats where your going to get the most of your wear and tear.

[nasaregistrar]

any performance street performance will serve you well for a while. Dont be cheap, but dont spend a ton of money either.

 

Kumho, Falken, Hankook, Bridgestone, etc all have a good line of performance street tires.

 

Considering you have 15 inch rims...get 205/50/15's. If you have 14 inch rims...get the cheapest 185/60/14's you can find in a decent tire...or try to find a 185/50/14 if you can. In the 14's expect to loose 1/2 inch of the outside of the tread as they will roll over.

 

http://www.tannerdog.com/stuff/100_1086.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

Notice the 1/2 inch of blue on my Falkens from a couple of years ago. They were 185/60/14's. Thats where your going to get the most of your wear and tear.

Linky no worky!

[STRINGER]

works for me Sean...hmmmm

[nasaregistrar]

works for me Sean...hmmmm

Jooooooo fixed it. It no worky before!!!

[dbright007]

My Hankook RS2 that I drive to the track and then HPDE on are about shot.

Was going to switch to the Kuhmo XS.

What are the thoughts on just buying unshaved R comps and driving those back and forth to the track? I mean keep them on permanently also. Miata is my second car, and most of its life is drives on or to the track..

[jason]

Any R comps I've used have NO useable tread from the get-go. Nothing to shave. Nothing to shed water. If you trust your weatherman and live near the track you can drive on them, but inevitably, you will get caught out at some point. I used a tag-along trailer for a couple of years, saved me enough to make it well worth all the hassle of changing tires at the track.

[Lucid Moments]

My Hankook RS2 that I drive to the track and then HPDE on are about shot.

Was going to switch to the Kuhmo XS.

What are the thoughts on just buying unshaved R comps and driving those back and forth to the track? I mean keep them on permanently also. Miata is my second car, and most of its life is drives on or to the track..

 

You profile says Smyrna so the closest track to you would be Road Atlanta. I wouldn't drive on any Rcomps from Smyrna to RA, much less any tracks further away.

[kbrew8991]

even when I was 45min away from RoadAtl and using RA1s I wouldn't drive on them to the track

[dbright007]

3 definitive "no" then.

I had heard other advice that unshaved R888, RA1 type tires were ok for the drive back and forth and would be an improvement on track over the RS2 and XS type tire.

Never hurts to ask and hear advice.

 

May just have to stick with the streets for another set. Trailer, wheels and comps just are not all in the budget. Gotta have seats worked out first and can't do it all at once.

[kbrew8991]

they'll be faster, but I still wouldn't put heat cycles and wear on them doing that

 

you'll get there shop for used stuff, I'm sure someone out there needs to make a deal on some SpecMiata stuff