Anybody tried the Mickey Thompson Street Comp tires?

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:15 pm

This is a 300 UTQG UHP Summer tire i'm looking at to put on the Camaro, the treadwear is exactly the same as Michelin PSSs but from my reading you can't really go by the treadwear rating between manufacturers.

They're fairly cheap and other reviews seem good but there isn't a lot out there since they've only been around a couple years. I did find that they're apparently Cooper RS3 rebranded tires, but they don't look exactly the same.

I've heard the sidewall is very stiff since per M/T they were designed for modern muscle cars like the Mustang, Challenger and Camaro which are all pretty hefty in the weight department.

For the price I think i'm willing to give them a shot and see how they do, I suspect they'll do better than the Nitto Invos that are on my car now. I don't have a second set of wheels and the rear invos are starting to get low so i'm planning ahead.

The other option I was looking at was the Nitto NT05 but it's a 200 UTQG so I suspect they will grip better but probably won't last very long. It's always a tough decision for a daily driver, I probably will run stock 20x9 rear wheels on all 4 corners though since the Camaro has terrible understeer with 245s up front and 275s on the back.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:51 am

Get Dunlop Z2s

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Tire Rack doesn't list Z2s in 20" sizes... they only go up to 19s.

Chad - I haven't seen a Mickey Thompson tire at an autocross in a while. Bob Kendrick ran them on his Park Avenue GT. Might have been bias-plies, but they were wide, like the Buick

That said, you're just getting started with autocross, so don't sweat the tire choice too much this time. Buy a performance-oriented tire within your budget, then go have fun and work on your car control and technique this year.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:42 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Tire Rack doesn't list Z2s in 20" sizes... they only go up to 19s.

Chad - I haven't seen a Mickey Thompson tire at an autocross in a while. Bob Kendrick ran them on his Park Avenue GT. Might have been bias-plies, but they were wide, like the Buick

That said, you're just getting started with autocross, so don't sweat the tire choice too much this time. Buy a performance-oriented tire within your budget, then go have fun and work on your car control and technique this year.

Yeah, the M/Ts are apparently closely resembled Cooper RS3-S tires with the tread slightly redesigned. The attractiveness is the price, I think I can get 4 for less than 800 bucks. The Nitto Invos I have now have actually treated me quite well, they grip decent and are fairly predictable close to the edge of grip. I really just need rear tires, so maybe i'll keep the 245 Invos in front and just pickup 2 new 275 rear Invos which will probably mean by the time I wear them out the fronts will be done too. I guess 420 RWHP just wears out the rear tires faster, lol. I want to move to a 275 all around setup at some point.

I'm pretty tempted not to drop a bunch of money on tires since I noticed that Danville tends to chew up tires pretty bad, I guess the pavement does that. If i'm going to wear out the shoulders pretty quick i'd rather buy cheaper tires that work fine, than have the best tires money can buy.

The downside to the Camaro is certainly tire selection, none of the performance 200 treadwear tires are available except the Nitto NT05, if I drop down to a 275/35 the options open a bit more, but in a 275/40 pickings are pretty slim.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 2:53 pm

BFG Rivals are available in 20" sizes. Maybe you could make a 265/35-20 front and 285/35-20 rear work?

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 4:04 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

BFG Rivals are available in 20" sizes. Maybe you could make a 265/35-20 front and 285/35-20 rear work?

285/35R20 would work if I bought some new wheels, currently my wheel options are either 20x8 in front, or I have 4 20x9 stock wheels. I think 275 on a 20x9 is already a bit narrow, so ideally 20x10 would probably be best for a 285. I do plan on going with some wider wheels at some point, likely 20x10 and running a 285 on that all around, this is the setup that the 1LE equipped Camaros run and it supposedly works quite well.

My car suffers pretty badly in stock form from excessive understeer so running a square setup should help that quite a bit.

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:54 pm

v8 autocross rwd is great fun.I have a 6cyl rwd sedan,bmw e30.Autocross for me,was 6cyl skinny tires and rwd when i started.Datsun 280z,so i can imagine v8 rwd will be great fun.There is a dude that comes out,in a black ss like 99 or so.He has awesome skills,its a stock ish camaro v8.But at nccar in the rain one time,he was drifting the hell out of it,funny thing is...A dude showed up in a nissan 350z,a purple one..modded to the wind,said he was a drifter..HE could not go fast at all,but the camaro was sideways everywhere.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2015 8:02 pm

Pete Guthrie wrote:

v8 autocross rwd is great fun.I have a 6cyl rwd sedan,bmw e30.Autocross for me,was 6cyl skinny tires and rwd when i started.Datsun 280z,so i can imagine v8 rwd will be great fun.There is a dude that comes out,in a black ss like 99 or so.He has awesome skills,its a stock ish camaro v8.But at nccar in the rain one time,he was drifting the hell out of it,funny thing is...A dude showed up in a nissan 350z,a purple one..modded to the wind,said he was a drifter..HE could not go fast at all,but the camaro was sideways everywhere.

The Camaro is certainly great fun. I find that the guys that are fast don't show up in flashy heavily modded cars, they spend their money on the stuff you can't see.

I have had plenty of fun in the rain driving the Camaro, it's about the only time on the street you can kick the back end out a little bit without doing dangerous speeds. The stabilitrack system Chevrolet put in these cars works quite well and in competitive mode you can have lots of fun without it interfering, but it will save your butt if you get too much in the throttle.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Chad Culbertson wrote:

If i'm going to wear out the shoulders pretty quick....

Negative camber. Get some of that so that you can use the entire front tire, not just the shoulder. And do some research on autocross alignment. CAM class should allow a lot of adjustments for that.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:05 am

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Chad Culbertson wrote:

If i'm going to wear out the shoulders pretty quick....

Negative camber. Get some of that so that you can use the entire front tire, not just the shoulder. And do some research on autocross alignment. CAM class should allow a lot of adjustments for that.

Currently i'm set at -.98 in the front, I think i'm going to try -1.5 to help out on the wear and possibly a bit more pressure.

Some of the guys that make the good suspension bits for the Camaro have some pretty good alignment specs posted on the web so i'm probably going to try one of those setups.

This is what i'm looking at doing, I was told positive toe in the back though is probably better for autocross to help turn in. My brother just had Performance Chassis do his car and his specs look pretty good. Not to mention they charged him much less than McNair Performance who did mine last year, I also had to show the shop owner how to adjust the camber on a Camaro, lol.

Quote:

Performance Street - Track Use with Street Tires
Front min max
Camber (deg) -1.4 -1.6
Caster (deg) 7.5 8.5
Total Toe -1/16" (0.17°) 0 (0°)
Rear
Camber (deg) -0.9 -1.1
Total Toe -1/8" (0.33°) -1/16" (0.17°)
Notes
These settings will provide good all around performance. The tires will wear the inside edges
in street use and the outside edges on the race track. This is a good dual purpose alignment.

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:19 am

I started with drum rear brakes,narrow 15 inch tires,and old skool strut suspension.I did not have abs,or power steering,i had braided brake lines..Which meant the brake pedal was hard as a rock,and a light rear end.Couple that with a good six cylinder engine,and i was in trouble alot.The bmw at least has abs,power steering no longer works,but the coilover suspension responds so fast.
I rather like the new genesis v6.More like my roots in autocross.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:50 pm

I ordered a set of the M/Ts tonight, they came out to only $763 shipped from Summit racing. They're a bit heavy in the 275/40R20 size, but I doubt i'll notice the extra weight myself, especially on a 3900 lb car.

I didn't find anything negative online about them, I did however discover the weight is plenty different than the Cooper RS3-S so I do not believe it's the same tire.

Given the price as well as the fact that was for 4 275's and not a staggered setup like stock I thought the price was awesome.

We'll see how they do, they're supposed to be specifically designed for Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers, etc. Obviously it's a 300 TW tire, but I gotta get some decent miles out of them and hoping they turn out better than the Nitto Invos on the car now.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:26 pm

If you can, have them make specific marks for different toe settings, as it will make on-the-fly adjustments easier to replicate reliably. Toe out in the rear of a high HP heavy RWD car sounds like a recipe for quickly using up a set of tires, but why not try it and see? In general if you want to use toe for better turn in you may get more benefit from some toe out in the front, though I don't know specifics of the Camaro's suspension. YMMV, etc.

That is a great price, though. Hope you like them!

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:28 pm

Tires came in today, they're certainly big and beefy looking with the big shoulder tread blocks.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

Looks like a decent cheap option for you.

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Anybody tried the Mickey Thompson Street Comp tires?

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