Tire Help, Dual Purpose Tires.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

JamesShort wrote:

That being said I doubt there is a street tire that will give you as good a results and longevity as the Star Spec. Granted, I am not a firm believer in treadwear ratings,

I agree with you, James. I remember reading a while ago (don't ask me for a source) that treadwear ratings are pretty much arbitrary and only matter within the same tire manufacturer. You can't compare 200 rated tire from Hankook to a 200 rated tire from Yokohama because they both use different criteria for their ratings; it's a ballpark estimate at best. Then there's also the noise about how a 200 tire will last twice as long as a 100 tire and how that scales.

tl;dr: change your tires when you get to the wear bars and don't put too much thought into what the treadwear rating is.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:06 am

Andrew Jonell wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

That being said I doubt there is a street tire that will give you as good a results and longevity as the Star Spec. Granted, I am not a firm believer in treadwear ratings,

I agree with you, James. I remember reading a while ago (don't ask me for a source) that treadwear ratings are pretty much arbitrary and only matter within the same tire manufacturer. You can't compare 200 rated tire from Hankook to a 200 rated tire from Yokohama because they both use different criteria for their ratings; it's a ballpark estimate at best. Then there's also the noise about how a 200 tire will last twice as long as a 100 tire and how that scales.

tl;dr: change your tires when you get to the wear bars and don't put too much thought into what the treadwear rating is.

I think Les might support the idea of making sure there is plenty of tread depth . . . especially with wide tires. That is another reason for street tires versus competition tires (i.e. using two sets of wheels/tires). I rarely get below 4/32 anymore with street tires on a Mustang. Just not worth it.

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

I ran 4 sets of star specs on my mazda, and got between 14k and 17k + autocross duty out of them (didn't count the runs). I was probably getting fewer autocross runs on mine than you though b/c I put so many miles on my car so quickly (I put around 25k/yr on my car, so I was only getting part of the season on them). I did usually flip the tires part of the way through their life as well.

Thats pretty good I would say, as you have more power than my mazda.

I tend to think that going to a non-ST class tire won't improve things too much. The chunking you get out of all seasons when you run them at autocross REALLY accelerates wear, to the point where it probably balances out the better street mileage.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:54 am

BriceJohnson wrote:

I tend to think that going to a non-ST class tire won't improve things too much. The chunking you get out of all seasons when you run them at autocross REALLY accelerates wear, to the point where it probably balances out the better street mileage.

Absolutely, I think going to a non EPST or MPST is going to actually cost you MORE in the long run for dual purpose tires. Chunking and heat cycling is going to kill those tires a lot sooner in terms of autox runs.

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

As a reference, I ran BFG G-force sports as a dual purpose tire for a while (2 sets), and got basically the same mileage out of them as I did out of Star Specs, despite them being a 340 TW with a LOT fewer autocrosses on them.

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:30 pm

BriceJohnson wrote:

As a reference, I ran BFG G-force sports as a dual purpose tire for a while (2 sets), and got basically the same mileage out of them as I did out of Star Specs, despite them being a 340 TW with a LOT fewer autocrosses on them.

Funny you mention those. The Integra I picked up yesterday has a set of these with tons of tread.

The thing is the seller only put 3k on the car in the last five years and they build date is 33rd week of '07. Are these safe for daily driving? Do tires have a usable shelf life? Sorry for the hijack...

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

eh, they are probably fine. Not exactly grippy, but probably fine.

While we are threadjacking, are you putting R-comps on the R?

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:48 pm

Brice, I'm going to most likely run 225sw V710s (on Millenia's - thx Keith!) instead of A6's. The A6's just fall off too quick compared to the Kumhos.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Off topic derail: Why not run the Hankooks?

RobLupella · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:04 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

don't forget.....if you do Novice Coordinator or something similar your events are paid for, so that's like $50 off each tire. Jus sayin'

no they're not

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

Only paid positions are:

President
Registrar
VP's
Event chairs (get free entry into their event, 2 free entries max)
Worker coordinators
Bus Driver
Keeper of the bus
Head of T&S (I think)
Vincent Keene

I think thats it.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:08 pm

Ha! Freudian slip. meant to say Worker coordinator :stick:

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:22 pm

Bridgestone potenza mud and snow, but they are for rallycross adn street. Being awd it would be silly to have a car, useless in snow. Now for pavement, I am out of my element there.. So sorry I cant be of much help. I used to run azeins and avs tires, in rain they were spooky, but they gripped great at autocrosses.And in snow they were all but useless! So I am a mud and snow guy for street, then buy some cheap rims for track with toy tires on it. That is how I went. Dual purpose tires are hard to come by.

Steven Spampinato · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:01 pm

Thanks everyone, I am taking a plunge and getting a second set of rims (as cheap as possible) and a second set of tires (once again as cheap as possible) for street use. First I need to raise some funds. Unfortunately, I am addicted to the star specs like a drug. I have them on the car already because I wore the front tires down to 1/32. I will have two sets of tires and wheels by the first point’s event in March. The sticky tires will go on the lightest wheels.

Glad to know that I had a “normal usage” out of these tires.

Zach Hill · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:44 am

You're making the right choice by getting an extra set of wheels. In the long run, I think it's appropriate, safer, more competitive, and probably cost effective (I won't say "cheaper," but you get the idea

).

For reference, Star Specs last roughly 8-10K street miles and a season of autox (8-10 events, no schools or test 'n tunes since those destroy tires at rapid rates) on my S2000. They are my favorite tire in the whole wide world :hyper2:

and I highly recommend them for autox & summer street use.

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