[Eldi Z]

Originally Posted by Provoste

Yes. But $604 a tire?!? Yeah no thanks.

What he says.
Why pay Pirelli extortionate sums? just to cover their extravagant marketing campaigns, models catalog and overwhelming sponsorship money?
The PZero range is nothing more than average, even the higher range (I.E. Trofeo)
If Goodyear can provide much better value for our money, then lets give it to them

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by Falundir

Just for clarification; I am well aware of the benefits of dropping to a different size wheel so I can fit better (and cheaper) tire options. However, at this time I need to do my best to stick to options that fit the stock wheels. Otherwise, I would have my Forgeline order in.

My wife and I worked out an agreement on yearly spend that can be allocated towards track days, and if I buy new wheels, that will make a major dent in how many track days I can actually do (I target 9 a year, and I pay for the track day insurance each time).

The OEM tires are pretty good, and I would not cry too much if I had to stick with it. I am just doing my due diligence to see what other options I can come up with that could be a better tire for my use case.

glamcem - Thank you for the link. I will read it in detail later today when I have a bit more time.

Originally Posted by Provoste

I hear ya- but if you're planning 9 events a year, you'd almost certainly come out ahead by buying dedicated track wheels/ tires in the first year alone!

Apex wheels (18x10 et25) on sale $246 each, R888R in 295/30 18 is $254 each. Hands down best bang for $ setup. 8% shorter effective rear gearing also makes the car even better on track as well.

This, break-even point/time is very short with 20" tires, it costs almost as much as getting a brand new set of wheels and tires as mentioned above

Originally Posted by rfm4000

would a 295 30 20 work on the fronts? If so, that leaves the trofeo Rs open

They're expensive and I wasn't that impressed when I used on my 1LE. Maybe it's because of the combination of softer tires and OEM MRC calibration (designed to be matched with a stiffer sidewall tire, like OEM tires, NT01s, RE71Rs..etc) They also don't last long

[travislambert]

I realize you are looking for an R compound tire. I was too, but I ended up sticking with the stock Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar G3s. I considered the Pilot Sport Cup 2s. I'm sure they're awesome tires, but I wasn't 100% convinced they'd be worth the money difference.

As others have stated, sticking with the stock wheels limits your options. If you want to move away from the stock Goodyears, the Sport Cup 2s seem like a reasonable choice.

[Falundir]

After reviewing everything on this thread, and some helpful intel from Provoste via PM, it seems the most logical approach is to suck it up and drop wheel size.

Lucky for me APEX is 10 minutes from where I live, and seems to have a great selection that fits our needs. I would love Forgelines (had them before), but $400 vs $1600 / wheel is a hard argument.

Just need to make a final decision between 18 and 19 and run with it. I am all about performance over looks, so I will probably end up at 18.

[glamcem]

makes sense I currently have two sets of 19" Apex wheels and also test fitted 18" Apex wheels (18x10.5" +22mm) on my 1LE. I tried to explain what's involved in fitting those in this thread if interested. For $250 (PS7 model) a piece and flow forged, track proven quality they're hard to pass for sure :

http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486305

[GrimReaperSS]

Originally Posted by Ak1LE

re71 is not an r compound either btw. its a 200 tread wear tire...

Fair enough, I made an assumption based on R at the end and tread design w/o really looking into tire description, as well as how many comments were on the forums about them. Seems Bridgestone doesnt offer an R-compound tire.

[Falundir]

Originally Posted by GrimReaperSS

Fair enough, I made an assumption based on R at the end and tread design w/o really looking into tire description, as well as how many comments were on the forums about them. Seems Bridgestone doesnt offer an R-compound tire.

My understanding is that there is some trickery going on with the RE71R tires to ensure that they can compete in the street tire category. Apparently manufactures set the treadwear, and some speculate that they were being very generous on that number. All second hand information, so take from it what you may.

[TrackClub]

3 good choices for stock wheels IMO (ignoring what's "officially" called an R comp as some non R comps are as fast IMO):
1) stock Goodyears are a superb tire and available for $1380 CAD online (Quattrotire) which is about $1100 USD. That's CHEAP.
2) Cup2s are a very nice tire but not for the price and I am not convinced they are much (if any) faster then stockers (will know this weekend when I run them at a track I ran with stockers before).
3) RE71R in 295 square is liked by many and per some RL results they are very fast and last (per Provoste)

PS I've been faster on stocker vs my NT01 times in a C5 Z06 Vette, so ignoring "official" R comp designations, new gen "extreme summer" tires can be just as fast. Got 6 track days and 5G miles on Goodyears and they still have life left in them.
I think Provoste got a decent use out of RE71Rs before they corded (my next tire to try).

PSS I like NT01 but not as a dual use tire as they suck in a rain IMO.

[GrimReaperSS]

Originally Posted by Falundir

My understanding is that there is some trickery going on with the RE71R tires to ensure that they can compete in the street tire category. Apparently manufactures set the treadwear, and some speculate that they were being very generous on that number. All second hand information, so take from it what you may.

Yeah, Im aware that the mfg's set their own tread wear numbers. The RE-71R wouldnt be the first tire Ive heard to "play games" with that number just to get into different events.

[tx6g1le]

I've tracked the stock Goodyears, a 305/30 square MPSS set up, and most recently 295 front and 305 rear Sport Cup 2s. My overall impression is the Goodyears are as good on track as the Sport Cup 2s. Of course, you wouldn't know it until you try them all but I can tell you the stockers are phenomenal for the money. The MPSS is not a great on track tire BUT for daily duties they're great.

NOTE: I just bought a square set of 305 RS3's and I'm waiting on 19s but if I was to stick with the OEM 20s, the Goodyears offer a lot of bang for your buck!

[glamcem]

Goodyears were pretty comparable to RE71Rs in my experience too. They didn't feel greasy immediately but they're not in R888R/NT01 league either.

I also don't like the idea of changing the rake of the car by going with full SQ setup especially since this car already has some understeer issues an rake (in theory) will make this only worse. I might be wrong of course maybe it doesn't affect as much as I think.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the new Supercar 3R tires. It would be great to compare against to 305/325 NT01s

[jaysonstuart]

Originally Posted by Falundir

I have not been keeping up with the forums as of late. Would you be so kind as to link Lethal's profile so I could reach out to them?

Thank you!

Here is a video he made about them on his YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/NQZggYFeTTM

[Vintage]

my second set of stock GYs

they were $1,268 installed on the car - you just cannot beat that!!!

[TrackClub]

Originally Posted by Vintage

my second set of stock GYs

they were $1,268 installed on the car - you just cannot beat that!!!

Agree. Price to performance is quite amazing IMO. I have 2 more days this weekend on Cup2s then trying RE71Rs 295 square.
PS Cem, my car in stock form is superbly balanced and IMO as close to neutral as production car can get. But I don't have aftermarket offsets and more R aero
I am also not concerned about a square set up introducing any understeer as one size up on the F and one size down on the R should more then compensate for the rake change (and I believe this has been Provoste's experience when running 295 RE71R and 285 Yoko slicks in square set up)