Tire suggestions
 

So I have an extra set of 18" wheels so I'm looking for a track tire. I'd have to be able to use them to drive to the track and have decent performance. Suggestions? Also, size recommendations? The wheels are 18x9 and 18x10.

Sell them rims and get a set of 4 that are the same size. It will save you money in the end. Unless your going to get a non-DOT tire there really is not much performance to be had. I ran the R888 and direzza ZII not much performance to be had with those over something like the pilot super sports. Hoosier racing tires on the other hand is really something nice but way to much $$$ for me. Other then that use tirerack.com and its seems with tires you do get what you pay for at least what I have noticed so far.

Roanstang's build
 

I found a great deal at Discount Tire GT Radial W speed rated $98.00 a tire 245/45/18's. Norm will chime in on a staggered setup for you as he is the Man on tires and handling.

If you are driving to the track on them I recommend a street tire over a R-compound tire. The Direzza ZII and Rivals are great street tires that offer good track performance as well. For the 18x9 wheel the widest that you can safely run is a 275. For the 18x10 wheel the widest you can safely run is 295. Anything wider than that you might have rubbing issues or issues with the tire falling off of the rim. I don't know your offsets on your wheels but those sizes that I listed above might not even work if your wheels stick outside of the fender and not all the way inside of it. But I would try and run a square setup because it will save you a lot in the long run. If you live really close to the track you can probably get away with driving on a race compound back and forth, but that is if you live 10 miles away or so.

I live about 10 minutes away from the 1/8th mile track, about an hour from the 1/4 mile track but about 2 hours from Sebring, which I'm going to in May. Thanks for the input.

My dad put Conti Super Sports on his 5.0 and liked them. Granted he isn't a track rat but it was enough tire for a beginner. I also got a lot of track days out of my Nitto 555's, but they aren't the best as far as performance goes. You could always check out the NT-05's as well.

If you're just starting out, any of about the top 8 in Tire Rack's Max Performance group will be sufficient, as will comparable tires not there if you can make the correlations.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=MP


My original Goodyear Asymmetrics (not the Asymmetric2) even with three 3-season stints and 15000+ miles in street duty plus a couple of previous track days and a little autocrossing on them were still good enough to let me run down and pass more cars than were catching and passing me at a recent 2-day track event at NJMP. And they're only 255/45-18's on 18x9.5 GT500 wheels, on a 4.6L car that has only cold air and a mild tune. IOW, don't get carried away just yet, as driver improvement is going to make more difference than there is among the better Max Performance summer tires.


If you stick with the staggered wheels, give some thought to using the same tire sizes that the 2008 GT500 used - 255/45-18 front, 285/40-18 rear. But make sure that the offsets will keep the tires inboard enough to avoid rubbing on the sheetmetal, as you'll be leaning the car over a good bit more than you do in most normal street driving. S197's generally need offsets in the ET+42 to maybe ET+50 range, not ET+22 to ET+32 which will stick a little of the wheel and tire out past the sheetmetal.


Norm

0 experience here but when I was looking into it I decided on Nitto NT05s.

Until P51C told me I could fit a set of slicks in my trunk.

go with something like toyo r888 or stickier if it wont get much milage away from the track

Go with something stickier AFTER you've got some seat time. Sticky tires will not only cover up bad habits - they'll reinforce them because you're able to keep getting away with doing them.


Norm