Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Auto Cross Tire question!

Ok, I have 17" wheels. What are the best tires I can get for Auto Cross? I have some Falken 451's now. Oh, no one say Falken Azenas. They will not fit our car with 17" wheels.

I like the bridgestone potenza s03 pole positions. They work for me, but I've only done a few autocross events, I do more road racing than auto-X

IMO, Toyo Proxes RA-1. They are among the stickiest tires you can get and are relatively long lasting for a Type-R compound tire. From what I've heard, a lot of people use RA-1's for auto-x and road racing. I don't do auto-x yet so from my personal experience I just use them on the street for making right swing turns at 40 mph, and even though the tires are squealing I can feel some grip left.

I just looked up the Falken 451's and the Bridgestone Potenza S-03 and their treadwears are 280, and 220 respectively. The Toyo Proxes RA-1 has treadwear 40 so you can see that the RA-1 is a much sticker tire than the others. Lower treadwear=softer compound tire=more grip. I suggest buying two more rims for these tires and only using them on race day. I'll bet that your lap times will be much lower if you use them.

Out of curiosity was thinking about trying autocross shortly. I know the Michelin Pilot Sport tires aren't really autocross tires but would they be good enough to at least begin autocrossing?

you can start autocrossing with any street tire...it's just how fast do you want to be?

I auto-cross with my yokohama's, they grip and have been good to me so far, good for lateral g's and getting sideways

that's good, but of course there are many models and treadwears of yokohama, so it's good to be specific so he knows what to get if he wants to try it.

...yeah, the RA-1's are a lot stickier, and are made of a softer compound, but that means that they will wear faster...I have mine mounted on 17" BBS RxII's that I only use for track days...other than that I have my big chrome 17" wheels that I use for everyday driving and cruising

Top choices for a street tire are Falken Azenis or Kumho Ecsta MX. Azenis grip slightly better, but the MX's handle heat much better. Anything will work, those SO-3, Pilot sports, even the rest of the 451's will be good. However, given the cost of some of those, you may want to consider the cheaper tires. The Azenis will fit by the way, in 225/45/R17, but the rolling diameter is kinda big. My personal next choice will be Kumho MX in either 215/40/R17 or 215/45/R17 (the size I have now), I haven't decided.

i'd tell you the type of yoko's but my car is still in the shop getting the tranny fixed

Once again...the Azenis will NOT fit my wheels. My wheels are 17". Furthermore, I forgot to add that I want to stay in STS class. So I need a tire with 140 tread wear or higher. Thanks for the responses though!

Well, most street tires have a treadwear of 200 or above. Very few have less than that and are still considered street tires. I belive the stock Yoko's are less, maybe 160, but still all legal. Just curious but in 225/45/R17, the Azenis need a minimum of 7 inch wide wheel. 7.5 is a better match. Most 17's I've seen are 7 inch or wider.
Either way, just stay away from anything considered a race tire and you won't have to worry about a being under the treadwear specs.

I had Pirelli Assimetricos. My first choice was Toyo T1-S, but couldn't get them in over 3 months. I also like Toyo RA-1. Just an example...
We sell Toyo Proxes T1-s tires. Best all around Performance tire. 280 treadware rating, excellent wet and dry Performance. Very soft break character. Fairly quiet, especially if you rotate tires every oil change. I could run on Pirelli PZero Assemetrico. Still a very quick tire, but it is hard, noisy and has a quick break. Yet, I love them. Honest tire that does exactly what it is made to do - run very quickly on dry roads. Very effective high track temperature tire when on the last 30% of tread. I could run on Bridgestone S-03. Quicker around the track than the Toyo T1-s by just a fraction of a second per minute. But, the reason is its much softer compound and much higher wear rate. This makes the Toyo a much better value due to the higher expected life in normal use. I could go on about other very good tires, but my point is we find the Toyo Proxes T-1s to be an easy choice for its many strengths.

What kind of sizes can I get for a 17" wheel with the Bridgestone S-03? I was thinking about buying some race specific wheels. Maybe just use the factory GTS Wheels.

get some rota subzero's in 15 inch...

they're cheap and lightweight, use them for racing.