aloha..........any info on best rim and tire size for autocross for my 98 NSX would be appreciated........don't want to spend big bucks, rims can be used and tires new...........Mahalo from Maui Boy 
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best tires and rims for autocross?
- Thread starter gblue
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The best (fastest) autocross tires are ones designed specifically for autocross - like the Hoosier A3S04. That being said... if you are new to autocross, I would recommend that you just use your normal street wheels and tires for a while. Unless you have a lot of experience, you will be learning a lot, and learning how differences in driver skill make a far, far greater difference in times than differences in equipment. And you can improve your skills and gain experience using your everyday wheels and tires. Once you have a lot of experience, then it makes sense to get dedicated wheels and tires like the A3S04.
The new Kumho Ecsta 710's are also getting rave reviews in AX circles. Many prefer them to the Hoosiers. They are only available in a very limited number of sizes now, but Kumho will be offering a lot more sizes next year. That said, I agree with Ken that it's best to start on street tires (the OEM Yoko's or Bridgestones are excellent) until you have some experience.
Dave
Dave
The Kumho 710 is indeed the tire du jour. If you're juist starting though, stick with a decent quality street tire.
By getting the stickest tires will often hamper driver's learning curve. it often masks mistakes, I agree with others and stick to regular street tires, concentrate on driver's skill will make the most of improvement. I was humbled by a stock S2000 with kumho estca 711 at the autocross. I had S03's on 17" 18" Volk GTC. I also tried oem RE010 on 15"16" wheel and also was beaten badly. The other driver is just better and more EXPERIENCED than me. So tire choice will matter more as your become a better driver, and if you are a novice, just use the stock wheels/tires. HTH
I've only used the Hoosier A3S03s so far. I don't think they are available anymore. The replacement is A3S04. A light set of wheels would be SSR Competitions.
You didn't say whether you were new to autocross or not, but either way I'd encourage you to go for autocross tires. Even if you're still learning they'll give you a second or two advantage, and it's more fun learning when you're nearer the front of the pack.
As far as size goes I would think the biggest you can fit. Tirerack should be able to help there. I used Hoosiers in stock sizes on the stock 1994 wheels, which are the same as yours I believe.
You didn't say whether you were new to autocross or not, but either way I'd encourage you to go for autocross tires. Even if you're still learning they'll give you a second or two advantage, and it's more fun learning when you're nearer the front of the pack.
As far as size goes I would think the biggest you can fit. Tirerack should be able to help there. I used Hoosiers in stock sizes on the stock 1994 wheels, which are the same as yours I believe.
that, and he's driving a S2000! I don't think the nsx, especially those without power steering, does not have any edge over the S2000 at the tight AutoX courses, Agree??
The NSX has the double whammy of not being all that great a car for autox to begin with, coupled with being hopelessly outclassed. If you're just looking to have fun in your NSX, by all means go shag some cones. If you want to be competitive in autox, there are dozens of more competitive cars.
NSXDreamer2 said:
I don't understand the powersteering thing or am I just that much stronger than others?
I don't think the steering effort of the NSX is too high for autocross, however I find the steering ratio is too low, i.e., too much steering input required for the tight turns.
Animate said:
I've autox'd mine with and without PS. Either way it required too much steering input compared to so many other cars doing that sport. The NSX isn't the best car to autox and, yes, it's hopelessly outclassed. BUT, I had a ton of fun doing it anyway and did get several trophies (although never a class win).
As for tires.... DO NOT USE YOUR STREET TIRES. Unless you got them for free. Why would you grind off all that expensive tread? Get a cheap set of tires for autox use. Falken Azinas are a great way to go: much stickier than standard street tires and also much cheaper. R compounds will do you no good at all ( except for depleting you bank account) unless you have a good deal of experience at this.
As for tire size and rims..... If all other things are equal, the car with the wider tires wins. Period. I ran 225s in front which were quite nice but did rub. My competetors with their vettes and bimmers were running 275s in front. Guess which cars turned better? With that in mind, the rims just don't matter except for looks.
Like what was said above in another post, fun is the most important thing. And autox is the best, safest, and most thrilling place to learn to drive this fabulous car at 110%.
t
Tank said:
Not necessarily. My experiences in some auto-X (only one competition, the others as part of licence trainings) were: The car that has the tires with the best grip at the 1st and only lap has an advantage, no matter what size. A bigger size may be a disadvantage if the diameter is larger. Your acceleration will suffer from that and you may also have more unsprung weight (also experienced on the track where even a 15/16" combo on older NSXs can be better than e.g. 17/18" combos).
As for street tires: Race slicks and R compound tires need usualy more than one lap to get the right temperature (that's when your auto-X run is already finished) if they are not especialy dedicated for auto-X use. A street tire like the Bridgestone S-03 has its maximum grip nearly from the start and is able to maintain it through the auto-X run. I used my 225/255 S-03 combo with very good results - one time when my car was still street legal on a very narrow auto-X I ended 2nd in a pack of over 20 cars and have beaten a F 355, F 360, Integra, Porsche 993 and so on - only a bit slower than a race prepped Renault Clio (very light, very small) on race slicks.
So the NSX can be a good auto-X car with street tires IMO.
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with this. On a dollars-per-mile basis, street tires are less expensive than dedicated autocross tires or fast-wearing Falken Azenis (I assume you are referring to the RT-215). Also consider that you're not going to wear all that much rubber during the limited runs of an autocross.Tank said:
nsxtasy said:
This all depends on how serious you are about doing this. And it really depends on what surface you're racing on (try running a day on unsealed coarse asphalt - 12 runs is a set of tires gone). After 4 years of doing this as a sport, I learned real quick that street tires are just too expensive to put through the shreader. Autox is a tire eater, especially if you drive it like you stole it - which is the whole point of doing this. After I lunched my Pilot Sports in just a couple of events, I started looking for cheaper (and dedicated) tires to do this on. It's not like you can do this sport without spending money on tires.
The best way to learn anything is to use other people's experience. The competetive world of autox has some pretty good depth of that available. Look at the national classed drivers that have rung just about every last ounce of performance out of the best cars for each class. These people quickly sort out what works and what doesn't. If you want to be competetive in street tire classes, you will be running the Falkens, in other classes you'll be on Hoosiers or Kumho V710s. If you're just having fun - and you're not pushing like mad into every corner - then any tire will of course work. But if you're putting your daily drive tires through heat cycles like autox creates (there are no straight sections to cool them down), they may have thread left but they will not perform all that well on the street anymore - a place where you may seriously need them to sometime. I just think that's a bad and unsafe idea.
Again, it all depends on how much of this you're planning on doing: once a year or every month? If you start doing this as a sport - and autox is a very serious grassroots motorsport - walk the pits at the next event and talk to the folks there - especially the fast ones. That's your best source of information. And autox people love to help you go faster. There's no fun in beating slow drivers.
Keep the shiny side up.
t
Yes, on that we're in agreement. Street tires are fine for novices who aren't using anywhere near the full capabilities of their cars. If you do this a lot and gain experience and want to be competitive, where tenths, hundredths, and sometimes even thousandths of a second matter, then you will want to get dedicated autocross tires. Like I said above,Tank said:
nsxtasy said:
As an fyi I ran our local scca auto x with street tire - s02 and then pilot sport cups(s2000) and was 1.5 second quicker on the R tires same day.But I did run the street tires first so part of the improvement was also better course knowledge.I also ran the s2000 and nsx back to back on street tires and the s was 2 sec quicker.As was said the nsx is a fun car to toss around but not competitive in autox.
Knowing that given the same driver, same course, the S2000 is just more suited for autoX.( 2 sec.) :smile: makes me feels much better. My autoX time is pretty competitive to the S2000.
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