Autocross Tires for Dummies
There are your normal, every day, regular use tires, and "R" compound tires,
thinly disguised as regular tires, but you'd have to be crazy to drive on
them every day. The people running in our local Street Tire class are on the
real life, every day tire. Most (but not all) competitors in the Stock
category run on R tires. They are DOT legal, but won't last as long as your
basic Sears tire.
To answer your question, you can buy a set of Hoosiers or Kumho (better
deal) R tires that are extra sticky, wear out extra fast, and you'd still be
legal in the stock category. You can run "street (non-sticky) tires" in the
stock category, but you cannot run R (sticky) tires in the Street Tire
category.
A good place to look for "R" tires is on our National sponsor's website,
www.tirerack.com. Once there, on the right side of the screen, under Shop
for Tires, you can select your car make and year and begin the tire choosing
process. When you get to the Search for Tires by Vehicle screen, click View
All. Then, on the Search for Tires by Size screen, under Summer Tires,
select Competition. Since probably all of the older and wiser autoxers would
recommend Kumho, so will I. You'll be happier. So, select Kumho as the
manufacture, scroll down, and click Search.
Next, you'll have three choices, Full Tread, Heat Cycled, or Shaved. Since
you're just beginning, I'd go with Full Tread, though there is some debate
as to which will last you longest. I purchased a set of full tread Kumhos
that lasted me a full season, no sweat.
I hope this answers your question (that by now must have been answered
twenty times).
Katie Kelly
|