Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

I'm in need of new tyres, but have zero experience with them. My car currently has THREE different types on it (hence why I'm getting new ones) so I can't even judge the ones I'm using.

I'm trying to get out on the track, and I've been getting out to the SAU skidpan days, so I'm looking for some sort of performance out of them. I read through the tyre recommendation thread but it only confused me further.

My budget isn't huge, but I'm willing to spend a bit for something decent.

So, my question is: what bang for your buck tyre would you recommend?

I appreciate any advice, thanks.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/291689-bang-for-buck-tyres/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 114
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Kumho KU36 from option1garage.com.au

Federal Semi's from the group buys that go on on here

Those are the two "Budget semi s" going around.

Street tyre that costs a little more than the above- Bridgestone RE001, I quite liked them on the Stagea.

Hankook evo S1. Awesome tyre. If I can do the times I'm after one day it will put them only 1 second a lap behind similar cars in Vic running semi's. About 2.5 sec lap slower than semi's atm but I still run std rotors and $15 pads in the rear and still learning. Next year hopefully!

Federal 595s are pretty cheap.

A couple of guys have run the RS-Rs (the grippiest) them on the track and been reasonably happy. I got a set for my SW20 (235/40 R17) for $260 a corner, which isn't too bad. I can only guess that the lower-spec ones will be cheaper. A mate's got the entry level 595s and he finds them quite grippy on his street-only SW20.

I'd consider these as well as the KU36s. Don't bother with RT615s; they cost more and I don't know if they perform noticably better.

If you want a more street-focused tyre that aren't bad when you're pressing on, people tend to go ga-ga over Bridgestone RE001s.

im running 595 RS. very happy with them. the RS-R are stickier and have harder sidewalls, so would be worth it over the RS. plus

the RS is discontinued now.

or the KU-36, quite a lot of guys running those. they are about $100 a corner cheaper than RS-R's.

they both handle very well in the wet. i've done PI twice in the wet with them, heaps of grip. i was following a guy running ku-36 on

one of the days, he seems to like them.

I like the sound of these KU36's.

My concern is that they're semi slicks though. As a daily driver am I going to destroy my tyres?

I'm still rather inexperienced on the track, I don't want to lock the car up and annihilate them that way either.

Not only that, but I've heard when semi's let go, they really let go. I've yet to learn the limits of my car on street tyres, I don't want to lose it at some ridiculous speed running semis.

Also, someone mentioned tyre temperatures, do these tyres have to be warmed up? As a daily driver I'm not going to be driving hard, but I may been to brake hard in an emergency. Also, DECA days really don't give you much opportunity to warm your tyres up.

Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate it.

i think the KU36s aren't quite a full 'semi' ie. they aren't soft as butter, but still have a pretty hardcore tread pattern.

have a look at the treadwear rating of a few tyres you're considering, that should give you an idea :P

I like the sound of these KU36's.

My concern is that they're semi slicks though. As a daily driver am I going to destroy my tyres?

I'm still rather inexperienced on the track, I don't want to lock the car up and annihilate them that way either.

Not only that, but I've heard when semi's let go, they really let go. I've yet to learn the limits of my car on street tyres, I don't want to lose it at some ridiculous speed running semis.

Also, someone mentioned tyre temperatures, do these tyres have to be warmed up? As a daily driver I'm not going to be driving hard, but I may been to brake hard in an emergency. Also, DECA days really don't give you much opportunity to warm your tyres up.

Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate it.

Street compound, Semi pattern is the best way to describe it. Prob the cheapest tyre out there aswell... http://www.option1garage.com.au/NewTyres.htm

I have them on the 32 and they seem pretty hard, are okay in the wet etc...

Street compound, Semi pattern is the best way to describe it. Prob the cheapest tyre out there aswell... http://www.option1garage.com.au/NewTyres.htm

I have them on the 32 and they seem pretty hard, are okay in the wet etc...

The tyres I currently have on my car read: 225/40 R18 on the front, and 255/35 R18 on the rear.

The KU36 has the front size perfectly, but only 245/40 R18, or 265/35 R18 for the rear.

Once again, excuse my noobishness, I have been doing some reading but it is difficult to find decent information as most of what google finds are short tidbits of information given out by companies trying to sell to you.

Is there only one size of tyre that fits each size of rim, or can tyres be stretched/compressed or rolled differently so you have different sidewall height etc?

Also, if tyres can be stretched etc, it can be assumed that the readings on the tyres may not be the best for my rim anyway. Finding the width is any enough, but how do you work out what kind of sidewall you want?

Thanks again.

Edit: I just measured with a ruler, they're 10.5 inches on the back (265) and 9.5 (240) on the front. I think I'm answering my own questions here. So would my best option be the 245/40 R18 on the front and 265/35 R18 on the back? Thanks.

if you are looking for good grip and slightly longer wear than an RSR try the 595 EVO they have nice big chunky tead blocks out towards the edges so they should be pretty stable and are still a street tyre so they should wear relatively well when compared to a proper semi slick

The tyres I currently have on my car read: 225/40 R18 on the front, and 255/35 R18 on the rear.

The KU36 has the front size perfectly, but only 245/40 R18, or 265/35 R18 for the rear.

Once again, excuse my noobishness, I have been doing some reading but it is difficult to find decent information as most of what google finds are short tidbits of information given out by companies trying to sell to you.

Is there only one size of tyre that fits each size of rim, or can tyres be stretched/compressed or rolled differently so you have different sidewall height etc?

Also, if tyres can be stretched etc, it can be assumed that the readings on the tyres may not be the best for my rim anyway. Finding the width is any enough, but how do you work out what kind of sidewall you want?

Thanks again.

Edit: I just measured with a ruler, they're 10.5 inches on the back (265) and 9.5 (240) on the front. I think I'm answering my own questions here. So would my best option be the 245/40 R18 on the front and 265/35 R18 on the back? Thanks.

What rims are they? best to take them off and look for a size sticker on the inside.

if you are looking for good grip and slightly longer wear than an RSR try the 595 EVO they have nice big chunky tead blocks out towards the edges so they should be pretty stable and are still a street tyre so they should wear relatively well when compared to a proper semi slick

These are street tyres, not R comp semi's

What rims are they? best to take them off and look for a size sticker on the inside.

These are street tyres, not R comp semi's

They're Advan TCIIs, but I suspect they're fake. If they're real they're worth nearly half of what I bought the car for.

What rims are they? best to take them off and look for a size sticker on the inside.

These are street tyres, not R comp semi's

i did actually say that, no where did he state he needed R compound, merely a tyre that he could use for occasional track work, skid pan and from what i gather street. Having used R compound for street and skid pan stuff i can say from my personal experience they are quite crap for it as they dont heat up fast enough for skid pan and street and on the street go through too many heat cycles and quickly turn rock hard so i was just throwing up something that is a good compromise from what i have seen from one of the guys using those tyres for exactly the same purpose as the thread starter!

EDIT: Bunta here, didnt realise my girl friend was still logged in!

i did actually say that, no where did he state he needed R compound, merely a tyre that he could use for occasional track work, skid pan and from what i gather street. Having used R compound for street and skid pan stuff i can say from my personal experience they are quite crap for it as they dont heat up fast enough for skid pan and street and on the street go through too many heat cycles and quickly turn rock hard so i was just throwing up something that is a good compromise from what i have seen from one of the guys using those tyres for exactly the same purpose as the thread starter!

EDIT: Bunta here, didnt realise my girl friend was still logged in!

all good ;)

Kez, if you want, come for a spin in the 32 before the GM next week or at some point before DECA, (i live off of toorak rd, so between you and south melb if you come to the meeting) and you can see how the tyres grip for cold tyre braking/grip etc(KU36)

My concern is that they're semi slicks though. As a daily driver am I going to destroy my tyres?

I know this starts arguments everywhere, but the phrase "semi slick" only describes the tread pattern. It's the tyre compound that is the greatest factor in wear.

The KU36, 595xxx, RT615, etc are S-Compound tyres, with an arguably semi-slick pattern. Their treadwear rating is around 140 (lower number = faster wearing), which is about double that of a R-Comp semi slick (like the RE55S, R888, etc). The RT615 and RE001 are actually closer to 200, so they're a good option if you want to sacrifice some grip for life.

Their tread blocks are also far smaller than R-Comp semis, to a point where I'm reluctant to call them "semi slick" at all. In my opinion, a "semi slick" tyre is basically a tyre with the bare minimum amount of tread to earn road legality.

I'm still rather inexperienced on the track, I don't want to lock the car up and annihilate them that way either.

Personally, I reckon that's a non-issue.

If you're not crazy you're not going to hop on to the track and drive hell-for-leather. It's a new experience, and so you should be working your way to the limits rather than diving straight in. It's not like you're competing in motorsport events, where you "need" to win.

As such, lock-ups shouldn't happen that often. It might happen once or twice as your confidence grows and you work out how much middle pedal you can use, but the risk of tyre destruction is no different to driving on the street and potentially needing to panic stop.

Not only that, but I've heard when semi's let go, they really let go. I've yet to learn the limits of my car on street tyres, I don't want to lose it at some ridiculous speed running semis.

S-Comps do have a narrower "limit of traction" fudge factor than street tyres, but they're still reasonably progressive. If you're driving on regular street tyres, you'll probably find their lack of grip, vagueness due to everything squirming and compressing, and overheating issues even more annoying.

Also, someone mentioned tyre temperatures, do these tyres have to be warmed up? As a daily driver I'm not going to be driving hard, but I may been to brake hard in an emergency.

S-Comps require little activation temperature. There's more than enough cold-temp grip to keep you perfectly safe around town if you're behaving yourself. When its cold or wet you need to be aware that the tyres aren't grippy, but it'd be like driving with a full load in terms of cornering speed and braking. When I daily drove on R-Comps, every wet weather drive involved a sphincter-tightening moment.

In a skidpan environment, your first run should get your tyres up to temp. As the day and the surface heats up, it'll be less and less of an issue as they'll retain the heat.

all good :)

Kez, if you want, come for a spin in the 32 before the GM next week or at some point before DECA, (i live off of toorak rd, so between you and south melb if you come to the meeting) and you can see how the tyres grip for cold tyre braking/grip etc(KU36)

Cheers mate, I might actually take you up on that.

my experience: nexen n3000: unbelievable grip cold or hot... and only about $130each traction rated at AA and also temp is rated at AA i think

another is khumo ecsta very similar.... $130 each fitted as well

these prices were for 215/45/17's

obviously 18's will be more pricey

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yep super expensive, awesome. It would be a cool passion project if I had the money.
    • Getting the setup right, is likely to cost multiples of the purchase price of the vehicle.
    • So it's a ginormous undertaking that will be a massive headache but will be sorta cool if pulled off right. And also expensive. I'm sure it'll be as expensive as buying the car itself. I don't think you could just do this build without upgrading other things to take the extra power. Probably lots of custom stuff as well. All this assuming the person has mechanical knowledge. I'm stupid enough to try it but smart enough to realize there's gonna be mistakes even with an experienced mechanic. I'm a young bloke on minimum wage that gets dopamine from air being moved around and got his knowledge from a Donut video on how engines work.]   Thanks for the response though super informative!
    • Yes, it is entirely possible to twincharge a Skyline. It is not....without problems though. There was a guy did it to an SOHC RB30 (and I think maybe it became or already was a 25/30) in a VL Commode. It was a monster. The idea is that you can run both compressors at relatively low pressure ratios, yet still end up with a quite large total pressure ratio because they multiply, not add, boost levels. So, if the blower is spun to give a 1.4:1 PR (ie, it would make ~40 kPa of boost on its own) and the turbo is set up to give a 1.4:1 PR also, then you don't get 40+40 = 80 kPa of boost, you get 1.4*1.4, which is pretty close to 100 kPa of boost. It's free real estate! This only gets better as the PRs increase. If both are set up to yield about 1.7 PR, which is only about 70 kPa or 10ish psi of boost each, you actually end up with about 1.9 bar of boost! So, inevitably it was a bit of a monster. The blower is set up as the 2nd compressor, closest to the motor, because it is a positive displacement unit, so to get the benefit of putting it in series with another compressor, it has to go second. If you put it first, it has to be bigger, because it will be breathing air at atmospheric pressure. The turbo's compressor ends up needing to be a lot larger than you'd expect, and optimised to be efficient at large mass flows and low PRs. The turbo's exhaust side needs to be quite relaxed, because it's not trying to provide the power to produce all the boost, and it has to handle ALL the exhaust flow. I think you need a much bigger wastegate than you might expect. Certainly bigger than for an engine just making the same power level turbo only. The blower effectively multiplies the base engine size. So if you put a 1.7 PR blower on a 2.5L Skyline, it's like turboing a 4.2L engine. Easy to make massive power. Plus, because the engine is blown, the blower makes boost before the turbo can even think about making boost, so it's like having that 4.2L engine all the way from idle. Fattens the torque delivery up massively. But, there are downsides. The first is trying to work out how to size the turbo according to the above. The second is that you pretty much have to give up on aircon. There's not enough space to mount everything you need. You might be able to go elec power steering pump, hidden away somewhere. but it would still be a struggle to get both the AC and the blower on the same side of the engine. Then, you have to ponder whether you want to truly intercool the thing. Ideally you would put a cooler between the turbo and the blower, so as to drop the heat out of it and gain even more benefit from the blower's positive displacement nature. But that would really need to be a water to air core, because you're never going to find enough room to run 2 sets of boost pipes out to air to air cores in the front of the car. But you still need to aftercool after the blower, because both these compressors will add a lot of heat, and you wil have the same temperature (more or less) as if you produced all that boost with a single stage, and no one in their right mind would try to run a petrol engine on high boost without a cooler (unless not using petrol, which we shall ignore for the moment). I'm of the opinnion that 2x water to air cores in the bay and 2x HXs out the front is probably the only sensible way to avoid wasting a lot of room trying to fit in long runs of boost pipe. But the struggle to locate everything in the limited space available would still be a pretty bad optimisation problem. If it was an OEM, they'd throw 20 engineers at it for a year and let them test out 30 ideas before deciding on the best layout. And they'd have the freedom to develop bespoke castings and the like, for manifolds, housings, connecting pipes to/from compressors and cores. A single person in a garage can either have one shot at it and live with the result, or spend 5 years trying to get it right.
    • Good to know, thank you!
×
×
  • Create New...