Autocross wheels & tires with a twist
 

Hello everyone. First real post, been lurking and watching for a few months now. I've decided to buy an RX8 (Christmas gift for myself this year), and have a question for all the auto cross pros out there. I want to just have fun with the 8, and won't be competing for points or at nationals or anything, so if I end up running a class up from stock it's not a big deal to me. I also have to deal with snow up here in Wisconsin, so I would like to get some rims that I can use for winter and for auto cross too. I don't care about the tire pressure monitor for either winter or auto cross. I'm thinking that 17" are the way to go since the tires (snows and autocross) should be less expensive, and the overall wheel weights should be lighter (biggest advantage in my opinion).

1. What size wheels? 17x7.5, 17x8, 17x8.5??
2. What wheels should I look at, weight is a concern, but so is cost?
3. Given that I can run any size 17" tires what would you suggest for auto cross? Seems that smallest diameter would be good for gearing and shorter sidewalls? Looking for value here too.
4. I've seen most of the snow tire posts, but suggestions on these would be nice too given my somewhat unique scenario. Winter tires should be close to same overall diameter for speedo accuracy.

The last car was a Neon R/T so wheels and tires were dirt cheep, I could afford three sets for it (summer, winter, and race). Can't swing that this time around, have to limit it to stock and one other set of rims.

Thanks for your input.

Well for autox in order to be legal in a stock class you have to use "anywheel of diameter and width identical to a stock or factory optional wheel, offset within +- 0.25 inch". So 17s will put you out of stock class. Though you may be able to talk to everyone in your class about it and they may not care that you are running smaller wheels.

Yea, I know, that's why I said I don't care if I race up a class into the various modified classes. I'm just in it for the fun.

Ike, since you were just bashing auto cross in another thread, I don't consider you one of the pros, sorry. I was looking for feedback from someone who has actually raced the RX8.

I thought you knew the rule based on the wording of your post, I was just letting you know that you may actually be able to stay in stock class, as long as you don't have someone that has a problem with you using smaller than stock size wheels. Wasn't sure if you realized that it might be possible to run in BS still.
Have you ever autoxed before? If not you may want to just save yourself some money in the long run and get proper size wheels and tires. Odds are once you do it (if you haven't before) you'll have the bug and want to see how you can match up against the other guys in your class. I have no clue about what aftermarket wheels are available for the RX-8 but if you don't want to drop the money on Hoosiers, Falken Azenis seem to be the preffered street legal tire. By the way, where in WI are you?

You totally misunderstood me, I wasn't bashing it, I was just saying it's not the best way to judge a car. I rather like autox and used to do quite a bit of it, less lately since time and money have been harder to come by this past year. But I should be out there next season ready to go! :D

you will get better accelaration with the 17's...your torque will increase...only by a little...that combined with high grip tires...the falken azenis is a great tire...used to have it on my ae86

oi812,

Your post was very clear from the beginning! Ike is right, you make certain mods, and you are bumped out of stock class.... some of us don't care, and love to have fun at autox!

Your wants for a dual purpose rim for autox tires and snow tires is a pretty tricky one.

Usually with autox, you stuff a wider sticky tire on.

Usually with a snow tire, you want a SKINNY tire for the bad weather.


You can probably get away with a 17 x 7.5 and put a 225 (maybe 245, depends on the ratio) tire on for autox.

For a snow tire, might talk to your dealer of tires to see if there's a 195 that would fit on the rim.

Obviously lighter is better for accel, like XDEEDUBBX said! Also the Falken Azenis is not avail in an 18, so biggest rim you can get for those tires is a 17" version. Azenis is great for street and autox, but if you ever do a track day with say... 20 minute session on a technical track, azenis will heat up way too fast and become a bit "slippy" compared to some other tires.

Small diameter tires will help to improve accel, but it might be too much in some cases.... also speed might be off a bit, too. If it were me at autox, with a dedicated set of slicks, i'd go widest recommended on the rim, with the lowest apect ratio...... after all, autox is usually a 1st and 2nd gear game anyway!


So, hope this helps a bit. Congrats on choosing an RX8, and congrats for deciding to push the limits of your car at a private event ;)

Ike, Sorry for the missunderstanding.

Yes, I've auto crossed before, had Falken Azenis on the Neon (only $41 / tire for the 14"s). Great tires for the price, looks like 245/45 17's are available too! I've also had the Azenis heat up at a track day, but it was progressive and very managable, since I don't get to do too many higher speed events I could live with that.

Any ideas on light but low cost wheels?

Looks like the RX8 is 5-114.3 bolt pattren with aobut 45mm back spacing, any other cars use that bolt pattren? I guess I could look for used rims if I knew what would fit.

I'm in Elkhorn WI.

Havn't even got the car yet and I'm already going to spend $

Stock offset for the 18's is 50 mm

I think you should just get the dedicated winter tires on whatever wheels and use your stockers for autox along with the stock tires, then when your stockers start wearing out go from there... It'll cost a little more for the replacement 18" tires but in the long run will save you money since you won't have to keep swapping the snow and autox tires on the aftremarket rims. That can get expensive and will more than eclipse the difference in price between the 17" and 18" tires.

That a good point about swapping tires Ike! It's good to know your local discount tire workers though ;)

I would also suggest running the car on stock rims and tires at the first 2 or 3 events so you can get a baseline feel for the car... and this will help on the street if you get into a controlled situation.

If you want 17s (and the 245/45-17 is a good summer size, and 215/55-17 is the best/narrowest winter size you can get and stay at the stock diameter), then check out the Konig Holes - 16 lbs for the 17" wheel, not too expensive, and very tough. I'm using those for winter wheels right now, and with the Toyo Garit HT winter tires mounted, they were 6 lbs lighter than the OEM 18" wheel and RE-040 tire! I personally think 18s on the RX-8 are too big, that they were a concession to style forced on the engineers by the marketing department. If I could, I'd probably switch over to 17s for summer too!

Regards,
Gordon

I almost had a heart attack on the price of those rims.... USA peoples, click the flag at the top of the page.

OK, looking at ASA rims, 17x7.5 LW5 with 215/55 17 Blizzak WS-50 tires. $1240 shipped to my door from Tirerack. Sounds like a decent deal to me, any feedback?

Then I can get the 245/45 17 Azenis latter after I abuse the stock tires on a few runs. Stock tires could get me past the first summer anyway, probably only have time for 2-3 events anyway.

The Koing Holes are about .9 lbs lighter, but they are also 17x7 and the recomended rim width is 7.5 - 9 for the Azenis.

Thanks for all the advice!

I've heard really mixed things about the Blizzaks (mostly bad), you might want to consider another set or a different source, though I'm not sure what other options you have. This is a recent review of winter tires from a Swedish tire comparison that someone translated...


"Bridgestone "Blizzak WS-50" (non-studded)
Disqualified

Dangerous! Blizzak is so dangerous on pavement that it is disqualified from the test. The skids during an avoidance manuever are so difficult to stop that it is an outright traffic danger. Blizzak has been one of the big sellers for many years. The winter-abilities (snow, ice and slush) are mediocre at best.

+ Grip on Snow and Ice (for a studless tire)
- Pavement"

Here's a link to the comparo, hope you can read swedish :p

http://www.aftonbladet.se/bil/0310/18/dacktest.pdf

I'm also in the group that does not like the Blizzak WS-50. I'd prefer pretty much ANY other winter tire on the market. While the WS-50 is supposed to be great on ice and good on snow, it's very terrible on dry pavement - much worse than other winter tires, yet it's only slightly better on ice, and no better on snow. Further, Bridgestone's miracle hydrophilic tread compound only goes to half tread depth, so when the WS-50 is only half worn, it becomes a decidedly ordinary all-season tire rather than a winter tire anymore. Given that the WS-50 wears fast, many people find that they barely get ONE winter out of a set of WS-50s before they're half worn.

BUT - while I said I'd prefer almost any other winter tire to the WS-50, it's more true that I'd prefer the WS-50 to any all-season tire out there in winter - it's infinitely better than no winter tires at all. If you can't get anything else, then by all means get the WS-50 and enjoy your RX-8, and ignore all us nit-pickers! :D

Regards,
Gordon