The last autocross school just ended last week for the year and my tires are shot. Each school event is around 3 session of 10 runs with around 3 minutes between runs. Plus 6 runs of autocross which happens after the school event. Thats 36 runs per event five to six times a year.
I currently have Azenis rt-615 and they feel greasy as sin around half way through the event, gaining 7 to 8 psi. Whats the best tire that does not have a overheating problem?
Thanks

 

For a local schools, I'd find some sets of used, heavily heat cycled V710 Kumhos, like maybe 80-90 run tires. If you have local guys who run them, it shouldn't be hard to pick them up for $100-200/set.
The Kumhos seem to get to a point where they just won't die...they may be a half a second or so slower than nice new ones, but they once they're that hard, the loss of surface rubber really slows. I don't know of anyone who has corded the Kumhos, most end up throwing them away before that happens. Figure you could get a couple of school events out of each 80 run set you can scrounge up.

 

I've seen corded Kumhos and I'm pretty sure you did to......Not sure how many runs they had on them but once they went it got pretty ugly. Anyway, I agree that Kumhos wear really well, especially on the RX8.

 

+1 on Kumhos. I've seen a set cord on a 3,100lb camber-challenged WRX. The tires had roughly 160+ runs on them though...

 

either RA1, V700 victoracer will last damn near forever.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about your's at Atwater. Were those the ones I sold you?

 

I know Michelin pilot sports cup tires are not popular, but has anyone have any experience with them?

 

There are no 18" Victoracers.... Would have to go with the Kumho Ecsta V700. imho that would be a waste of money, I have never seen a V710 cord in less than 120 runs on an RX-8 with a good alignment and the right air pressure. Sure you could buy a brick like a Toyo that will last 200 laps, and go about as fast as a high end street tire, but what fun would that be.

 

Nope, that woould be me, who sold Stuart the OEM rims + TPMS. The tires were just freebie/throwaway, which got finished nicely on Atwater's grippy concrete

 

A lot of people seem to think that those tires are the bomb, but an article was writtten not too long ago that compared them to other tires in their class. I wanna say that the article was in a Grassroots Motorsports mag. Anyhow, they found that the RT615's actually lose traction as they heat up; exactly the opposite of every single other tested tire.

 

Gotcha, I was running 17's on mine so that didn't occur to me. I would say that the RA1's were faster than a high end street tire in my experience (we run on a huge lot in the hot summer), but you're right probably still closer to a street tire than a V710, A6 etc

 

For driving schools, i loke to find the dardest tire I can get. The reason is Get real good with hard slippery tires first. Than when its go time put the stickies on.

 

That's why they're pretty good autox tires and not so great as track tires...

 

I don't think that's a great idea, the point of getting lots of runs in a driving school is to learn how your car handles and find the limits that you can safely use. If you're going out on some terrible hard tires when it's time to do real competition runs you'll still be wondering how much extra your car has to give and if you go out exploring too much that isn't a good thing IMO.