Tire selection question

[brandonl]

Hey fellas,

I am changing from a 205 55 14 Kumho 710's to either: 225 45 15 Avon RA's, 225 50 15 Kumho 710's, or the newer 225 50 15 BFGoodrich G-force R1's.

Anyone care to share some insight? The BFG's are fairly new, is anyone using them yet? I like the 710's, but my wallet seems to like that special that tirerack is having on the Avon's

TIA,
Brandon

[RX-Midget]

I think Grassroots Motorsports did a test with the Kumho's and the Avon's. If I recall, the Avons were very close to the time of the Kumho's. I saw that price Tire Rack had on the Avons and thought it a good buy. You can pay the entry fee to another hillclimb with the money you save!

BTW- the 45 series tires will give you better gearing for hills than the 50 series. It will feel like you have a numerically higher ratio drive gear set for more pull up the hill.

[brandonl]

Well, I ended up finding a good used set of 225 45 15 Hoosier S03's. Anyone else run these tires? I hear via the all-knowing internet that these tires like a lot of air pressure... any insight there?

Thanks,
Brandon

[gdh57]

It varies widely, depending on the car.

Before I bought the 13" wheels, I ran the Hoosier AS305's in 205 50 15's on my Scirocco, and ran 33 PSI front and rear on hills.

I had also heard that the tires needed to be at very high pressures, but we came up with the Scirocco pressures after a Test and Tune. For autocross, I run 37 rear to make the car rotate. ( I originally started my first hillclimb with autocross pressures, but after spinning twice on my first run , I dropped the rear pressure down to 33 to make it a bit more stable. )

I also run the 05's on my ITR for autocross, and use 51 PSI front, 49 PSI rear, which is why I say it varies widely

I'd recommend finding someone with a very similar car for a starting point. I think Paul runs low 40's on his Golf.

Grace