I currently have the same tires I bought my 8 with and tread life somewhere around 50%... I am itching to go to one of these track or autoX events asap, however, I'm a tad nervous about the kind of wear and tear the tires will take in 1 or 2 events... As of now, can't afford new or separate tires for the track and I am curious to know what everyone's thoughts are on what kind of beating the tires will take... (I've got non-racing, Goodyear sport tires)

 

Depends on the track/parking lot surface and the type of event. It's a pretty safe bet that if it's autoX you will get some wear but not nearly as much as you will if you were doing an entire weekend on an open road course. I have corded tires in one weekend at a track, and have run others that I could probably go most of the season on one set.

 

what exactly do you mean by "corded" ???

 

down to the metal cords under the tread.......not a pretty sight

 

haha wow... that is prettty bad... so would you suggest having a spare set of tires just for the track then??? Idealy, once I got the financial resources, I was looking into getting some new wheels and tires, and keeping the stock rims for track and autoX events... Suggestions???

 

In theory, yes, a second set is nice......with the back seats out you can carry four in the back. In real world $'s, if you use one set, just be prepared to replace tires sooner......stock wheels are for sale on the forum all the time, some with tires that only have a few thousand miles on them.

Warning....once you've hit the track pipe, it's hard to let it go and it quickly becomes a way to deplete your $'s fast......but, the investment in yourself and your driving skills pays for itself over and over again. Not only on the track, but in real world as well. This is an AWESOME track car....

 

Let me put it into perspective... My 8 came with the RE040 Potenza tires. I did 3 autocross events (in a typical parking lot venue) doing 4 runs at each event. I also did 3 track day events on those tires and finally changed them at around 20K. I could have justified replacing them about 5K miles earlier but I didn't mind riding on the wear bars. The track I was at was Road Atlanta which is easy on tires. Some tracks are not so easy so it depends exactly on where you go and how you drive. If you go to a track that is notoriously hard on tires, one weekend can chew them up pretty well. Ask around. If it is in the SE, chances our we'll know the track and it's reputation.

 

awesome guys, thanks a lot for the info.

 

TrackAddict - just watched one of your track vids... are you running just a stock engine??? And when you we're at road atlanta, was that a licence-only event? A buddy of mine races there a couple times a year and that track looks like it would be an amazing time...

 

he's feeling the force.........

 

here's our schedule for this season.....we also try to get to one or two others if we can.....

http://www.nasa-southeast.com/schedule.jsp

 

IF you browse the forum, you'll find that you can't really make more power in an RX8 except for turbo or supercharging and I have neither.
Most of the track events are with NASA-SE. Everyone is welcome to join NASA and sign up for an event.

 

Not sure what 'non-racing GY sports tires' are... but if they're everyday replacement tires you could conceivably rip them easily, normal tires are made for comfort and with soft sidewall they will plead for mercy or just give up under hard use. The 8s normal breed of tire RE040s or similar are Xtreme performance tires and stand up well if you inflate them to keep them from heating up / chewing the tread too much.

I had the RE040s for 2 yrs lots of HPDEs and they were ok, just noisy. I noticed tracks with concrete wear areas were the worst on the tires.

After that, RT-615s lasted only a year, but they were much nicer, grippier too. If you track best consider tires to be a consumable item like oil, gas . It's crazy to worry about wear... but 1 or 2 events shouldn't put a dent in most of them unless you're a drift king.

 

Hey Sam, let's talk about this at our next meet.

 

Alright that sounds good

 

Ditto