ITRCA

would I notice much of a diff between a 195/50/15 and a 205/50/15?

Yes.

But honestly the 195/50-15 is a tad small for the car and if I'm not mistaken, the weight rating of it is not up to par for the R.

Go with 195/55-15 or 205/50-15.
Btw what rim are you going to be mounting these tires on?

stock wheels. so should I stay with 205-50-15 or what about going with a 215-50-15?

stock rim shouldn't have a 215/50. all you will do is roll the rubber even more.

A 205/50/15 azenis is as wide as you need for tracking the car. Stock wheels will keep the outside ~1" of rear tires off the ground because of the narrow rim.

15x7 with a 215/50 is about what the 205 azenis actually is. lay a 205 azenis next to most other 205's or stack 4 tall & you'll see nearly an extra inch wider tire.

Kinda like stacking my hoosiers next to the mounted RA1's

**I should learn to capitalize correctly ;P

thats what I needed to know, thanks!!!

So if I run 615's for autox on a stock rim go 215 instead of 250?? would i need spacers?

fomoco wrote:So if I run 615's for autox on a stock rim go 215 instead of 250?? would i need spacers?

If you put on 205/50-15 they will fit the stock rim(15X6 +50) and you will not need any type of spacer. Most tires that you will be able to fit the stock rim will not need a spacer. There might be that one odd tire, but I would not worry.

fomoco wrote:So if I run 615's for autox on a stock rim go 215 instead of 250?? would i need spacers?

What I was explaining is the fact that Falken makes their "205" wider than 205...it's really a 215 sold as a "205". That's a sneaky way of providing better traction because of more rubber on the road than the other brand's 205's. No spacers needed.

Some of the national level ITR drivers are running 225/50-15 tires in the front, but need to run spacers to minimize tire rub problems.

thats what i was thinking of 225's not 250's. What tire does tire does yokohama make that is a r comp?? I have AES 100s and they seem pretty stickey but i wasnt sure if they were an r or not.

fomoco wrote:

Some of the national level ITR drivers are running 225/50-15 tires in the front, but need to run spacers to minimize tire rub problems.

thats what i was thinking of 225's not 250's. What tire does tire does yokohama make that is a r comp?? I have AES 100s and they seem pretty stickey but i wasnt sure if they were an r or not.

Although the AES100s are good tires, they are not R-compounds. There's a pretty big difference once you've run on both.

fomoco wrote: What tire does tire does yokohama make that is a r comp??.

The A032R is a Yoko R comp that is made in 205-50-15, in both a hard compound and a soft compound.

It has an old fashioned, wide blocky tread pattern that does well in wet weather.

They are fairly sticky; however, they are not as good a buy as the Azenis RT615 or the Hankook Z212, or in R comp even the Toyo RA-1 would be a better buy.

Something you should be aware of is that the A032R can go away very quickly and unexpectedly. You can feel them losing grip as they've just heat cycled out in the middle of a sprint session.

It'll look like they're still good to the casual eye, because they'll still have tread. But it'll be dangerous to treat them like reliable R comp tyres at that stage.

I really wouldn't recommend them when tyres like the RT615, Z212 and RA-1 are so readily available.

fomoco wrote:So if I run 615's for autox on a stock rim go 215 instead of 250?? would i need spacers?

The RT615 in 205-50-15 is about as much meat as you'd want on a 6" wheel that's going to be driven on the road.

Dunlop makes a good high performance all weather tyre called the SP5000 and it will fit with the 215-50-15 size. However, the soft sidewall of these tyres will make you a little uncomfortable in aggressive driving because you will be able to feel the squirm and it will make you drive less well than the tyre's grip would normally allow.

With a 15x7 wheel, however, the SP5000 in 215-50-15 is a very nice high performance, all weather, all season tyre.

I wouldn't pick it for autocrossing.

Here are the 615's GK is talking about.



Go to vulcantire.com for ordering.

Hmmm... Lots of tires being tossed around here.

I don't recommend R compound tires for street use. For experienced track drivers, they're great for the track, of course. But on the street, they just wear too fast, they don't grip when it's wet, and they really don't grip all that well until they're heated up.

There are a lot of excellent R compound tires on the market. Yokohama is in the process of discontinuing its A032R and replacing it with the A048. The Toyo RA-1 which GK mentioned is excellent, and there are a lot of other very good R compound tires out there.

I also don't recommend all-season tires unless you have to use the same tires in snow and/or frigid cold as the rest of the year, which is what all-seasons are for. Otherwise, you'll get much better performance (on wet pavement as well as dry pavement) with a summer tire, which which is what all these other tires are.

When it comes to summer tires for the street, the Falken Azenis RT-615 will grip much better on dry pavement than any other street tire. Its downsides are rapid treadwear and so-so wet traction. If you want maximum grip on dry pavement, this is the tire to get.

The Yokohama ES100 (not AES100, although its full name is the AVS ES100) is a "budget performance tire", a good "bang for the buck" tire offering pretty good dry traction, excellent wet traction, and long treadlife at a bargain price. There are other, similar tires available from other brands. But it's really not all that great a choice for track or autocross use (unless you're just starting out, in which case it's not going to matter much anyway). And even for general street use, there are other tires that offer better performance, if you're willing to spend more money.

For a more complete summary of summer tires for the ITR for street use, click here.