Tire help needed badly.

[Libila]

I was out racing a Solo II event this morning and I seemed to have destroyed my tires I chunked the front right tire and it is now showing the cords. The other tires are in a little better shape, but they are pretty bald.

I asked a fellow Subaru owner where a good place would be to buy tires in this area and he told me that he had a set of Yokohama ES 100s that he used on the street for about five months and they have one or two auto crosses on them. He said that he needs to get rid of them because the wife is bitching about him have two sets of R-compound tires and the Yokohamas at his house. The size is 235/45/17. My current tire size is 215/45/17 on a 17x7 rim. I have 5zigen progressive lowering springs that give my car a 1.5 inch drop (they came on the car).

Will these tires fit without having to roll my fenders or causing any other problems?

I've heard that these tires are pretty good for my application, which is daily driving and auto crossing. Are these tires worth the $200 that he's asking?

[Libila]

Anyone? Please! I need to have this situation fixed by Tuesday morning.

[Kevin M]

Weird... I psted a reply, bt it disappeared. Anyways, if you only have $200, that's as good as you're going to do. But those are a bit too tall and will definitely rub. You'll need to remove the fender lip guard and probably roll them a bit too. If you have enough for new tires, I'd look at Kumho MX first and something like BFG G-force Sports second.

[Libila]

The Yokos are just as tall as my tires that I have now, just wider.

If I do spend the money for new tires, what size would be best? Should I stay with the 215/45?

[Dean]

225/45-17 is a better circumfrance than the 235 though I do not know about clearance.

In a 225 or 215/45-17, probably the best autocross with wet performance if needed for the street bargain will be the Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 $109/102 from discount tire.

[Kevin M]

Ah, I forgot about those. Those are probably the first choice for you Tim.

And 235/45 is significantly taller than the stock 205/55s. However, 235 ES100s aren't particularly wide. Probably barely wider than your current 215s.

[Libila]

Should I just avoid this guys ES 100s all together then?

I'm hoping, but doubting, that Discount Tire or Martin's will be open tomorrow. I need to be driving my car by Tuesday morning.

[Dean]

Borrow a set of wheels/tires for a couple days from somebody assuming you don't have a second set???

[Libila]

I don't really know anybody here in Texas, so I can't borrow wheels and tires. I don't have an extra set either, the previous owner sold the stock wheels

[Dean]

Go to discounttire.com there are a bunch of stores in TX. I think you can even look at the local store inventory on-line.

You may be hard pressed tofind any place open Mon. but at least you can make a plan for Tues. AM.

I guess worst case, you could rent an econo box for a day or two to get you by.

Another idea. Get on Nasioc, and i-club and post something in your region section looking to borrow/rent a set. There might also be somebody local selling a set of stockers...

[Libila]

Will do; Thanks for the suggestions Dean.

Lets get back to tire suggestions. I'm looking for something that will stand up to daily driving, handle wet conditions, and be a decent auto-x tire. Dean suggested the Hankooks. Does anyone else agree or have other suggestions?

[Dean]

Here are some other options.

These ratings are not entirely first hand experience, and are only relative this batch of tires high performance tires. Except noted, all are available in 215,and 225.
Hopefully you can find one of these in time to meet your needs. None of these are snow worthy.

Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 (Best bang for your buck, good autocross, good wet)
Kumho ECSTA MX (More expensive, good autocross, OK wet.)
Falken Azenis RT-615 (225 ony, great autocross, fair wet, more expensive)
Yokohama ADVAN Neova (225 ony, great autocross, OK wet, very expensive)
BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW (More expensive, OK Autocross, Good Wet)
BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2 (More expensive, Good Autocross, OK Wet)
Dunlop SP Sport FM901 (Cheap, fair-OK Autocross, Good wet)

[Libila]

Thank you much Dean.

I got ahold of one tire place that is open today, but they only sell Bridgestone tires. I may have to settle with these for the time being. I only have three auto-xs left in the season. Thoughts on a decent Bridgestone tire if I have to settle for them?

[tysonK]

Well it looks like your best bet for Birdgestone is:

Both of these are ultra-high perf all season. I know the S2000 driven by the Evans used RE950 which are not as good as these 2.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Potenza+RE040

$152.00 on tirerack so these types of tires are expensive.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Potenza+RE750

[Dean]

Potenza RE050s are probably the first choice followed by Pole Position S-03s.

[tysonK]

Originally Posted by Dean

Potenza RE050s are probably the first choice followed by Pole Position S-03s.

Those Bridgestones above were my semi-all season examples. They are probably more comfortable also.

Not all out auto-x.

[Libila]

Good news, the tires that were destroyed were under warranty, so I got new tires for like $100 They didn't have the "Rage Road Huggers" in so I got Bridgestone Fuzions.

I've never heard of them but they had them in stock in a 225/45/R17 and I only had to pay a little bit of money.

I've run into a bit of a problem though. The front left tire and the right rear tire have one fingers worth of clearance, where the opposite corners have two fingers worth of clearance. Needless to say it rubs when I make right hand corners. I was thinking that the problem may be the stock struts have seen their end. The previous owner did use 1.5 inch lowering springs on stock struts. I thought that if the strut has blown it would be putting the corner weight on the spring, which would cause it to sag. Any thoughts?

I've got the tires fixed, but now I'm scared about destroying my fenders.

[Dean]

Go back to the 215s... If you say they rub, hopefully they will take them back.

[Kevin M]

Your struts won't affect your ride height or rubbing. Crappy springs affect that. See if you can get someone to trade you springs, or find some cheap online. Also, get more camber. Front rubbing is odd with 225s on Rotas. -1.5 degrees up front will handle great and not cause significant wear, especially if you're balancing it out with autocrossing and some spirited driving.

[Libila]

Dean- I too was thinking about going back to the 215s, but that would require me to buy another set of tires. I went back to the tire place and asked if I could go with a 215 instead, and they said they would have to order those tires and I would be charged X amount because I used the 225s.

Kevin-I've got the stock springs, but I'm really going to try for the Prodrive springs as soon as I can. Also, are you saying I should run -1.5 up front all the time? What about the rear?

[Kevin M]

-1.5 is fine. Actually, you probably won't quite be able to get that much, but whatever you can get will help. It won't cause awful street wear IF you make sure your toe is within 1/16" or so, in or out. I personally ran a really crazy alignment the last 2 years or so- 3/8" toe out front, -1.6 degrees camber, 3/16" toe out rear, -2.5 degrees camber (until I got the Volks; then I had to go to like -.6 degrees rear. However, my car has awesome autocross handling, no crazy tre wear, and was really fun to drive.

[Libila]

What do you guys think I should do about my clearance problem? Just suck it up and buy Prodrive springs; Then install them with my SPT struts and STi tophats? Convert it back to stock for the time being?

[Kevin M]

First, try to max out your front camber. If that doesn't do it, then yeah, time for better springs, although you will still rub on hard turns if you haven't changed your suspension geometry.

[Libila]

Can I have the camber adjusted while I have an alignment done? I'm going to be installing new springs and struts this week and of course will need an alignment. If I ask them the adjust ~1.5 negative camber up front what would be a wise toe adjustment for my application of daily driving and some auto-x and track use?

[sperry]

Some places won't adjust the camber out of "spec". I don't remember what the service manual says for the Impreza... but -1.5deg probably isn't too bad, assuming the stock camber bolts will adjust that far.

For you application, I'd go with something like -1.5 deg Front / -1.0 deg Rear, zero toe all around.