Like the title says. I am looking to replace my Azenis 215/45/16's.

Car is a 97 ITR.

I just did a track day at Buttonwillow, and my tires sucked. I drove these tires all winter this year. They saw snow a couple times. In fact, I got stuck in the snow/ice on the way to Vegas before Prim on the way to CES in Jan.. We sat in the snow from 3AM to about 6AM with the highway closed.

On the track, they were all over the road. Pretty much just 4 wheel drift/slide, not really push or loose. I didn't have a thermometer to see where the heat was, but wear was to the edges. MikeHonda looked at them with me. They didn't chunk, but seamed overheated to me. When I got home, they looked almost cupped, and had large deposits of rubber still attached to them.....still do 2 weeks later.

I checked my alignment when I got back, toe was slightly off, but nothing major. Camber is 1.9 front, 1.3 rear, no kit. I have Spoon N1's with 16kg front and 12kg rear. Stock everything else.

Anyways, 16's seem to have less choices in tire. I was looking at Toyo T1R's in a 215/40/16. It is 22.8" vs 23.6" now and 23.4 stock.

I daily drive my car, but about 5-10 miles a day max. Occasional road trip, most miles come from spirited mountain drives and I want to hit a few more track days this year.

Thanks for any suggestions.


Modified by Reilly at 2:01 PM 4/26/2008

 

Yokohama ADVAN A048 225/50-16

Mind you, this could make your gears a bit taller.

 

my suggestion, is get another set of rims/tires for track. and replace the falkens with a new set.

 

My concern with 225 width tire is rubbing. When I looked at my 215's on the car, the rear trailing arm was so close to the inside edge of the tire I couldn't fit my finger between them.

They do make the Advan in a 225/45/16

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PseudoScience &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yokohama ADVAN A048 225/50-16

Mind you, this could make your gears a bit taller.</TD></TR></TABLE>

225/45-16 is a better size, I have a pair of those for track use up front on my ITR, and they are actually a little bit smaller in diameter than my 215/45-16 RE040's but they are mounted on 16x8" Enkei wheels, and the RE040 are on 16x7". 225/45 A048 is a good wider, so I feel a 7" wheel is a bit narrow for them.

BUT, the Advans are not in any way a street friendly tire, grip or general behaviour is not good when they are cold, and wear rate is not exactly excellent, I use mine only for track use.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90_EX_Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my suggestion, is get another set of rims/tires for track. and replace the falkens with a new set. </TD></TR></TABLE>



(assuming that the tires for track use will be R compounds)

 

Bridgestone Potenza RE-01s....$$$$ for 205/45R16...

But they are stickier than the 615s, like heat, and should get better wear. For ST class auto-x it is THE tire. But for track days its prolly the best street tire available. Hankook makes an RS-2 I think in a 225/45R16? but I'm not positive about that.. I ran some on my 14s and they were great tires, I'd like to try them on one of my 16" wheels at some point.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not ready for a second set of rims yet.

I will look into the Potenza and Hankooks. More ability to handle heat would be good. I will probably go to Buttonwillow more than anywhere else, and its HOT here. 100+ all summer long.

 

Hankook RS-2 in a 225/45/16 is only $102 on tirerack. Or a 215/45/16 since I don't know if it will fit.

Potenza REo1R in a 205/45/16 is $161 respectively. Is the compound that much better than the hankook to make up for having less contact? Or the Azenis for that matter?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Reilly &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is the compound that much better than the hankook to make up for having less contact? Or the Azenis for that matter?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Autocross comparo test with R-S2 and Azenis
Autocross comparo test with RE01R and Azenis

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90_EX_Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my suggestion, is get another set of rims/tires for track. and replace the falkens with a new set. </TD></TR></TABLE>

good suggestion, i agree

 

The azenis are a much grippier tire than the toyo t1-r. I ran the old t1-s's for several track events and currently run azenis. One thing I noticed about the azenis is that you really have to pay attention to tire pressure. In my case 38-39psi on the fronts seemed to be the sweet spot. If I hit 40psi, the tires got greasy and went away very quickly.

In a 98 civic, I set the front tire pressure to 30psi cold. That put me about 38-39 hot.

 

The Azenis don't like heat...at all. Period. If you are on a budget roll with the RS-2s. Its a great tire and handles water too.

The RE-01s are really expensive, and just for doing trackdays for fun, not worth the extra 60 a tire for me.