I'm getting my car ready for my first HPDE in October. Right now my car has Falken Ziex 912s on LS Mesh wheels. One of the wheels is pretty gnarled on the lip. It holds air on the street, but will it be okay, and pass inspection, for a HPDE?

I do have an old set of 15x6.5 Motegi MR7s laying around. Should I swap the tires onto those or look for a replacement wheel?

Also, the 912 is an all-season tire, should I just keep these for DD or put something like RT-615s on the MR7s?

 

Should be fine, just keep an eye on it from time to time.

 

^^ What he said.

 

tell me it was your girlfriend who bashes curbs like that?

As long as it holds air you should be ok.
Check it after every run.

Dont go spending money yet.
Your learning...

 

yea, those will be fine.

 

Actually I bought those used like that. At the time a needed wheels ASAP and they were cheap. Though I have had my run-ins with curbs

But would it still be safer to put my existing tire on the other wheels so I don't have to worry about it?

 

Yup. The damage is on the outside of the lip, beyond the area of the wheel that holds the bead (the inside edge of the tire). It should be fine.

If you care about how your mesh wheels look, you could take the damaged wheel to a professional wheel repair shop, and they can fix it. However, they typically charge $100-125 for doing so, and you might be better off just picking up another used set.

I recommend doing your first few HPDE events using whatever tires you're normally using on the street. You won't be using your tires' full capabilities anyway. Besides, less sticky tires are easier to learn from because they give lots of audible warning before they lose all traction.

Once you've done, say, half a dozen events, then you'll have a better idea of what changes you want to make to your setup (and they may be entirely different from what you think you want to change now).

Have fun.

 

Thank you all for your advice!

I'm not concerned how my wheels look, I just wanted to make sure they were safe.

 

They look fine to me, but I'm not expert Like said above, the what looks to be minor dents are well outside of where the bead seats.

 

As long as it will hold air and doesn't vibrate/shake at high speed then your good to go.

 

Safe or not, that gonna be on your mind while you are loading in turn? Piece of mind is worth more than you might think.

 

^
As said before, your ok. Dents are ok. Cracks are bad.
Get them re-balanced if they haven't already been.

Don't get so worked up over them that you lose focus on the track.

There are some pics of my old wheels in this thread:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/showpo...5&postcount=42

Those are 'bad'.....