I am trying to get into auto x this year, so I am in the process of building out a Del Sol. I need new tires all around, but I was wondering if I could get by with just new ones on the front and then next year drop some coin on a good set of rubber.

Thoughts?

 

Depends on how bad the other two tires are.
If they are anywhere near bad id hold out and get a set of four.
Also you dont mention if this is a dd.
If it is dont risk playing on bad equipment.
But if it isn't and its a event only car , and the tires are good...
Go have fun.

 

yea its Track only. I plan on trailering it to the track to, so it won't really be driven on normal roads. By bad I mean the insides are fairly worn down due to the previous owners negative camber. If it was my DD, I would probably have driven another 2-3K miles on them, so I a pretty sure I can make it the 5-10 races I am trying to make this year.

Thanks

 

For autox you should be fine. Things get iffier on a track with the higher speeds you'd see.

 

Are you talking about the same make/model tires, or a different make/model?

If they're the same make/model tires, no problem. Heck, I'm sure we're all out there trying to even out the wear on our tires, but sometimes some of our tires have more tread depth than others. With matching make/model tires, any differences in grip will be limited to those due to tread depth.

However, if you're talking about getting two new tires that are a different make/model, they could result in a difference in grip. For example, let's say you currently have some daily driving type street tires on your car, let's say they're all-seasons like a Falken Ziex ZE-512 or a Nitto Neogen. And let's say you want to switch your car over to a really sticky tire like the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec. If you only buy two, the two Star Specs are going to grip MUCH better than the two Ziexs. This can change the handling of the car dramatically. If you put the sticky Star Specs on the front and the Ziexs on the rear, the car is going to oversteer (the back end will want to swing around on you in turns). If you put the sticky Star Specs on the rear and the Ziexs on the front, the car is going to understeer (want to go straight ahead in turns). This is why the standard advice from tire folks is not to use mismatched tires with drastically different performance characteristics. However, in autocross, you can use mismatched tires to your advantage if you want to add more understeer or oversteer to your car.

Whether or not to do this is up to you, but these are the consequences on the handling of the car that you should be considering. Of course, if you're just going to get two more tires like the ones you already have, then there won't be huge differences in grip between the new tires and the old tires.

HTH

 

yea, I was talking two completly different brands. So after thinking about it, I opted to to just spend the extra dollars right now and get a full set of decent Summer tires, until I get a better handle of racing on a track. I will have enough things to figure out, I don't need to add different tires front and rear to the mix.

 

You may want to consider the supersticky Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec, now that it's available in the sizes you would need for a del sol (185/60-14 or 195/50-15 for most del sols; the last year or two of the VTEC model came with 195/60-14 and can also use 205/50-15 or 195/55-15). And there's a $50 rebate on it right now, too.

 

What is your budget?