Tire wear

[krs]

The PS 4S is about $950 a set, the Kumho V730 is about $850 a set, stock size, without mounting/balancing. They are "not bad for a track day tire" as far as noise/harshness goes, but I bet my wife would notice. Plus... we have rain in NE Ohio, the PS 4S are known to be great in the rain. The V730 looks... like a track day tire, so it would be iffy on a rainy night. Maybe dangerous.
The A052's are about $1,050 per set. I like that you mentioned that I'm camber limited, and these tires are meant for a more extreme setup. Tire Rack did a test of a bunch of track day tires, but used an RWD car with camber plates. I don't know how much of that info applies to my car. Braking? Sure. Noise and harshness? Sure. Steering response and grip? Um... maybe, maybe not, the platforms are so different.
Oh, it's hard to tell how much wear I "should have" gotten on these tires. I have winter tires, and these summer tires, and this is my 2nd car with those tires, I don't know how many miles they have done, or how many autocross runs.

Don't get V730's for a daily tire, that's just...not smart. I'm referring to if you truly entertained a set of wheels for autox. The V730's are a real good tire for autox, I ran two sets of them and competed well. I'm now using RT660's, and about to buy my second set of them as they held up a little longer.

Talk to those truly fast drivers who are on A052's, I won't buy them as even at -2.8° on the front, I don't feel they're the right tire for my setup. This is all based on my conversations with those fast drivers, who do go to nats, and have the experience to share.

I had three sets of wheels when I lived in a snowy climate. Daily, winter, and autox. A worthy investment in my opinion.

I would also encourage you to change your mindset on your last sentence. Keep a log, you don't necessarily need to geek out with charts, maps and graphs, but you should be able to look back and get some basic info. I just use the notes app on my phone. Location, daily temps, cloudy or overcast, and pressure settings per run and how I liked the response. This gives me a general baseline, and I can see how many actual runs I get per tire. I also record the rotation of the tires between each events.

If you attend numerous events a year on your daily duty tires, you will chew them up prematurely. I mean your picture above shows I tired I wouldn't drive on the streets, even without the chunks on the edge taken out.

 

[enobiko]

Yes, I should (and will) keep better data on my next set of tires: how many laps, how many road miles, etc.
But... I really can't afford another $1,800 dollars on another set of tires and wheels. I'm retired, on a fixed income, and "fixed" in this instance means "broke". My summer tires will have to wait until next spring. I understand, many people have lots of money to spend on brand new cars, and mods as well. Not me. That is why I prefaced the whole thing with "This is my daily driver".
I too, would recommend those who have the means and interest to spend the money on a hot setup. Yes, my "street tires" will wear faster than if I had a dedicated set of track-day tires, but I started out racing on all-seasons, because that's all I had. The PS 4S tires were a big step up, and I got to drive them every day. I just have to learn to be less aggressive when autocrossing.

 

[Redslaya]

that looks like every Michelin I have ever seen when actually pushed - they love to chunk apart. As others have mentioned these cars eat outer edges due to the camber limitations. Before i added camber plates and extended ball joints i was going through 3 sets of RT660s a year doing a season of dual driver autocross and 5 weekends at VIR.

Ive since switched to the Conti ECF and while they may not be targeted as an autocross tire, they are certainly lasting a lot longer. I was selected to be an ambassador for conti and this tire and i truely like how they perform on track. I can get you a buy3get1 code if you are interested. Happy to talk more in depth as well.

 

[DerHase]

Yeah if you have to buy a single do-it-all tire... the RE71RS would be my recommendation if you want to lean more towards auto-x. Everyone talks about how great they are in the rain, and they're grippy as hell in the dry as well. Right there with the A052 but they fare better with regards to edgewear. Despite what some people think, 200TW tires do last quite a while if only driven on the street like a normal commuter car. On the *original* RE71s (which were way softer and wore faster) I got 20k mi out of a set including several auto-x events in a Mazda2 (yes smaller and lighter, but I commuted 100mi/day at the time).

If you want to prioritize street manners I'd look at the Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02s. They're Michelin equivalent, and what a lot of people run for One Lap of America (where they have to hit like 6 or 7 tracks and log 2000mi in a single week on a single set of tires). They're great in the rain (and actually what I run on track as a "rain" tire now on some ugly free stock wheels I picked up).

Also can attest the V730s are sketchy as hell in the rain. Absolutely don't get them as an only tire. On top of the below brown-pants moment, I had to drive my car into the office last week and the forecast changed overnight and rained on my way in... was sketchy going even 50mph in a relatively light rain.

I know you already mentioned budget is an issue, but the honest truth is having a set of street tires and a set of dedicated auto-x tires is a huge savings in the long run. All seasons last longer when they're not driven hard, and 200TW tires last longer than all seasons when driven hard. Performance summer tires (like the Conti ECS) are kind of OK at both but not great at either one (in the dry)... they are however a fantastic rain tire.

Be on the lookout for another set of cheap stock wheels, or free ugly wheels. This is what I did to get a set of rain wheels for track use only. They're absolutely friggin hideous but they were free, and keeps me from repeating the above again. Just set a bit of money aside for 6-10 months or whatever and when a decent deal finds you, pounce on it. I'm not sure exactly when, but I'll probably be ditching these at some point anyway. They will probably get refinished in black though to make the ugly less obvious.

Also when looking for new wheels - 17s are 100% the way to go for long term cost control. I save about $100-200 per set of tires (depending on what size and brand you're comparing) just not having 18s at all. (I run 17x9s with the V730s). Other bonus is that 245/40R17 is an incredibly common size for S2000, NC/ND Miatas, FRS/BRZs, etc so you can usually find some cheap take-off tires if you know where to look.


Check out this blog/website at some point... lots of good tips that I have done/do regularly to save where I can:
https://nomoneymotorsports.com/

 

[DarkArrow]

Have you looked into the Bridgestone Potenza Sports? I have no experience with them, but from the reviews online and TireRack testing, it seems promising as a poorman's PS4S. TireRack has the 225/40/18s for $604 after a MIR + tax.

 

[Roald]

You're right, conserving momentum in the GTI will be crucial to being faster. Smooth is better than aggressive in an gti, in autox.

You mentioned 50 psi is your max, and while that might be the max your tire can handle, it will make for absolutely trash handling. Dont do this.

I too have zero interest in going to nats. Even going to cincy or toledo is a bit of a stretch even though I really want to try out other regions. Cincy was fun but I only did it a few times last year.
That said, I was running on Conti DWS last year, and I absolutely wrecked them within like 3-4 events. Their daily grip suffered tremendously, the heat and abuse destroyed them because they weren't made for it.
I then got a second set of wheels and went to 615k+ and I regretted it almost immediately -> So about 2 months ago I finally pulled the trigger on re71rs when they were onsale for like $750 at Tirerack. Those tires launched me from consistently running middle pack to top 5s and top 10s in PAX. I never set out to win, I just wanted to have fun, but I could also tell the tires were absolutely holding me back. Turns out I was right. I was comparing my videos frame for frame against other drivers and I could see where I was plowing or loosing speed. The tires just weren't up to the task.

- Rain - 200s aren't "the best" and, 1000% do not run v730s in the rain. That said I daily my 615ks. I played a bit of musical wheels when I got the re71rs tires. I moved the re71rs to my "race wheels" and the 615k+ to my oems because they still had tons of life left. And just this morning we've had a pretty major storm here in Columbus and of course everything is flooded because the city planning here is straight up lunacy. But the 615s were fine driving in on the highway. The 200s grip REALLY well in the wet their physical grip is way far and above all seasons. -Except for like the first few minutes of a storm when the road surface gets greasy, or excessive standing water. I DO NOT daily my re71rs, but I bet they would be just fine. The roads in downtown Columbus are a clown show too, but the tires are fine in the wet. I would venture to say I have more wet surface grip than 90% of other drivers that are on all seasons. Just stay away from puddles at speed.

Moving onto 2 sets of wheels You have a set of winter wheels? Are they the oems and you have aftermarket wheels for your all seasons? Regardless, take those winters off, mount whichever on those and 200s on the 2nd set. Maybe someone in the local autox group has a mounter and might help for free? Then a balance is cheap. I too do not have a ton to spend here so I've tried not to spend excessively. I wouldn't have got the re71rs tires if there weren't like $200 off when I got them. They might still be on sale?

The other comments about getting specific tires because it will be cheaper in the long run are 100% correct. So long as you don't daily them, you will save your all seasons, and if you're just racing locally the 200s will likely get you through 2 years. Something like the 660s would be more durable long term than a052. Don't buy a052s. Youll love them, but they won't last. You are camber challenged, they will be wrecked in no time. Plus the cost will make you hate them when they burn up and you have to replace them.

And yes I upgraded from the stock intercooler. But you don't need that. You just need better, more suited tires. I know everyone pitches Autox as accessible and it is, but they don't tell you that you should really stop punishing your all seasons after the 3rd or 4th event or it will cost you.