If I was going to use an SRF for trackdays and did not have any tire choice restrictions what tires would people recommend? Was thinking about Hoosier, Nitto or BFG track tires as possibilities (assuming I could find the right size) and just looking to see if anyone else had tried this path and what the results were.

I would go to the tire guy at the track and get some of the discarded used SRF Goodyear's unless Hal B. beats you to them. Many people discard tires with a lot of rubber left in them because new are noticeably faster.

Toyo R888's will work and you can get them in proper front/rear sizes (185 & 205). You would need to significantly change the setup and car balance to do so. Avon has tires that fit as well (185 & 215). Main point is finding them in the 13" wheel size. We ran R888's at the last 25 Hours of Thunderhill as well as an earlier enduro and test days so we easily had 30 hours on the tires with life still left in them.

breton wrote:Toyo R888's will work and you can get them in proper front/rear sizes (185 & 205). You would need to significantly change the setup and car balance to do so. Avon has tires that fit as well (185 & 215). Main point is finding them in the 13" wheel size. We ran R888's at the last 25 Hours of Thunderhill as well as an earlier enduro and test days so we easily had 30 hours on the tires with life still left in them.

Thank you for your reply. What changes in set-up are you referring to? Camber, Caster, alignment etc. What options do I have to adjust to "car balance" on an SRF - thinks like shock settings and corner weighting?

Biggest difference will be in camber as radials require a lot more camber than the bias ply Goodyears (we pushed some crazy camber in the old days up to the point where we had to have a rule limiting camber to 5 degrees.) Front/rear balance will mostly be in the sway bar settings to stiffen up the rear (or soften the front) to get the car back to neutral (would likely push badly with a stock setup.) For track days I wouldn't get too crazy about massive changes but if you want to take the time to get the most out of the car you'll want camber at least above 3-3.5 degrees (more is better but you sacrifice some tire wear). No massive differences in shock settings or toe. Pretty much just apply standard setup practices to get the car balanced on entry-center-exit to your liking.

brakeharder wrote:

breton wrote:Toyo R888's will work and you can get them in proper front/rear sizes (185 & 205). You would need to significantly change the setup and car balance to do so. Avon has tires that fit as well (185 & 215). Main point is finding them in the 13" wheel size. We ran R888's at the last 25 Hours of Thunderhill as well as an earlier enduro and test days so we easily had 30 hours on the tires with life still left in them.

Thank yo for your reply. What changes in set-up are you referring to? Camber, Caster, alignment etc. What options do I have to adjust to "car balance" on an SRF - thinks like shock settings and corner weighting?

I would think most of the not-Goodyear 13" tires would offer significantly more grip and, additionally, are radials so they're going to feel different.

The tools you have available to change balances are swaybar settings, rake, toe, camber, tire pressure...whatever you'd do on any other car, you just can't change spring rates or bars. I'd think you'd want more camber and more bar (rear) as a place to start. Generally adding overall grip, all things being equal, causes a push

On a light car like this one I'd go for the Toyos

Toyo's R888 is probably the easiest, cheapest and most readily available option. It is actually quickly becoming a popular option in F1600 (otherwise known as FF). I have driven a FF a few times on the R888 and it was fun. It gets faster as it wears down and lasts forever on a 1100 pound FF car. If you shave it, it will go faster...but that probably doesnt matter since you just plan to run track days.

We just did a 3 day tire test a few weeks ago and the GY isn't the slowest nor is it at the bottom of grip. Searching through the used GY pile might be the best option yet.

I'd grab some used GY from the pile. You can often get lots of low wear tires at Majors events or find the guys who replace their tires for race day. Just check the depth or tread, sticky, hardness, etc.

Since it is a test day they should be fine. I know a few of us that run used tires even on race days and are still competitive and 1 that even wins races.

Hoosier 22x8-13 bias ply slicks work and are quite a bit faster than the spec tire. Might not like being run on the standard 5.5" SFR front wheel though. 22x9-13 may work on the rear given the right offset. (FC rear tires or FA fronts)

22.5x7.2-13 Formula Ford rears will not fit. Too wide near the wheel centerline.

If you dig through the used tire pile for SRF tires, look for tires marked as fronts, as they likely have more life in them than rears.

Plus the bias ply slicks work pretty good without changing your setup (no radial vs bias ply change over requiring big camber changes).

if you are looking for slicks, the Avons run on FC might be a better choice then Hoosiers or GY's, they have a little stiffer sidewall. I ran them on an Argo that weighed 1450 and they were much more stable then the others, you could also look at the Hoosier DOT race tires as they would be stiffer as well. The FF rears are cantilevered and would wallow around a lot as they are for a much lighter car.