Good tires for track and street?

[kydiwl]

I have a 2003 350z that is my daily driver and track car. It's time for new tires and having done a couple of HPDE and autocross events want to get something that would be good at the track. I'm looking at Bridgestone Potenza RE-01Rs for the front (245/40-18) and Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole Positions for the rear (275/40-18). I want to stay at factory diameter to keep the car "road-safe" and I can't find either tire in both sizes.

Is this worth doing? I'm not familiar with running dissimilar tires front and rear, but I think these are close enough to match up.

I'm having a hard time finding an affordable matched set front and rear in these sizes in anything worthwhile. If somebody knows of a near-R compound tire that would be good on both the track and the street, in these sizes, please let me know. I can't spend a lot of money, I need to stay in about the same price range as the Bridgestones (< $1K).

[kbrew8991]

the RE01R is badass, I wouldn't mix it with another tire though... look at the Yokohama Advan Neova to see if it the sizing is more favorable for you. what do other people that track the 350Z do? IMO I'd worry more about keeping the widths closer to stock and run the same compound over keeping the diameters all perfect, you'd think you'd get less issues that way

the RE01R and the Yoko are 2 of the top tire choices for people doing One Lap of America - you need a fast true DOT tire to do well at that event

[Lobo6]

Goodyear GSD-3's?

[kydiwl]

I found Pole Positions at Tire Rack that will fit both the front and rear. I guess I got so focussed on putting the RE-01Rs on the front I didn't see the Pole Positions are available for the front. Any opinions/experience with these tires?

Ken, the rims I have on the car are about an inch wider in front and an inch and a half wider in the rear than stock, so stock width tires won't work. I like the look and feel of the staggered widths, so I'll probably stick with this setup. I'm curious, though, why you feel keeping stock width is more important than stock diameter. I've heard that the electronics on the 350z will freak out sometimes if you mess with the diameter of the tires. And since this is still my street car, I need to be concerned that the TCS and VDC don't get whacked out and the car tries to take over control from me when I go too fast around a corner. I do have a second set of front rims and I was thinking I could put the RE-01Rs on them and only use them for the track, but that lead me to my question of how would RE-01s on the front and Pole Positions on the rear perform.

Lobo, thanks for the tip. I'll look at those.

[Warpedcow]

I run Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole Positions 235/45/17s all around. Great summer tire. Does fine on the track wet or dry too. Actually, it's friggen amazing in the wet. It's also quiet and rides smooth which is nice for the daily-drive. And in my size at least it's only around $650/set.

[kbrew8991]

I guess "stock widths" isn't what I was going for, rather than stock "stagger" or difference in widths to try and preserve the same front-rear balance that the car was built for (unless its too pushy in that config even after alignment adjustments, etc)

I can see what you mean about getting the diameters close to keep the nannies happy... how hard would it be to disable that part of the system though?

those Pole Positions should get you out there, but if you're competition-minded I'd look at a bit more agressive tire

[kydiwl]

Originally Posted by Warpedcow

I run Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole Positions 235/45/17s all around. Great summer tire. Does fine on the track wet or dry too. Actually, it's friggen amazing in the wet. It's also quiet and rides smooth which is nice for the daily-drive. And in my size at least it's only around $650/set.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm really leaning towards these tires, I've heard they do really well on the Z.