> From: "Scott Snyder" <scott_926@hotmail.com>
> Hi all. I'm new to Autocross and racing my 91 MR2 (na). Everyone is
> telling me that race tires will make a world of differnce.
Stick with street tires for a while. If your local region has a
street tire class, run there. Novices don't like to hear this but
they are not ready for racing tires. Do one bad 4-wheel lockup due
to overcooking a corner and you can kiss a set of racing tires
goodbye. I've seen it happen.
Street tires force a new autoxer to be smooth and use proper
lines/technique. Racing tires can act differently and a new driver
won't know what the tires are "saying" to the them.
Optimize the car before going to racing tires. Get the chassis
set up to the class rules. There's no sense in trashing the outside
of a racing tire because you still have positive camber.
Give streets a few months / several events and then purchase.
If you really get the itch to drive on racing tires, borrow a
friend's car that has them. I did that. I went on street tires
until I wore them out. Then I got racing tires. I borrowed friends'
cars for a run or two before the big purchase. Of course my college
budget had something to say about that too. :-)
Mike Lowe mikelowe@phoenix.net http://www.phoenix.net/~mikelowe
'96 Miata R (B Stock autocrosser)
'94 Miata (CSP and rising -- future turbo car)
|