MarkDFW

2012 GS getting more serious in HPDE. That means I need another set of reliable wheels to go with whatever tires I decide to run. No interest in buying new wheels. Lots of used for sale. Any recommended wheel sizes and brands to stay with? I am not buying the host end but not going with cheapest wheels either.

I mostly see guys running hoosier r6 at HPDE out here. Any other favorite tires you guys like?

AU N EGL

Nittos will last you a long long time

MarkDFW

I have heard good things on Nitto.

Good wheel sizes and brands for the track that have a lot of tire choices?

AU N EGL

18x10 front and 18x11 rear.

or 18" scrubbs from GT tires in Wisconsin

mbeckers

I have been running Michelin slicks in 27/65 18 front and 31/71 18 rear. These tires provide incredible grip and decent tire life.

As for wheels I have CCW corsairs in 18x11 front and 18x13 rear. With 18's all the way around you have a much wider selection of tires to choose from.

63Corvette

I'll second that. GT tires are great people to work with. I would recommend their "scrub" slicks.

MarkDFW

Any other thoughts on wheel brands and sizes? I'm leaning away towards a square setup, and going with wheel sizes around 18x10 front 18x11 rear as it seems I'll have several good tire choices there.

I'm really clueless on wheel brands to go with, as I know zero about what is good, outside of maybe forgeline or CCW, which might be out of my price range unless I get a good set used.

crease-guard

You can get a set of TSW's for a little over a grand. I have used them on several track days and they seem to be holding up pretty well. They are my rain tires now as I have two sets of forgelines I use. If the TSW's start to look bad, they are cheap to replace.

Jay

MarkDFW

These don't come in GS/z06 sizes. The more I research, the more I realize I need at least 18x10 or 11 in front and 18x12 or 13 in rear. There are no inexpensive options in these sizes from what I can find.

The tricky part is I want to have dedicated wheels/tires for street and another set for the track. That means buying two sets of 18" all the way around. VERY expensive!

AU N EGL

Use your stock wheels for the street.

just buy one set of 18" for the track.

MarkDFW

Wouldn't I need to adjust ride height since I'm going from 18 front 19 back to 18 all the way around?

beerkat

If you are just getting started doing HPDEs and you drive your car to the track then you might want to look at the NT05 or the Nitto's R2. I do not think you need to worry about adjusting your ride when running a 18" wheel in the rear. When somebody refers to having a square setup for wheels it means that they run the same size tire/wheel combination on all four corners. This allows them to rotate the tires.

Everett Ogilvie

Probably not - you don't adjust ride height based on the rim diameter, you would adjust it based on the OD of the tires you use. You can find 18" tires in very similar OD to the 19" tires you are running.

JDIllon

You can run 18" all around!! But need to run tires that stay close the same diameter as the stock tires!!!! This keeps the ride height the same. Also it allows you to run the nanny's if you want to, with no problems. You should be able to find a set of CCW's for around $2000used or $3200.00 new. Call John at CCW
You can run 295's,305's or 315's on the front and 345 rears. And stay within the car parameters. This will give you many options for tires. JD

MarkDFW

So let's assume I want to drive to and from the track. There are several streetable choices in the stock 275/35/18 setup on front wheels. (such as NT01 or R888)

How close do I need to be in overall diameter with 18 inch to the current OD in the rear? 1 inch or less of tolerance? I'm playing around on tire rack's tire size calculator and I can get close, but don't know how close I need to be.

Keep in mind I recently had Pfadt coilovers installed, which lowered the car slightly.

VTcorvette

I just purchased a second set of stock wheels for the GS. I will use these for track wheels and run the Nitto tires. I only have one year of experience in driving the HPDEs, so this will work for me. You can get stock wheels new at a good price. Paid $799 for mine.