age old question
 

I have a 2000 coupe. I need tires for it. Need help on what tire I should get. I can only afford to get 1 set of tires but I need the tires to perform double duty! My car is my daily driver but I also autox my car. Right now I have the michelin pilot runcraps! And they SUCK! I have seen some on here say they like the continental extreme contacts but with a tw of 540 I couldn't even begin to consider those. I have seen people recommend the Hancook v12 and the treadware is good (280) but I saw some say they did not grip well. Another tire I am looking at is the kumho ecsta spt but I haven't seen anyone recommend them again the tw is good (320) but obviously not as good as the hancooks. Of course I have seen the potenza's recommended but due to an issue that our family had I will NEVER buy a firestone/bridgestone product!

with all that said what would you guys recommend for a good daily driving tire that will also perform very well in autox?

Take a few minutes in the "Tire Rack" web site. They have great suggestions and prices. Might be time well spent.:thumbs:

I am not sure about Auto X with the Hankook's (Seeing I have yet to do one) however driving them HARD on long sweeping on ramps and tight exits they grip pretty darn well for the money. Also they can be had for cheap from Tirerack or Discount Tire.

I was very impressed with their grip in the wet as well. My car is a daily driver and they offer a nice ride quality. Wayyyy better than the RunFlats.

I haven't taken my car on an AutoX either, but am running the Hankooks and am very pleased with their performance. Price shipped to your door is less than $600 for a set with the rebate offered on them right now.

If you actually want to be competitive at autocrosses you will need a non-street friendly alignment (with lots of negative camber), a set of R-compound tires and lots of seat time. This means you need a second set of rims and have to consider your autoX tires as just another consumable, like gasoline.

If you just want to go have fun, get to know your car and explore it limits, then almost any decent and predictable tire will serve, but you won't be getting a prize for FTD. I don't put huge stock in treadwear numbers I have Conti DW tires; they are good tires with good grip and I wouldn't consider tread wear a problem with them. I did get almost 40,000 miles out of my last set of Toyo, T1Rs, though with less grip than the Contis

Hankooks and Nitto 555's are popular around here.

Stay away from the Kumho's. Got them...however, they are 5 years old now but I break traction rolling into first and can break traction in second and my car is not a hp monster. They also tended to break away more quickly than I expected on corners. Got Faulken 452's on another car and they seem great!!! Really nice ride and grip compared to the 5 year old BF G-force tires that were on there before. That is one problem, comparing new tires to old.... I don't know how they compare new to new, but going from old to new is great!

NITTO 555's . . about $750 out the door installed at Discount Tire...

I do realize that tread wear is not the GREATEST measurement of a tires grip since there really is no standard for tread wear. brand x may say their tires have a rating of 300 while brand y will call the same tire a 400.

as for the autocross ya "I know to be truly competitive you need a set of slicks and you need to adjust your camber a lot however I just run the regional events not the nationals and I run in stock class so with the changes next year in SCCA rules it would be a waste of money to get slicks as that would kick me out of stock class.

as for tire rack and discount tire well I have been going through both of their sites like crazy trying to find the "perfect" tire at the best price and believe me that is not an easy task. That is why I came on here to see what guys are running so I can get a real review on the tires.

Also another tire I was looking at are the yokohama advan sport it has a tread wear of 180 but again tread wear doesn't always mean the the same thing on different tires