I am doing my first HPDE in about a month and I am stuck on what tire to purchase. Right now i'm leaning toward the Falken Azenis Sport tire. I've seen them going for around $80 per(plus shipping and then getting them mounted), in my stock size. I'll be willing to spend up to 150 per tire if someone can convince me that a certain one is worth it. It's my first time on the track so I don't need something insane but enough that I will be able to have fun. Anybody have some suggestions?

I'll also be picking up a set of Hawk HP+ brake pads(F+R) and doing all the fluid/tune up prerequisites.

Looks like you've got 90% of the basics covered! Don't forget to bleed...and if you're going to continue to track/autocross, consider just getting a set of R compounds, like the Toyo RA-1...it wears incredibly well, and it's not too much more $$$ if you look for a sale. The track grip is incredible both wet and dry.

The Falkens will be fine..if you're talking about the 615s...but for that price, if you can, go for the RA-1s.

I think that the Azenis st-215, or 615 would be a good pick. I have heard good things about them and seen a good bit of people using them at the track, and they seem to be relatively cheap as you mentioned. If you do a season of track events on those, and you still want something else, I would try some unshaved toyo proxes RA-1's. I just moved up to RA-1's for track days this summer, and after 3 events I can say that they are a world apart from the stock bridgestones I ran last year.

-matt

What do you have on the car now, and why do you think you need anything different than what you already have? For your first HPDE I don't think there's any need to upgrade to super sticky tires. I've run track events on everything from RE92s to R-compounds and never found that the tires I was running limited my fun in anyway. If anything, running the RE92s was a greater challenge - I was still the fastest Subie at the event (this in my sister's stock '02 WRX wagon).

As long as you don't overdrive the car, any good set of street tires will hold up just fine to open tracking.

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan

I agree with Patrick. If you need tires anyway, then any summer tire is probably ok. You're there to learn how to drive, not to lay down the fastest lap times. If your tires are super sticky and you make a mistake, you'll carry more speed while going off the track...

What do you have on the car now, and why do you think you need anything different than what you already have?

They are generic (Sentry Triathlon) tires and on some of them the outter tread is unevenly worn from being underinflated.

Depending on how bad your current tires are, it might not be a bad idea to just kill them at this track event. Maybe put the ones with the bad shoulders on the rear (since the fronts will be doing the most work).

With only a month to go until the event, buying new tires and then running them on track at nearly full tread depth probably wouldn't be the best idea. Deep tread depth = more tread block squirm = more heat in the rubber = more likely to break down the tires and cause chunking.

Tough choice.

Pat