Semi-slick tires for the road....

I use Yoko AO48s on mine. Great grip when they're hot. They wear pretty fast, you'll get 3-5k on them. They have some tread, so they're not as bad as slicks in the wet, but extreme caution is necessary. Just keep speeds down and plenty of clearance in front of you. You'll definitely see a big difference in grip in the dry. Road and Track did a recent tire comparison and included some DOT tires-they were very surprised at the performance in the wet.

 

I have a set of the Michelin version: Pilot Sport Cup. Also a DOT-rated race tire with minimal tread. Actually drove them in the damp once, and was pleasantly surprised at the grip: better than my "daily" tires.

So I say go for it. Just be sensible if you get caught out in a shower and you'll be fine.

 

Yeah my mate just purchased a Holden HSV Dealer Team Clubsport and they came fitted with Pirelli P-Zero semi slick tyres and I can tell you in two words on the street "Frigin Awesome" Back up with a 6 Litre monster they didn't break traction once and the sound that comes off them as he's powering through a corner, yeah you guessed it two words "Frigin Awesome" I don't think they will last him more than 10K though as they felt extremely soft IMO.

Sorry about the crappy pic that's the only decent one I have, I couldn't even find them on their website either
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notorious former moderator stephens tried Toyo's on his 550... were no where near as good as Michelin sport cups or corsa, and especially nothing close to Hoosier.

Pirelli do "Corsa system", and plain "Corsa"... the systems are more road based... the corsa are still road usable but more track based... both are drivable in the wet.... Corsa "with care", system ok.

without doubt, the fastest is Hoosier A6, R6 or R3S04... all kinda similar really... ALL lethal in the wet but almost race slick grip in the dry...

 

what type car

 

I've been running the Proxes RA1's on my 308. I bought them for the track but since I bought a race car and don't know if i'll ever take the Ferrari on the track again, so I figured I'd use up the tires.

I'm thinking about getting something like a Perreli Nero Zero or something because the ride is so hard with the proxes. Great on smooth roads but on the freeway or bumpy roads they ride way too hard to be worth the little extra grip. Unless your pushing really, really hard the R compound tires don't heat up enough to work properly anyhow.

 

Goodyear vintage has a Showroom Stock series like that...the dries have just an imprint of the pattern and the matching wets are deep tread....

Have not tried them though.....

 

Not for nothin', but that's a racing tire. Although they appear to be DOT rated, you should not use a racing compound on the street. In order to get grip, you have to heat up the tread (which requires some high speed driving). A racing compound will wear very quickly. You will probably wear them to cord in a few hundred miles. Plus, the soft tread will pick up all kinds of crap from the road. Tires like this should only be used on the track.

IMHO, don't do it. You want a good street tire if you are driving on the street. There are plenty of good, high performance street tires that you'd be happy with. Go to tirerack.com and check them out.

p.s. Yes, it's true. Slicks provide virtually no grip at all in wet conditions. Do you really want to crawl home at 10 mph?

 

Total waste of time if not on track. Race tires are for very specfic uses. For example use a hoosier A on a road course they fry because the autocross compound heats up quick for early bite then the rubber goes away and they blister and chunk if you beat them on a road course. Even canyons have too much crap on them and sometimes a stream of water running accross and some dirt and rocks (maybe no worse than WSIR), dead animals... but anyway they just can't do what a street tire will do in the street. So do yourself a favor and stick to softer street compounds in the street and leave track tires on the track. Besides if you get into an accident with race tires you will instantly be in bigger trouble because your car is not DOT legal. DOT race tires on the street are extremely marginal with the law and once you wear past the 4/32" or 3/32" I forget which you are forsure illegal and considered contributory to any accident even if you have theoretically have more grip in the dry than a street tire. So for those who order their tires shaved you are already illegal. For those who order full tread you are illegal in less than 1 or 2 track days.

 

Did you look at that yellower thing you were parked next to in the third photo?

Yoko A048s are OEM tires on the Exige and Elise Sport package. You can get them in hard and medium hard compounds. They're listed as streetable competition tires, but I notice they don't have the "R" suffix that Yoko's previous comp tires always had. I'm guessing that means a more street-able compound (warms at lower speeds).

But does anyone know what's the deal with Yoko these days? The A032R was the streetable comp tire before, in a good selections of compounds. But tirerack only carries a few of the smaller ones now, and even Yoko's site has the A032R isolated out from the rest of the Advan line.

If you go for a "street legal" competition tire, you may want a softer compound so they're not cold all the time. Try to get them heat cycled, if you want them to last more than 5000 kms.

But "streetable comp" tires are usually intended for people who track their road cars occasionally and don't want to bother with a separate set of track tires and rims -- or don't want to change them at the track. (E.g. track tires you can drive home on.)

 

If it was me, the MOST 'slick' i'd do would be Mich Pilot Cups for public road driving. They are very good dry and in damp conditions, but not for heavy rain. You may lose a few seconds per lap at LRP if you went with Mich Pilot Sport PS2 versus Cups, yet the PS2 are so awesome that even at ice rink slick LRP in the HEAVY rain i was easily able to do decent wet lap times without worries and she romped through the puddles fine. LRP is known to be slick city in the rain. So if you virtually never drive in the rain and do not ever expect to see major puddles, the Pilot Cups should be fine.

If you are talking DRY tack only, Hoosier R06 would be fine BUT if you drive a 308 beware the known stub axle breaking problem due to high G-forces. Hoosier on public streets is stupid and very dangerous of course as if you get caught in the rain you may as well call the tow truck to take you home... unless you got Senna/Schumacher skills... and even then...

FYI: at FCA and some other track events they WILL NOT allow you on a very wet track using slicks (Hoosiers, etc) due to safety reasons (and common sense). This is where Mich Pilot Cups are OK for damp conditions.