Need wheel & tire advice. Looking for street setup with some autocross.

[Parkway Ford Lincoln SVT]

Wow, excellent info! Thanks for the course correction.

Can you elaborate please. What do you recommend for wheel width and offset specs for those tire sizes?

Stephen has the 275/40R18 on his car, I'm thinking that he just made a mistype with the 45.


The options for larger staggered tire sizes in 18" are diminishing, the only ones in the 255/45 & 285/40R18 combo I'd currently recommend are the latest from Continental, the ExtremeContact Sport. Very nice street tire with good dry & wet grip, and could be used for autocross or track days … bearing in mind that you won't keep up with people that are running the max effort stuff like the RE-71R.

https://www.continentaltire.ca/car/t...econtact-sport

Another option for staggered is to go with 245/45R18 and 275/40R18. Still not ideal, but better than your OEM 235 tires. Those sizes are much more common, and give you many more choices for brand and model. An excellent option at a great price is the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500, which are made from the same carcass as a Bridgestone RE003, one of their tires not sold in North America. These are impressive performers, especially when the price is factored in.

https://www.firestonetire.ca/tire/firehawk-indy-500


Wheel sizes needed would be 18x9 with offset in the +35 range, and 18x10 with offset in the +40 range, give or take a few mm either way.


if doing the 275/40R18 all around, then you should have 9.5" or 10" wheels with offset in the +40 to +45 range.

[wildswing]

The roush 18x10s should fit fine everywhere. Roush stuff is usually pretty bang on.

Makes sense. Thanks.

Stephen has the 275/40R18 on his car, I'm thinking that he just made a mistype with the 45. The options for larger staggered tire sizes in 18" are diminishing, the only ones in the 255/45 & 285/40R18 combo I'd currently recommend are the latest from Continental, the ExtremeContact Sport. Very nice street tire with good dry & wet grip, and could be used for autocross or track days … bearing in mind that you won't keep up with people that are running the max effort stuff like the RE-71R.

https://www.continentaltire.ca/car/t...econtact-sport

Another option for staggered is to go with 245/45R18 and 275/40R18. Still not ideal, but better than your OEM 235 tires. Those sizes are much more common, and give you many more choices for brand and model. An excellent option at a great price is the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500, which are made from the same carcass as a Bridgestone RE003, one of their tires not sold in North America. These are impressive performers, especially when the price is factored in.

https://www.firestonetire.ca/tire/firehawk-indy-500

Wheel sizes needed would be 18x9 with offset in the +35 range, and 18x10 with offset in the +40 range, give or take a few mm either way. If doing the 275/40R18 all around, then you should have 9.5" or 10" wheels with offset in the +40 to +45 range.

Thanks again for all the excellent info Parkway.

[Stephen06GT]

Makes sense. Thanks.



Thanks again for all the excellent info Parkway.

Ed is the man. And he was correct, I made a typo with regard to the 275/40/18s.

[wildswing]

The options for larger staggered tire sizes in 18" are diminishing, the only ones in the 255/45 & 285/40R18 combo I'd currently recommend are the latest from Continental, the ExtremeContact Sport. Very nice street tire … bearing in mind that you won't keep up with people that are running the max effort stuff like the RE-71R.

I was just reading the description of the Bridgestone RE-71R on Tire Rack. In it TR says,

the Potenza RE-71R, like all Extreme Performance Summer tires, are not intended to be serviced, stored or driven in near- and below-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice.

Can't even be stored below freezing? Wow. So no chance of using these as dual purpose tires even if driven very little unless you don't try to extend your season early in the spring or late into the fall and store them in the house over the winter. I have to admit I've heard of this before with certain Michelin Pilot tires, but only recently. A guy here just got a new GT this summer and it came outfitted with some of these tires that are afraid of the cold. He double checked with Michelin tech support. They told him the tires should NEVER see cold temperatures. He had the dealer change them for something else.

Can y'all pro tire guys confirm that ALL extreme performance summer tires are like this?

Even the descriptions of tires in their MAX performance category have a cold temperature warning, although not as severe. The following is from the description of the Continental ExtremeContact Sport.

Note:: Tires exposed to temperatures of 20 degrees F (-7 degrees C) or lower must be permitted to gradually return to temperatures of at least 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) for at least 24 hours before they are flexed in any manner, such as by adjusting inflation pressures, mounting them on wheels or using them to support, roll or drive a vehicle.

So what if you have these tires on your car and you have an unexpectedly cold night. What do you do? Don't move the car and let ambient warm up to over 5°C before moving it?

Tire Rack has no such warnings on tires in their ultra high performance tire category.