51 What are the current preferred tire choices for VWs?
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This article is from the VW Performance FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Jan Vandenbrande others.
51 What are the current preferred tire choices for VWs?
A:It depends on what you want from a tire...Performance?
Long Life? Good dry cornering? Wet weather handling? Snow
Tires? Race? There is no single tire that will give you
everything.
This list is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but
just a very brief summary of people's top choices. It's
primarily geared towards watercooled FWD VWs, and
therefore may not be applicable to other types of cars.
For more info see the very lengthy faq.tires.survey.
Normal
Definition: A mix of city/highway driving on dry & wet
roads. Desired Characteristics: All round predictable
handling & braking, long life.
Bridgestone (?)
BFG Comp T/A HR4 M&S (?)
Snow
Definition: Used for driving on snow and ice covered roads.
Nokia Hakkapelitas (sp?)
Gislaved Frost
Perfomance
Definition: Higher speed driving, high cornering forces,
summer tires
Dry Only:
Yokahama A008
Dry & Some Wet:
Bridgestone RE 71
Yokohama AVS Intermediary
Bridgestone Comp T/A 3
Michelin MXX3, XGT-Z or XGT-V
Uniroyal RTT1's (radical tread)
Dry & Wet:
Dunlop SP8000 (replacement of the D40/M2) - Good but take
a while to wear in.
Race
Definition: Special purpose race tires (i.e., shaven,
slicks, mud, ...)
Hoosiers
BF Goodrich Comp TA R1 - 230 compound
Call (800) RACE BFG for info and
purchases
Bridgestone RE71R or RE71RAZ (autox, call Blackburn Racing,
Indianapolis (800))
Yokohama A008 RSII (autox)
Toyo Proxy RA-1 (autox, call GT Int'l, West LA)
Michelin ?Ralley? (the *only* real mud tire).
Comment from Mark Sirota:
>From: chrub@CAM.ORG (Chuck Rubin)
> Looking for some advice on tires for use in Autocross
(Solo2) in Canada
> competition on my 1990 Corrado. My friends are using
Toyos, Yokos and
> RE71s on their CRX's and Civics but noone is racing a
Corrado. My car's
> got Eibach springs and a Neuspeed rear antisway so
it's quite stiff.
The short answer is that what works well for one
car generally seems to work well for other similar
cars -- so since your friends are driving other
front-drive sedan-type cars and their tires work
well, they'll probably work well on your car too.
Out here, the BFGoodrich Comp T/A R1 230-compound
seems to be the tire to have. That's officially
the road racing compound, but this past week at
the National Championships in Salina, I pretty
much decided that they're all around better than
the 226 autocross compound, except perhaps on very
short courses or in very cold weather. The next
choices are the BFG 226-compound, or the Yoko
A008RSII. I know that the Toyo is a very popular
tire in Canada, but almost nobody uses it here.
It just can't hold a candle to the BFG and Yoko.
I don't know if you get a different version of it,
or a different version of the Yoko and BFG, or
what...
Since your car is stiff, another possibility is
the Hoosier Autocrosser. This is a very
lightweight bias-ply tire, which has tread and is
DOT- approved. However, don't even think about
using it on the street. It is not very puncture-
resistant (not much better than a slick), and
won't last long. It only works well on cars with
good camber control (stiffening a production car
is often good enough), and with wide wheels. It
drives *very* differently, being bias-ply -- you
need large slip angles, but the thing really
sticks in sweepers. It's not as hot in
transients. You need much more steering lock and
a lot more faith in the car, as well as the
aforementioned stiff suspension and wide wheels.
The incredibly light weight also helps in the
power department and on bumps. I don't know if it
is available in Canada, but you can try calling
Tom Reichel at Mid-Atlantic Motorsport in
Maryland. Tell him I sent you. His number is +1
410 825 6003.
I used to run my GTI and 914 on BFG's, and now run
the Formula Ford on Hoosier slicks.
Note from Ed: Check with the club's regulations on
which tire sizes are acceptable for the group you
want to run in. Often, to run in an auto-x stock
class you need to stick with the stock sized rims,
however you may change the tire sizes. In that
case you want to get the widest and least tall
tire (i.e., lowest aspect ratio) that fits. If you
are allowed to change rims, then you want to get
the rims with the smallest diameter but widest
that will fit (top speed is not important in auto-
x) with the widest and least tall tire. This will
lower your center of gravity but also provide you
with a better acceleration. Naturally, for street
use and other types of racing you other wheel and
tire combinations may be needed.
It's also a good idea to have your tires shaven a bit to
smooth out the outer shoulder.
Another issue to consider with racing tires is what rim
and tire size to get. For example, in stock auto-x class
you have to use the same rim size as OEM, but you are
free to use any size tire that will fit. For auto-x it is
therefore recommended to get the smallest diameter tire
that you can find. This will lower he car and provides a
bit more low end torque on the road, tires that heat up
quicker, less wheel/tire weight because top speed is not
an issue. If you are racing in SP class, then the
smallest (but widest rim) that will fit with the
appropriate tires is what you want.
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