Track & Autocross wheel sizing?

[Heeley]

Hi guys,

I just got my FD up and running last spring, and this year I want to start doing some autocrossing and lapping days. I'm looking for a little guidance:

Here's the questions:

1. Is it safe to use stock wheels for track and autocross for the first while? I have an early model R1, and i've read about associated wheel failure.

2. What is a good setup to go with in terms of wheel / tire size for best bang for the buck? 17's? 18's? staggered width? I'm just starting, but it would be nice to have room to upgrade to a BBK sometime down the road as well.

3. For lapping, are R compound tires really necessary? I want to get quicker safely, but I also don't want to throw money at the car when really i just need seat time to be faster.

4. Brake pads: What will be suitable for lapping with street tires and stock brakes, and be able to get me home at the end of the day?

As time goes by, i'll continue to add to the car and freshen things up with bushings, etc. I do have a mishimoto rad on the way to help with cooling issues.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Matt

[Brent]

Hi guys,

I just got my FD up and running last spring, and this year I want to start doing some autocrossing and lapping days. I'm looking for a little guidance:

Here's the questions:

1. Is it safe to use stock wheels for track and autocross for the first while? I have an early model R1, and i've read about associated wheel failure.

2. What is a good setup to go with in terms of wheel / tire size for best bang for the buck? 17's? 18's? staggered width? I'm just starting, but it would be nice to have room to upgrade to a BBK sometime down the road as well.

3. For lapping, are R compound tires really necessary? I want to get quicker safely, but I also don't want to throw money at the car when really i just need seat time to be faster.

4. Brake pads: What will be suitable for lapping with street tires and stock brakes, and be able to get me home at the end of the day?

As time goes by, i'll continue to add to the car and freshen things up with bushings, etc. I do have a mishimoto rad on the way to help with cooling issues.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Matt

1. Shouldn't be a huge issue. I would just watch them for cracks. That seems to have always been the issue that I've seen over the years, but they should be fine starting out.

2. Eh, bang for the buck is a subjective term. If you can afford to, I'd run 10in wide wheel, whether it be 17x10 or 18x10. The Enkei RPF1 seem to be a good, light, and cheap wheel. BBK's fitment vary by size and your wheel offset. For example, I have the Porsche 993(Big Reds) on one of my FD's and I have ran 17x8 Factory RZ wheels without issue.

3. No, R Compounds aren't necessary and I would argue are counterproductive starting out because it will mask your mistakes. A good performance tire will be just fine(ie Nitto NT05, Falken Azensis RT-615, Dunlop Direzza Z1 starspec, etc) and will last much longer than a set of R Compounds will.

4. Brake pads, all kinds of good ones out there. For track days, something like the Hawk blues prob. wouldn't be bad. I like the HT-10's. It's really all what you prefer. As you get faster and start using your brakes harder, your stock rotors will start cracking every couple of events.

Glad to see you in the track section. Be careful though... driving the car like it was meant to be driven is very addicting... and can cause perma-grins :D

[SPICcnmFD]

1. Agree, I ran mine for a few days when I first got my car, I'd be hesitant to run them with R-comps on a track though, but on street tires and at an AutoX I would feel fine.

2. I'd say 17in are cheaper just because tires and wheels are cheaper than 18in wheels and tires.

3. I agree start out withOUT R-comps and get a feel for the car first.

4. I agree, Hawks are some of the best for reliablity, I run blues, and HT10s. I've heard of some people running HP+ without a problem, which is probably fine to start with. Make sure you put some good fluid in though, or at least some new fluid. It sucks pretty bad when the pedal just goes to the floor and you aren't expecting it.

[Heeley]

2. Eh, bang for the buck is a subjective term. If you can afford to, I'd run 10in wide wheel, whether it be 17x10 or 18x10. The Enkei RPF1 seem to be a good, light, and cheap wheel. BBK's fitment vary by size and your wheel offset. For example, I have the Porsche 993(Big Reds) on one of my FD's and I have ran 17x8 Factory RZ wheels without issue.



I'm assuming you mean 10 inch wheel on the back, right? will a 10" wide wheel even fit on the front? I'm using stock R1 suspension, not coilovers, and no aftermarket trailing arms in the back.

[Brent]

Depends on what wheels you get. With the proper offset, a 10in wide wheel fits in the front without modification.

[SPICcnmFD]

But can you get it to fit with the stock suspension? I'm under the impression you need coilovers to get them to fit due to clearence issues, I've never tried.

[Heeley]

^^ What do you gents run for track wheels on your cars? Do you have coilovers as well? I've just been using the wheel sizing calculator excel sheet, and it basically says that a 17x10 with the offset offered on an RPF1 will have interference with the fender. Did you have to do rolling to make them fit?

[SPICcnmFD]

I'm running FN01r's 17x9, offset of +43 with tokico 5ways and tein-s springs. I never really wanted it to be an all out track car or I would buy something wider and put some coilovers on it. I've ran 255s on the front with no problems and 275s on the rear with minimun rubbing during hard bumps and corners(Hoosiers). I have now rolled the fenders so I don't have any rubbing.

Brent probably knows more about what actually fits than I do.

[Brent]

I think you are headed in the right direction. Wheels/tires are one of the best modifications you can do for your car in a performance perspective. However, the best spent money IMO, is seat time. I would buy some performance based tires(listed above) for your stock wheels and spend the extra money on seat time. They will last you all season and then some for track and street driving. I would also set aside a extra few hundred dollars just in case you do crack a wheel, but I think you will be just fine for now.

For track wheels, I just picked up a set of CCW 18x10's with what is prob. a +50offset. I do have coilovers but according to John at CCW, you can run the CCW 18x10 or 17x10 with 285's in the front without fender rolling or suspension modifications. I have ran several different wheels on the track ranging from stock size to 18x10. As far as the wheels you are looking at in question: What size rim and offset? What size tire are you looking at running?

For a long.... LONG time I really had a problem spending money on wheels. I pieced together a set of 18x8.5 Gram Lights 57c(bronze) for the front and a set of of Enkei RP01(silver) 18x9.5 in the rear because it was some what of a similiar wheel(both 5 spokes, right? :D). I painted them black so they would stick out as little as possible and because the brake dust would blend in more. They worked very well and I still keep them in the trailer as my back up wheels. I had less than $400 in the set.

[Heeley]

well, there's the first autocross of the season coming up on mother's day, so I'm going to give it a go on my street tires, which are a mismatched set of michilin pilot sport 225's up front, and 245 sumitomo htrz's in the back. regardless of how well i do, it'll be fun! I might duck across the border this summer and buy a set of tires stateside and drive back on them. Tires are a ton more expensive in Canada. I was looking at the Direzza D1's, and they're anywhere from $250 to $300 per tire, which seems pretty offside compared to tirerack's prices.

[Heeley]

a friend of mine offered me a set of 'Racing Sparco' wheels, 17x8 up front and 17x9 in the back. I just have to clean em up and see if i like them enough to spend money on. They're a white 'snowflake style wheel, going on a VR FD... might look good.

[Heeley]

Well, I haven't posted up in a while, but I thought I might as well ressurect this thread.

I ended up picking up a set of 17x9 enkei rpf1's in silver for my street wheels. I'm going to use my stock wheels with probably a falken rt615 or toyo R888 for my lapping / autocrossing this year. I'm not gonna lie, I had a blast this past season with my car in autocrossing. My first season out, and I'm ranked 15th overall in my club (probably has a lot to do with the car), placed 10th i think in our member shootout where we were all driving the same cars, and started to climb the ranks of my division pretty well.

Here's the punch-line. I started the season with stock wheels, running a pair of half-dead pilot sports up front, and a new set of sumitomo HTRZ's in the rear. The last half of the season, i found a rim/tire combo on a local RSX forum (don't know how he got them to fit), but bolted up a set of Enkei RPF1's, 17x9 with Fuzion ZRi's.

In my club, I have to compete in Street Prepared 2 just because of my car, and was consistently dominating anyone on street tires, and even a few on R-Comps. I didn't do too badly for my first season out, although i'm sure while i'm a decent enough driver, while lacking experience, it's also a testament to how good the FD really is even in stock form. Can't wait to see what it does with good tires!