Okay, I am sick of wearing out my street tires, and I feel I have finally gotten to be decent enough of an autox racer on my street meats. The street tires are holding me back. It's now time to move on up. I'm ready for competition tires. This is an area I have very little knowledge of. I want to stay with my stock wheel dimensions of 17x7. So my "race wheels" must be the same size so that I can continue to race in G stock. I suppose I need them to be light weight and durable. I need decent life out of the tires too, and I guess they need to be DOT approved street/comp tires.
Educate me please...I am an idiot. What do I need for my SVT Focus.
*if you know anyone selling used wheels/tires that would suit me, please let me know.

thanks-
bigdummy

 

You have to stay with the stock width/height and the offset has to be withing 1/4 inch. I'm pretty much an "R" compound virgin, but I'd suggest Kuhmo Victoracers. They'll last a lot longer than Hoosiers, can be driven in the rain until the tread gets too shallow, cost less, and you can get away with changing them at home and driving to really close events. on a 17 X 7 you can probably only get a 225 on there, but I'd hunt through www.sccaforums.com and look through the stock class posts (or make your own plea there for help).

 

I would suggest sticking with stock focus wheels for starters. OEM wheels are cheap (relatively) and fairly strong. I don't see any sense in spending lots of money on lightweight wheels until you've adjusted to R compound tires. You WILL have some off course excursions as you explore the limits. ( I have a slightly bent wheel that confirms the wisdom of this theory)

As far as tires go... I say wet your feet with kumho's. Either Victoracer V700's or Ecsta V700's. They don't have quite the grip of Hoosiers, but they aren't nearly as tempermental when it comes to flatspotting and are alot cheaper as well.

 

Thanks for the advice, I did a bit of searching...as of now, I haven't found any competition compound tires that are the same size as my stock tires which is 215/45/R17
I would consider a 225/40/R17...but I haven't located any that size either...would the 225/45/R17's be too tall?
Leonard...your right about the wheels, I think going with the stock SVT wheels that seems as though it would be a good idea. Ford sells them for $150 each, though I've heard I can get them for $115-$125 each. Do you all think thats a good deal? I suppose I'd get teh "Euro" SVT Focus wheels for autox duty, just for something different. Right now I am just shopping around...though I'd really like to have something within the next 2 to 3 months.
Any other pointers would be apprecieated.

 

As far as wheel prices go... I'm not sure in the Focus world. I got a set of used 96 cobra wheels for 400. Was in the process of upgrading to 17x9's all around (Cobra R's from www.gefracing.com for 140 each). They don't have foci wheels listed on their web page, but you might give them a call. They have REALLY good prices on wheels from Ford Racing.

Kumo makes both v700's in 225/45/17.

I'd recommend having either size shaved. You would think it would reduce their lifespan, but does exactly the opposite in my experience. They last longer with less tread. (When there is more rubber, the movement of the tread block generates more heat and the tire gets hotter (and thus softer) and wear quicker AND they tend to wear heavily with tall tread as the tread blocks roll over at the circumfrential grooves)..

If you want to see, I've got a sliced tire that wasn't shaved that is half worn that shows what I'm talking about.

 

if you want, get whatever pimpy wheels you like the looks of, and use your current OEM wheels for the race tires.

Id stay away from Esctas, and get Victoracers, at least in my experience.

oh, and depending on how many events, runs, how hard you are on the car, how much camber you have, etc....the tires should last a decently long time considering what you're looking at.....ALL OUT RACE TIRES.

Figure around 100 runs for a set of Victoracers. Maybe a few less if you start cording outside fronts due to insufficient camber.

 

Only a hundred runs? That would suck. I would hope to get more than that. Hmmm.
I'm not really interested in getting any pimpy wheels for my car. I'm happy with the way the stocks look. If I did get different aftermarket wheels I think I would be compelled to lower the car, and I don't want to do that. But, yeah...I agree some stockers would be fine for race wheels.
Leonard, I'll look into gefracing. Thanks for the tips.

 

You can get a set of Rota Slipstreams in the size you need (or pretty close to it). Too bad you can't downsize to a 16" wheel, those are plentiful and cheap.

Also consider throwing a set of Azenis on your current wheels. They are a good compromise between a street tire and buying dedicated race wheels/tires.

 

How many events do you do a year? Averaging maybe 8-10 runs a weekend (if you run 2 day events), you still get 10 events. That's more than a season for some....and not much at all to others. Running on wet asphalt won't really eat them up at all, while running at Ft. Myers will eat them much much quicker.

If you can't handle 100 runs, then downgrade to something like the Toyo RA-1 (far more expensive), or Yokohama A032R (more expensive also). They'll be slower, but they'll last longer.

You said you wanted to step upto R compounds... I figured you understood the whole concept of "they don't last as long"

 

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup are in there somewhere too. Haven't seen anyone use them though.