I am trying to decide on a wheel and tire combination for my ST Integra. I am planning on daily driving on the tires and running 10-12 autocrosses a year. I will probably put around 6000 street miles on the tires a year. I am trying to decide between 15x7.5 wheels with the 225/45 RS3s or 15x7 wheels with 205/50 tires. I noticed that the RS3s only have a 140 tread wear rating. Do you think that they will last a year for me? If I go for 205s, I am looking at the RE-11, Star Spec, or AD048s. I am looking for any opinions or feedback about what would work for me and handle heat well since I live in Savannah, Georgia.

The RS-3 needs heat to work well and doesn't overheat easily.

For daily driving they aren't the best - they are loud. If you don't care, they'd be a good choice.

Use the 7.5" wheels with what ever tire you choose. The Hankooks will easily last a season, probably two if you're not unusually hard on them. The second year they may not be very good in the wet though.

I don't remember them being any good in the wet in the first year either. :p

kidding aside, I too would strongly recommend 7.5" wheels for whatever you choose, even if they are 195s.

You know, this whole "Hankook not good in the wet" thing has been overblown. I've run on the track at 100 MPH in the pouring down rain on R-S3's and had no problem. Sure, there are other leading ST tires that are a bit better in the rain, but the Hankook is not as awful as some would have you believe. OTOH, the Kumho XS really is.

BTW, if you are willing to give up just a tad of dry performance for better daily driver manners and killer wet performance, as well as great longevity, look no further than the Continental ExtremeContact DW. We ran those at a DE at Barber last weekend in several kinds of wet, as well as dry, and they were amazing. Our R-S3's were not much faster in the dry. Unfortunately, they do not come in a 23" tall 15" size. 205/45-16 is the closest.

--Andy

If your smooth and don't overdrive, I'd see no reason that full tread 195 R1Rs couldn't work for you. I think the wear and heat issues on them have been way overblown, but I'm in Pittsburgh not Texas.

Cory

Thanks for all the input. I am looking for a set of 15x7.5 wheels. There are not many options out there. The only ones that I am aware of are the TRMotorsports C1, 949UL, and Rota Slipstream. The TRMotorsport wheels are within my budget but, they won't have any in stock until June. I will probably end up with 15x7s. Does anyone know of any 15x7.5s for sale?

I think that I will use the RS3s if I can find some 15x7.5s, if not I am going to use RE-11s. I bought a set of DWs for my daily driver TSX. I am looking forward to getting them installed and trying them.

Slips were on the championship-winning ST and STS cars last year at Nats. Cheap and easy to find. jlbmotorsports.com is your best bet on pricing and stock.

--Andy

I don't know how long the Conti's will "last" while being "fast"(in a general sense cough-cough). Tires that pick up rocks tend to only pick up rocks for so long and then they aren't as fast anymore. Besides, why would anyone want to run a "second tier/not ultra performance or whatever" "hard as rock treadware rating" Conti? LOL!

All that said, I am looking forward to seeing how the new Michellin Pilot Supersport whatever it is called does.

FM

PS: More Conti vs Toyo testing this weekend!

Thanks for sharing the observations on the tires.

I'm looking to get a set of street tires for the cool/damp weather this season to go along with last years AD08s in the warm/dry. This is on a stock NA Solstice in our Road Tire class. The Conti's sound like an interesting option to the R1Rs that I was leaning towards.

George M

You are probably right(as usual) that RS3 aren't pure garbage in standing water when compared directly to it's peers. I just have very bad memories of the Lincoln test-n-tune course with standing water and full tread RS3s, I think that distant memory of the RS3s gets more distorted and worse everytime I get a taste of R1Rs in standing water. I've got a spare set of 16x7s, and the DWs are at the top of the list for my EF civic daily driver, plus could swap em to the autocross car if rain is in the forecast.

I ordered 15x7.5 TRMotorsport C1 wheels with 225 RS3s from tirerack yesterday. Unfortunately they won't be ready until the end of April.

Uhhh,. yeah, sorry about that :)

(Ordered the last 2 of the 15x7.5 C1 wheels that TR had in the country back in early February...and immediately saw the 4/26 availability pop up on their website about 3 minutes after I ordered).

And as some help, when I checked shortly after that with one of our sponsors at http://www.wheeldude.com/ they mentioned that there were no SETS of 15x7.5" Slipstreams available, BUT they did have the wheels available in one-off of various colors (as I remember, 7 or 8 wheels total...and they MIGHT have had a set of 4 in Hyper Orange or whatever that cone-colored orange they have is).

Krylon or Rustoleum in a spraycan can fix this "issue" .

If you want/need the wheels now, I'd contact them.

wet xs/rs3 + 40 deg temp = skate touring ultra m3 for me.
when warmer, both were ok wet.

"PS: More Conti vs Toyo testing this weekend!"

Ok Fast Mike, what did you learn?

If it is near freezing and/or cold and wet, or really wet/raining, you will need to Conti mounted up and ready to go. No question that they are better than our size Toyo on the Slowstice. NO question.
It does appear that they are not as fast as some of the other top ST tires in the dry though. Very driveable but no cigar.... tough STR pax notwithstanding. Not horrible though. I put part of this last weekends somewhat poor performance(see pro1) on the course design though. 44+ average speed(for our Slowstice/STR) with lots of rev limiter and a somewhat drag race start up to almost 60 mph for us with only 2 transitions before first brake zone. Gory details here:
http://scorekeeper.wwscc.org/result...011/2/post

Update: Did a back-to-back of the RS3 versus Conti DW in the dry in more normal ambients (72 degrees), this time at Harris Hill road (my home track). Contis were 1.7 seconds a lap slower on 90 second-ish laps.

--Andy

Too Bad they don't make the DW's for a 15" rim?
Fast Mike, that's a very good time for a "wet" tire on a fast dry course.

Tim

I will agree with you on the poor course this weekend FM. I was hitting 65-70 on it, and no technicality to the design. It was not a good day for tire testing. (I was trying out my RS3/R1R staggered combo) And R1R's fresh out of the box... not a good idea.

Tim, thanks for all the help this weekend too. Much appreciated!