Which would be better on a 95 Z28, the Hoosiers of Kumho's and how much difference is there. Am fairly new to this but know this course is tighter than average. Pavement is rough. Just started mid season last year so any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

Hoosiers are a full race tire, where Kumho Victoracers will probably have a longer life span, I would guess by a fair margin. From what I recall Hoosiers dont heat cycle well, a few uses and they start to go downhill. Besides advice here I'd check the Tirerack reviews.

 

We have some local autocrossers that are nationally competitive (including a few national championships over the years). According to these guys, the Hoosiers are better (assuming the temperatures aren't very cold) but are fragile and do not last nearly as long as the Kuhmos. In addition, the Hoosiers cost more.

Because of the cost and how fragile the Hoosiers are, I go with the Kuhmos. If I were to enter an event where I needed every ounce of advantage, I would want to have Hoosiers...

My $0.02, FWIW

 

General concensus is the Hoosier's are slightly faster than the Kumho's. They're also a bit lighter however they are much more expensive.

That said if you're just starting out dont bother with either, just run on your street tires. Tires aren't cheap and there's no sense in tearing up expensive rubber when you dont know what you're doing yet.

 

Street tires also have more warning as they are letting go, where a full slick wont be so friendly.

 

Im using Toyo RA1s. They are in a class of thier own really. They are an 'R' compound, but they are not as grippy as the others. But they behave more like a street tire in the sense that they can be heat cycled a lot w/ out and side effects, they are good/great in the rain (a lot of people use them as their rain tires when racing), and they actually wear pretty well. I leave them on year round. If you were to drive somewhat normally on them w/ no hard racing, people have gotten up to 15k miles on them (I think more like 5k is reasonable to expect though). They last me a full season at least, plus daily driving (about 2 days a week to work and back, and some fun weekend drives once in a while). On a 60 second autocross course, these tires have dropped my time by a little over 2 seconds. Maybe more as I get used to them. They also give decent feedback, still not as good as a regular street tire screaming as they get near the edge, but I can tell its coming when Im near it with them. I got mine unshaved, and they keep getting better as they wear down. I ran about 6 autocrosses and 1 autocross school (which was about 4-5 autox's worth of wear) and regular driving and Im good for about 5 more or so. They run about $180 each also. Most pro's use them because Toyo is a sponser and the whole field has to use them (like Speed's World Challenge I believe). They would switch if they could Im sure, but I like the extra benifits of them.

--Kevin

 

Kevin - what is the treadwear number on those tires?

 

Camaro Mustang Challenge has to use the Toyo tires, not by choice simply by sponsorship. They dont have the grip advantage of a better race tire, but they last a long time. I think they are 60 treadwear, but not sure.

 

Toyos are also the spec tire for NASA's AI.