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Originally Posted by The Radium King

hi. looking to set up my old OEM 17" wheels for track-only duty. 7" front and 8.5" rear. questions ...

what is the widest folks are comfortably running on these things at the track? on my 8.5"/10" 18" wheels i am currently on 245/275 and was just as happy previously on 235/265. i think 235/265 would be a stretch (get it? get it?) on a 7"/8.5", but the internet tells me it has been done. otherwise 225/255 seems pretty standard.

tires? had my heart set on hoosier r7's, but the sizes are just not there. i need DOT to stay in my class, but want something more aggressive than an nt01. bf goodrich r1? toyo rr?

thanks for any advice.

If you are competing in Time Trials on (any) DOT-R compounds and want to win, you need to be on R7s in the widest tire you can legally run. Wheels are far less important compared to the contact patch in motorsport. If you really want to run OEM 17s (I always did) a 235/255 works well on stock wheels. You will have to give up the most competitive tire and run Toyo RR or Z214 instead. They are good DOT compounds but roughly 1 second slower than R7s in their prime HC. One second in Time Trials is a very long time if you have serious class competition.

Good luck!