track wheels and tires

[steved0x]

Price/longevity/grip is very good on the Hankook R-S3, for HPDE they are very good and are a blast, and they are very talkative. For timetrials with a 200tw limit, the RE-71R, the new Rival S, and the ZII star spec are faster at the cost of more rapid wear and reduced lifespan. An extreme example of this is a friend that runs autocross with Hoosiers estimated his tire cost in 2016 at $22 per 60-90 second run. If you want to win time trials in 200tw it is Rival S or RE-71R.

For HPDE I am all Hankook, but that is probably only because I have never run the RE-71R Another friend in a Cayman runs that tire, he like to slide around a lot, and he goes through 2-3 sets in the time it takes me to run through one set of R-S3.

[Topless]

Yes, choose your contact patch carefully based on your goals.

Competing for a championship, you want the best grip possible regardless of cost. That means a fresh set of R7s every track weekend in a DOT-R class at $1600. If you are running in a 200tw TT class you can have just as much fun and save a lot of cash with RE-71R. They will be good for 4-5 weekends and a set is around $900 installed.

Just DEs for kicks and grins? RS-3, AD-08, Direzza SS IIs, RE-11. All of these tires are viable track rubber that will hold up for 6-10 Track weekends depending on the driver and cost less than $900. A DE is non-competitive so forget chasing those GT3 Cup cars in your Boxster and just shoe up for fun.