Slicks for 17" wheels

[steved0x]

I have some extra wheels and I was thinking of running 17x8.5 on all 4 corners with 225/45 front and 255/40 rear. The extra rim width should help to give a little more grip and even tire wear on the front, I have read that running a tire on the widest approved wheel should give better turn in and response and my help dial.out another bit of understeer.

It is an interesting idea to me and I may try it. Has anyone ever run 225 on an 8.5" wheel, did you notice any benefit over running on a more narrow 7" wheel?

[Topless]

Do your suspension B4 mounting soft compound tires. Stock camber settings will destroy a $1600 set of 40tw tires in a few hours. Suspension work becomes very cheap when you go through 20 sets of tires in a season at $1600 ea.

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by Topless

Do your suspension B4 mounting soft compound tires. Stock camber settings will destroy a $1600 set of 40tw tires in a few hours. Suspension work becomes very cheap when you go through 20 sets of tires in a season at $1600 ea.

That is a good point, I am set up with -2.0 camber front, 0 toe, -1.6 camber back, little bit toe in, this is a good setup for 200 TW street tires like the R-S3. I ran a set of Nitto NT-01 on these same settings and corded my outside rear, and the other 3 tires were worn a little more on the outer edges, while the rest of the tire had 1/2 life left. I was bummed Rather than tinker with my setup at this time I'm staying on the hankooks for a while. The nittos were fun and a confidence builder, but I'm still leaving some on the table with the hankooks so I'm going to stay on them for a while until my skills increase to where I can take better advantage of rcomp tires.

[jonasjmac]

The car is not street legal, no horn, full cage, 5 points, not registered, and trailered to all events.

[jakeru]

Originally Posted by jonasjmac

The car is not street legal ... not registered, and trailered to all events.

Now you tell us! (This would have been good information to know about 3 posts earlier. It will definitely affect your optimal tire selection!)

Since you aren't driving on public roads, and can use the car as purely a track toy, please scratch all my previous advise on dot-legal tires, yada yada yada.

You actually do want, as your title suggests, and honest-to-goodness racing slick. Give throught to whether bias ply might be acceptable, or if you'll need a radial. Bias ply will handle "differently", and the car was not really designed for it. But oh man, will you have grip. An honest-to-goodness racing slick should grip more, last longer, and cost much less than a dot-legal option.

Really, the only racing slick I have experience with is Goodyear eagle. Funny enough, as your thread title suggests, they are not available in 17"! They do come in 16", and 18". You could look at other brands of racing slicks, or change your wheel diameters to a size that is compatible with available racing slicks. 16" wheels I've heard, will fit over front Boxster base brakes, but not "S" brakes. You might not to get a custom, lighteright racing wheel in custom dimensions to go with your slicks.
Goodyear Race Tires || Sports Car

http://www.racegoodyear.com/tires/pdf/Goodyear_Sports_Catalog_2015.pdf

Honest-to-goodness (non-dot compliant) racing tires are sized a bit differently than dot tire sizing. Here's how the sizing works:
DOT tire sizing:
Tire width (in mm) / section ratio (in percent) R rim diameter (in inches)

Non-DOT tire sizing:
Tire outside diameter (in inches) x Tire width (in inches) - rim diameter (in inches)

Maybe someone else who has more experience using non-dot P-car slicks can chime in with a suggestion. Hope that helps, and best of luck!