Best Arrive and Drive Autocross Tires

When you get too old to deal with swapping tires, what's your best option? Looking for a tire that will serve as a UHP summer tire and not chunk or get destroyed by some autocrossing.  Lots of great reviews for ultimate performance, but what tire will handle some rain and potholes, then air up and do OK?  

How competitive do you need to be? The challenge with a lot of the 200tw tires is to get a tire that lasts a reasonable time as a street tire you get a compound that never heats up for autox. If its cold or wet its probably worse than a street tire. So I guess the first question is how many miles do you expect to do on the street with the tire? If its a weekend toy, its a different answer than a commuter you're putting 15k on a year.

This is relevent to my thoughts for next yr.

 I only do a half dozen autox a yr,pain to have another set of wheels and tires to store as well as swap.

 The current tire that makes the most sense for my cool climate is the Re71rs,if only used for autox on a 2300lb and sub 90 whp car I assume they'd age out WAY before they wore out.

 How many street miles are the likely to last on the same car?

 Putting a fresh pair(currently running P1's on the front and crap on the rear and its still too understeery for me) on every spring isn't too big a financial hit.

If you don't need to be at the pointy end, PS4S / PS5 or ECS02. Great street tires with excellent wet grip, competent autocross tires (again it won't put you at the pointy end, unless it's raining), "okay" on track although you'll get some chunking. 

RE71RS or A052 for streetable autocross tires, with solid wet and dry performance.

PS4S or ECS02 for autocrossable street tires, with solid wet an dry performance.

And if you don't need to commit just yet...wait.  SCCA eligibility deadline is 1/1 and there are at least two updates incoming.

Andy Hollis said:

RE71RS or A052 for streetable autocross tires, with solid wet and dry performance.

PS4S or ECS02 for autocrossable street tires, with solid wet an dry performance.

And if you don't need to commit just yet...wait.  SCCA eligibility deadline is 1/1 and there are at least two updates incoming.

Good to know!

I have run numerous autox and track days and 2x grm challenges on a set of re71rs.  They are getting a bit worn at this point, but still pretty dang good in the rain (in comparison to other 200tw tires).  Got about 5k street miles on them in that time as well.

In reply to Andy Hollis :

Thanks Andy

Andy Hollis said:

RE71RS or A052 for streetable autocross tires, with solid wet and dry performance.

PS4S or ECS02 for autocrossable street tires, with solid wet an dry performance.

And if you don't need to commit just yet...wait.  SCCA eligibility deadline is 1/1 and there are at least two updates incoming.

Surprising to no one I agree with this.

The PO of my car included a set of RE-71RS's, so I might as well enjoy them.  When they wear out I will likely go ECS02.  I fit the "autocrossable street tire" category in life.

I can't comment on rain as I'm in Phoenix and it only happens 3 times a year but I don't swap tires. My car is a weekend car plus AX car. 90 miles round trip to the AX site. I only run 200TW and I've run Rt660, Rival-S, CR-S, A052, P1's. They have all been equally fine on the street. I drive about 1,500 miles a year. 

My plan is to go with the RE-71R because I really do love them for autocross. They will be my summer tire, I will just leave them on all summer. I figure 60 - 80 autocross runs and about 2500 street miles. I can even go back to my all-seasons or summer tires in the summer since the local club only runs spring and fall.  

I ran the RE71R on the G35 for several years. I loved them on the autocross course and track, counting street use and competition, I was going through 2 sets per year at damn near $1200 per set. They are an awesome track tire, but on the street, they were surprisingly noisy. They were louder than the AT tires on my truck. Listening to tire growl all the time got old. If you plan on a lot of street use and don't need bleeding-edge traction, I'd look for something quieter. 

I switched to the Firehawk Indy 500. They were nowhere near as fast as the RE71s, but they were durable and decent on an autocross course and track and as quiet as an all-season on the street. Since the car spent most of its life on the street, I was more than willing to make that trade. They were also almost $100 per tire cheaper than the RE71s. I would also say at anything under 50% tread depth, the RE71s would hydroplane to the point of being dangerous. I was running a pretty wide tire setup, which didn't help. 

I've put close to 5000 miles and 120+ autocross runs on a single set of re71rs. They start to get sketchy in wet conditions around the wear bars but for about the first half of their life they're genuinely good even in moderate standing water in normal driving. In my application they run out of heat cycles just below the wear bars so the "useful in wet conditions" period is like 75% of full life cycle, your results may vary if you're using them on a car/surface that's harder on tires.

BTW, ICYMI...here's one of the two new products coming for 2026. 

The other one -- Vitour X01R -- is not good in the wet, so it's off the table for this thread.