Question: life of RE71R & 200 treadwear tires in general
 

Question for those who have experience with RE71R tires or 200 treawear tires in general. I have heard that regardless of miles, treadwear, heat cycles, that 200 treadwear tires are fairly hard and useless after around a year.

I have a short commute to work and would like to daily these tires, figuring I could get 8-10K miles out of them with 1-2 HPDE per year, and 4-6 autocrosses per year. But if I can't get at least 2 years out of them, I am thinking I should just go with MPSS...

Thoughts?

You will not get 2 years out of most 200 tw tires with that type of driving. You may not get 2 good years out of most tires with that schedule if I am being honest.

I wouldn't advise it, they'll probably heat cycle out and be worthless, what I recommend is buy a cheap set of wheels and spare tires to use for racing

Question: life of RE71R & 200 treadwear tires in general
 

Unless you have a square set up and can rotate you aren't getting 15k-20k plus track time with any tire with decent grip


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Sorry, I meant 8-10K total for the two years, not each year.

I guess I should have said I am in so cal as well, so we don't have real cold winters.

Given this, do you think the tires will still perform decently around the two year mark if I still have tread left and they have not had too many heat cycles? If not, I am open to other tire suggestions (RE11, RS3, S04, etc.) for something with better dry traction than MPSS that won't be hard and useless after two years if there is still tread left, and that can survive driving through a (very) few rainy days when needed.

That doesn't sound bad to me. I can't get 6 months out of a set of rear tires. That's ~8K miles of daily driving including an autoX of sorts in a nearby parking lot every few months to practice emergency maneuvers :driving:

Inherently, the tires that can last multiple years and lots of heat cycles are not the tires that are ideal for track or autoX driving, so there's a bit of a catch 22 here. Maybe try RE-11s next and S-04s after that if still not happy? You may just have to trial and error several tires to find the best for your situation.

good post.

op, you will not be ale to have your cake and eat it too. It may be best to either invest in second set of wheels, or be prepared to buy a new set of tires, or at least a new pair, each season.

Ok, gotcha, still might be a little of a stretch, but close. I just got my RE71Rs so I haven't driven on them much, but I was only expecting to get about 5,000 miles out of them as its my weekend and autox car that's fine for me. They are great tires though.


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On street driving (maybe 15 fast highway sprints in early hours for 20 miles each smooth and coarse pavement mix, some 60-0mph stops, but no track nor autocross), my RE-11 rears got down to the wear bar (around 2-3/32nd) after 15k miles. Fronts still had 6-7/32nd. Stock alignment. Not my daily driver.

Heat cycling - Summary of my understanding is heating tires to a certain temp for certain time (temp that's well past what normal street driving generates, especially short commutes), then a cool down period to allow molecule re-bonding. Street driving will wear the tire down, just not heat cycling.

Thank you, makes sense.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have a 200 TW tire with tread left that still performs around 2 years after it was purchased?

I think you should define "still perform".

Haha, "still perform" for me would mean "equal or superior grip to MPSS and not hard as a rock".

Sounds like the Bridgestone S04 would be enough tire for you. If you have the extra $$$ and they are available though my highest recommendation is the Michelin Super Sport. By far the best street/track tire I've driven on (I drive 8-10k track miles per year for work). Honestly most people can't even get to the limits of what a 200tw tire can offer anyway. It'll hold up easily to the occasional HPDE or autoX and still give you plenty of real world mileage out of them. Don't under/oversteer all over the place and you'll be good! I ran S04s on my daily Z before upgrading to the Super Sport and love both tires on the car.

RE11's I have on the front have about 30K on them and they are good to go at 1 year. Next year they will be done. I won't make it past the 2 year mark. My rear RE11's 325/30/19 make it just about a year daily driving the car all year around. That is right at 22-25K miles. Are they the best for Autocross, Noop. They are a very good high performance street tire with tons of grip though. I drive on them year around, but I am in the south where it doesn't get that cold but maybe 2 weeks out of the year. I would purchase RE11's before SO4's any day of the week. I get the same mileage out a RE11's as SO-4's.