Race Tires and Wheels: How to transport?
 

Ok, yes I can get a trailer, but I really do not like the idea of adding a trailer hitch and messing with my wiring.

How many wheels can you get inside a C4? They would be the 17X9.5 with 275/40/17 tires.

If I can get three inside the car, I could run the 4th in the spare tire carrier?

How about a roof rack, anyone ever try this?

Ideas? Criticisms? Flames?:leaving:

If you really don't want a trailer and all 4 wheels must be in the car I would guess this to work:
-(1) seat belted in the passenger seat.
-(2) standing up side by side in the cargo area
-(1) in place of the spare (limited to 275 wide tires)
^^if this works then>>LIKE A BOSS:cool:

or you could hire a friend as a support vehicle.

If you're opposed to a trailer but might be open to just the hitch (no wiring), you can build essentially a horizontal bar attached to the hitch. Sticking out behind the rear bumper, it allows you to put all 4 tires on the bar, then secure the ends. No trailer, no wiring, and 4 tires behind the car. Like this!

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...3/IMGP1091.jpg

Or a roof rack! Not sure where this is from...

http://www.davemiranda.com/images/ro...ttetotrack.jpg

I do it the easy way. Mount my slicks on the car and drive it there. I do bring a fifth wheel with a mounted slick and put it in the trunk just in case I cord one at the track. No muss, no fuss. I have been doing it this way over 10 years, 60+ track events. I'm just too lazy to swap wheels and tires on a 100 degree afternoon after full day at the track.

I used to do it that way too. However, we got rained out once and I drove it home in the rain with slicks. It was scary.

This sortta works. I went and put a hitch and pulled a small 42x48 HF trailer for a few years till I got a truck and trailer.

The wiring is real easy since we don't have to do many contortions to get the inner turn/brake lamps out., once you are at the wiring you can use splices that connect another wire to a thru wire. I think it took me a day to build my trailer and wire it. Took like 30 min to do the wiring on the car.

Happened to me as well, I have to keep the speed under 55mph at all times.

You can put two on the passenger seat. The other two will fit on the cargo area.

Put the tires inside a plastic bag first.

Of course there are a lot of variables with this question...

I used to drive mine to events...until I started seeing things break at an autocross or road course. Little things like wheel bearings, universal joints, rotors...all will leave you high & dry getting home.

Distance to events makes a HUGE difference. Most of ours are at least 100 miles away, and there is no way I was driving to them with R1's mounted on the car.

I finally broke down and got an open trailer for the car. It really came in handy when I ate 3 rod bearings in South Houston at Grandsport...and I had to get the car home to Austin. :ack:

With the support vehicle comes room for:

1. Tires (spare race & street tires)
2. Tools
3. Jack
4. Jack Stands
5. Fuel cans
6. Spare parts (brake pads, rotors, fluids, etc.)

Used ones are so easy to find & cheap to boot...

MUCH better than driving to an event on the race rubber...

My .02...

Since we bought the Tahoe and open trailer I've had to tow my broke car twice :( Now I don't know how I got thru 8 years without it.

Bought my open trailer new for around $2000 which is what I've found used ones for.

Tire Rack Tire Totes are what I had in mind. I like your solution best. I'll have to take some measurements to confirm. If it worked for you should work for me.

How did you lay them on the pass seat? Upright or flat on top of one another? I'm assuming the two in the cargo area go upright?

Truck and trailer would be great, but I don't make that kind of money. :toetap: I got AAA 100 miles of free towing if need be. :thumbs:
I really do not venture more than 100 miles from home when I auto-x.

Never thought about driving to the event on the slicks...that would be interesting especially if I had to run in the rain. Then again if there was the threat of rain, I could always run the regular street tires.

I would assume they wear faster with street use (slicks).

A guy from work is going to let me borrow his roof rack system and try it. I got a spare targa top I can see if it works on.

Took some measurements today. No problem getting two in the hatch area laying on their sides. You might fit two in the front seat but it WILL be tight and they WILL lay on the door panel/center console and only upright.

The roof racks proved to be a dead end at least his do not fit at all.

Anyone know how loose the spare tire carrier is w/o a tire in it? I'm going to put mine back on and see, hopefully sometime soon.

Dumb question how long do R-Comp DOT's last? Figure on at least 14 auto-x events a year or so. Maybe 10 runs at most every event?
1 season, maybe two? I'm hoping the answer is two.

It appear street tires only last 1 season. With that in mind, it would be cheaper to put on street tires every 5 or 6 years and do R-Comp DOT's for auto-x every two years.

Did you manage to get all of the tires in your C4?

I'm looking into trying the same with my C7. I'd like to avoid having a trailer, etc.

The C7 doesn't have a space for a spare tire, so I'm thinking 1 rear on the passenger seat, 1 rear in the front of the rear cargo area, and the 2 fronts in the rear of the cargo area.

Not sure if this will work, but I'm doing a track day this sunday at Chuckwalla, and I'm planning to ask someone to borrow their tires wrapped in tire caddies to see if it actually fits before I go out & buy rims and Hoosier R7s.