Tires for street that will survive occasional track days
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,064
Likes: 456
From: San Jose, CA
2023 C6 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2022 C6 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Tires for street that will survive occasional track days
Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not, but here goes.
I have a C6 GS that I have tracked 5 times. I still consider myself a beginner. I am currently running Bridgestone S007A RF tires, which are pretty terrible. They re getting a bit old now. The dates are late 2019. Anyway, I want to replace them with something better that will be decent on the street, but survive the occasional track day. I don’t have the luxury of having two sets of wheels as I do not have the space to store the extra set.
I’ve read various tire reviews and posts on the CarTrackDays subreddit about different tires, but I figured I should ask here since this a Corvette specific forum.
It sounds to me like Michelin PS4S are a great tire, but hey will not handle track days very well. Same goes for the Continental ECS02.
What do you all recommend for a car that only sees about 1,000 to 1,500 miles a year, with one or two track days. I’m in Northern California so you get an idea of the weather in my area.
Thanks!
I have a C6 GS that I have tracked 5 times. I still consider myself a beginner. I am currently running Bridgestone S007A RF tires, which are pretty terrible. They re getting a bit old now. The dates are late 2019. Anyway, I want to replace them with something better that will be decent on the street, but survive the occasional track day. I don’t have the luxury of having two sets of wheels as I do not have the space to store the extra set.
I’ve read various tire reviews and posts on the CarTrackDays subreddit about different tires, but I figured I should ask here since this a Corvette specific forum.
It sounds to me like Michelin PS4S are a great tire, but hey will not handle track days very well. Same goes for the Continental ECS02.
What do you all recommend for a car that only sees about 1,000 to 1,500 miles a year, with one or two track days. I’m in Northern California so you get an idea of the weather in my area.
Thanks!
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 2,658
Likes: 635
From: Dallas TX
ps4s are fine for occasional track days.
Im a high intermediate to advanced driver and have taken my C8 to 2 track weekends and drove hard... tires are still fine for a few thousand more street miles.
Im a high intermediate to advanced driver and have taken my C8 to 2 track weekends and drove hard... tires are still fine for a few thousand more street miles.
Pro
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 743
Likes: 284
I’ve driven to/from track and run on same tires since 2001 in a C5,6,7 &8. The Michelin PS4 are great, high grip and good wear. A guy with a Mustang Mach 1 rode with me last year and went out and got a set of Michelins for his car. Then another friend rode with the Mustang guy and got a set for his track prepped mini
Racer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 468
Likes: 217
From: Olmsted Falls, OH (Cleveland)
2023 C2 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Yep - PS4S are great tires. I would run Pilot Sports on my car (C6), when it was more street than track focused. they always did well. The Continental is also a good tire for this.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
A lot of people ran a Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS (The new version I believe) on the One Lap of America 2026 - which is aggressive dual duty - tracks and a lot of miles between on the street.
If you want to step it up and get a 200TW Tire, the NanKang CRS2 is great, and I have heard a lot of good things about the Vitor Tempesta P1. But these tires will be mostly track focused, will pick up gravel / stones, and you would need to exercise caution in the rain. BUT, they really shine on the track, trade offs.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
A lot of people ran a Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS (The new version I believe) on the One Lap of America 2026 - which is aggressive dual duty - tracks and a lot of miles between on the street.
If you want to step it up and get a 200TW Tire, the NanKang CRS2 is great, and I have heard a lot of good things about the Vitor Tempesta P1. But these tires will be mostly track focused, will pick up gravel / stones, and you would need to exercise caution in the rain. BUT, they really shine on the track, trade offs.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 2,805
Likes: 359
From: Northville, MI
For the last 2 yrs I ran Vitour P1's on my stock C5 and put about 3000/ yr on them ran 3 HPDE and almost 200 autocross rurns per year driving 60 to 200 miles to events. Car ran fine and stil have 3/32 seft on my third years on them. Several of the autocross events were at short track with many 60-70 mph turns. Amazed at how well the tires held up.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 468
Likes: 217
From: Olmsted Falls, OH (Cleveland)
2023 C2 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
^^^Nice. That may be my next tire. I've really liked the Nankang CRS so far.
I ran a Toyo R888R before street/track setup - and would not go back to those tires - they're a perfectly fine tire, I was just easily overheating them. .
I ran a Toyo R888R before street/track setup - and would not go back to those tires - they're a perfectly fine tire, I was just easily overheating them. .
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,064
Likes: 456
From: San Jose, CA
2023 C6 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2022 C6 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Yep - PS4S are great tires. I would run Pilot Sports on my car (C6), when it was more street than track focused. they always did well. The Continental is also a good tire for this.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 3,584
Likes: 1,111
From: Ex DPRK, now just N of Medford, OR
So many good choices!
You need to weigh where to skew your compromise.
At 1500-2K street miles/year, I'd aim more toward track use...
If you never/seldom drive the car in the rain, some of the more track focused 200TW might be your sweet spot.
Grass Roots Motorsports tests all the players there pretty regularly.
And don't forget a good alignment!
You need to weigh where to skew your compromise.
At 1500-2K street miles/year, I'd aim more toward track use...
If you never/seldom drive the car in the rain, some of the more track focused 200TW might be your sweet spot.
Grass Roots Motorsports tests all the players there pretty regularly.
And don't forget a good alignment!
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Racer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 468
Likes: 217
From: Olmsted Falls, OH (Cleveland)
2023 C2 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
I was also driving to events at that time, I got a trailer shortly after, and switched tires.
That's a concern too, becuase there weren't alot of choices in that 18/19 combo. Now, there seems to be great offerings in the 19" diameter sizes. I have moved over to 18" dia wheelsets all around with 315F / 335R sizing. The 315 vs the 275/285 up front was a big difference, for the track that is. Aggressive alignment affects street driving, it's very touchy now.
Last edited by blckss; Yesterday at 03:41 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 17,423
Likes: 6,540
From: Melbourne, FL
I used Pilot Super Sports for that exact use case. They were fine. The Hankook V12 also did just fine. My next set will probably be Continental ECS02 for the same sort of use.
The real thing is, of you're not trying to push your car to the absolute limit, something like an ECS02 is plenty fine. Yeah it might wear a bit more, but it can handle the heat and the wear pattern will work itself out after some road use. You'll probably get 10-20 days if you ou manage your heat somewhat and don't try to crash your car at every event.
The real thing is, of you're not trying to push your car to the absolute limit, something like an ECS02 is plenty fine. Yeah it might wear a bit more, but it can handle the heat and the wear pattern will work itself out after some road use. You'll probably get 10-20 days if you ou manage your heat somewhat and don't try to crash your car at every event.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2025
Posts: 369
Likes: 112
From: NV
There are quite a few tires that will work for that case. The tires that don't will chunk, where rubber chunks will come off the contact patch area of the tires from overheating on the track but will be fin on the street. Tires that advertise themselves as wet like the BFG KDW will chunk, but by no means does that indicate BFG is a bad brand. I liked the PZeros, the Pilot Sports were good too (not sure about v4), but if the tire is TW 200 or less usually they won't chunk.
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 4,041
Likes: 2,606
From: Northern VA, USA
Yep - PS4S are great tires. I would run Pilot Sports on my car (C6), when it was more street than track focused. they always did well. The Continental is also a good tire for this.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
A lot of people ran a Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS (The new version I believe) on the One Lap of America 2026 - which is aggressive dual duty - tracks and a lot of miles between on the street.
If you want to step it up and get a 200TW Tire, the NanKang CRS2 is great, and I have heard a lot of good things about the Vitor Tempesta P1. But these tires will be mostly track focused, will pick up gravel / stones, and you would need to exercise caution in the rain. BUT, they really shine on the track, trade offs.
I then ran a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 (Non-R tire), and thought that did very well at dual purpose.
A lot of people ran a Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS (The new version I believe) on the One Lap of America 2026 - which is aggressive dual duty - tracks and a lot of miles between on the street.
If you want to step it up and get a 200TW Tire, the NanKang CRS2 is great, and I have heard a lot of good things about the Vitor Tempesta P1. But these tires will be mostly track focused, will pick up gravel / stones, and you would need to exercise caution in the rain. BUT, they really shine on the track, trade offs.
I've been runinng the Vitours on my C8 now (will swap over to PS4 if I'm doing a lot of street driving between track days) and while it is a better track tire than the Supercars, not as good in the wet, and I do drive in the rain plenty.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2025
Posts: 369
Likes: 112
From: NV
The Supercar tires, oh man. Maybe they changed but they came factory on my car and after a couple thousand miles the tires wouldn't hold 3rd WOT anymore on some places like onramps in Vegas. Turns out Badyear tricks people by assembling the tire with a sticky outside compound and after that wears off you get a **** compound for the remaining 8k miles. I'd look at the tires wondering wtf and see PLENTY of tread, yet they would spin in 3rd in some places. Never again, total rip off.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 17,423
Likes: 6,540
From: Melbourne, FL
The Supercar tires, oh man. Maybe they changed but they came factory on my car and after a couple thousand miles the tires wouldn't hold 3rd WOT anymore on some places like onramps in Vegas. Turns out Badyear tricks people by assembling the tire with a sticky outside compound and after that wears off you get a **** compound for the remaining 8k miles. I'd look at the tires wondering wtf and see PLENTY of tread, yet they would spin in 3rd in some places. Never again, total rip off.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2025
Posts: 369
Likes: 112
From: NV
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 17,423
Likes: 6,540
From: Melbourne, FL