I second this. don't start out out on track tires. find a club with good instructors and learn how to drive on the track. once you have a good line and have the street tires screaming around the track then think about upgrading. if your goal is to be fast, I think the track tires will slow down your learning curve. not only do R's offer less margin for error. locking up your brakes will destroy a set in no time. now the miata may be more resistant to this due to the light weight but still. there is so much going on that that there is no point in heat cycling out a set of track tires during the learning process. even if you are one of the select few that pick it up fast, there is a benefit to building experience with "oh ----" moments on street tires. you can drive like an *** on r's and they will grip and grip, masking bad driving as others said until they let go.

the old expression is true, "you'll never drive a fast car fast until you can drive a slow car fast"

 

cool necrobump bro

 

necrobump... That's a good one!

 

I lasted a season of about 7 HPDE's on a set of R888s. If you're not looking for ultimate grip (they are still quite good) think about those.

 

So how would guys rank your top three choices of tires in terms of grip vs gradual breakaway so that your learning experience on the track is a positive one? Thanks

 

I only have experience with re11. Street driving and my second de this weekend. Still a lot of life left, and they let me know when I approach their limit.

 

NT-01
poopoo
everything else

People love to tell newbs that R-comps are dangerous and "don't break away smooth". This is totally wrong. NT-01s are awesome in just about every way, especially when you exceed max-slip angle.

Buy an old, junk set of NT-01s for next to nothing and see what you think. They will be harder and less grippy than new ones, but slick enough that you won't be impressed with the grip.

 

^NT01s are some great track tires. Very predictable, they make a little bit of noise to help you know the limits, allow some slip angle, not too hard to recover from, and you can run them down to the cords. Here's a little video to show how the NT01s break away. It's at the very end of the video if you want to skip the lap. I was doing 75-80 when the back end started stepping out.

NT01s are the only thing I"ve run on the Miata. On my Evo, I found Star Specs to perform pretty well on the track for a street tire. The Hoosier R6s had great grip, but getting sideways was a bit sketchy.

 

nice. I watched the vid. @ 1:49 I was thinking you gotta be joking. then saw 2;33 which, to your point, shows a pretty neutral car tire.