This is by far your best option. Get slicks for track - Maxxis RC1, Toyo RR, Hoosiers, whatever - they will all be much better on track than any street tire.

You can then get street tires that won't put you at risk of snap oversteering in the cold and wet.

RS3 v2 are the ticket. They work much better in cooler temperatures compared to the old V1s, I liked them in the rain too. Pretty communicative on a 9" wheel, they do squeal at the limit.

The Rival has bigger slip angles. In autocross it requires more steering input to get them to their limit. They will squeal loudly on most surfaces when warmed up but that doesn't mean they're at the limit yet they still have like 5-10% to go so you have to push them past that point if you want to get everything out of them. Coming from RS3 v1s to the Rivals took me a couple days to get used them since in my brain it was embedded that if the tires are squealing they're at the limit, when in reality they required more. RS3s are better to learn on IMO. In the end it depends on your driving style, if you over drive the car and are rough with steering inputs the Rivals might be a better choice. I liked the RS3 v2s better.

If "better" is only "faster lap times", that's not important to me. Sticky street tires would be plenty fast for me.

Are these v2's?

If so your post makes it sound like there's a v2.0 and a v2.1. What gives?

140tw RS3 are from a few years ago before they relabeled them as 200tw.

These are not slicks, but DOT tires. There is a difference.....

Don't buy 2 year old tires from Leafy.

No they're the same as the 200TW V1's except they say 140TW on the side.

RC1's will be somewhat faster. But more importantly they won't get greasy like a treaded street tire. They will be consistent throughout sessions, you won't have to worry about overheating them unless you are being an absolute hooligan, and your on-track tire life will be better with the RC1s. Your street tires won't be worn down to nubs and/or suffer overheating. It's a win for both sets of tires. There is also the bonus that should you suffer a flat at the track, you still have tires to drive home on. If it is a wet track day, track on the street tires. It's all win.

Yes, ok, sorry. DOT r-compound semi-slicks.

The RC-1 is a great HPDE tire, but it will definitely get greasy in hot weather if you're mean to it. That characteristic also makes it interesting to race on, since any race in weather hotter than 85*F turns into a tire management battle. I think that both the Rival and the RS3 handle heat better than the RC-1, but the RC-1 is an easier tire to drive on the limit and may last longer on track as well.

What about the Toyo RR for track use?

The RR is awesome, but not really a dual-purpose tire. :)

--Ian

The RR is awesome. Its only drawback is that it's directional. Tread splices can occur if you run them consistently the wrong way. On a rwd car you have to rotate them diagonally. So on my car I ran the lf/rr pair to the cords while the rf/lr pair still had a day or two in them.

If I run them again I will probably rotate them a few times the "wrong" way to even out the wear.

I did two autocrosses on that set as well. Had FTD at one of them.
Iirc it was 5-6/full track days plus the autocrosses.

I got 6 track days on my RRs, just corded one on Friday. Interestingly, it was the same LF/RR pair that wore the most (corded LF), even though I ran them at Laguna and Thunderhill which are both counter-clockwise tracks. I would have expected RF to be the most-worn tire.

--Ian

The RC-1 isn't a dual purpose tire either. The NT01 is barely a dual purpose tire. The RA1 is more of a dual purpose tire as long as it isn't driven in freezing conditions.

If budget allows, 2 sets of tires is optimal.

Fixed that for you..

Damn. OK.

The point is, regardless of lap time improvement, once you experience the joy of sticky tires suited to the task at hand, you don't want to go back.

Just tried a set of 225 RS3v2 a couple weeks ago. Very impressed. They're the worst tire I've ever driven on when cold and took almost 2 full laps to come up to temp. They were so bad that I even managed to spin the car on the out lap sunday morning. Once warm they were awesome though. I was driving my 99 that's all stock except for XIDAs and 225 RS3s on 9s, and I was only half a second off the SM record. (1:22.3 vs. 1.21.8)

/thread

I agree!