| es 100s
I used ES100s on the street and track for all last year. I have a 92 E36 325i with 450/500 coil overs, stripped interior, roll bar, etc. I instruct with the PCA, NASA, and BMWCCA. I really liked the ES100s. Yes they are not as fast as a true rcomp. But they sure do last longer and you can drive to and from the track on them. I have had Toyo RA1s, Sumitomo HTRZ IIs, Kumho 712s, and Yoko AVS Intermediates. Beyond the ultimate higher grip of the RA1s I still would pick the street tire ES100 over them on the 8 inch wide rims I had. I love the extreme slip angles you can have with the street tires. I like the progressive breakaway caracteristics they have vs a true rcomp. Makes for nice drifting displays. On my second DE with them it poured rain at VIR and 120 down the front straight was not an issue. Once they wore down to about 1/3 remaining they became skatey in most rain at track speeds. They did get noisey but I was unsure what milage was on them. But since the car is basically a CCA J Prepared racecar w/o the full cage the noise was not an issue. Running them backward in the dry for treadwear evenness exacerbates the noise issue. I have not gone very far up the pricing foodchain for street/track tires but I have heard some decent things about the Falken tire that was mentioned above. I may try them next. I tend to be abusive to my tires and I think cheap is the way to go. If you are interested I have a set of 16x8 BBS track wheels that are great for 325/328 E36s FS. They are perfect for 225/45/16, which is what I ran, and could handle a 245/45/16. I am moving up to 17x9s to hopefully race on next year.
Ryan  |