Quote:
Originally Posted by VMRWheels
I definitely would recommend running on street tires as long as you can. Running on sticky street tires allows you to gain more experience with vehicle control. Generally R-Comps will mask what you generally cant do as a driver.
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+1 to this. I do a lot of track day instruction, and it's really hard to explain to people that the reason they can make the mistakes they do, or take incorrect lines, is because they're running R-comps (or in some cases, slicks LOL). It gives a false sense of security, and then once you start going faster and pushing a bit more, if you make those same mistakes you're going to end up backwards or off track (or worse).
Street tires also tend to make a lot more noise, and while I don't want people to completely rely on tire squeal as an indicator, it helps when you're learning. As you move up to R-comps, and especially slicks, the tires are going to make little or even no noise. Once they start squealing you're backwards already
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Generally speaking, the stickier the tires are, the less forgiving they are. Street tires lose traction in an almost slow-motion kind of manner, and it's very progressive. You can easily catch a slide on street tires as a beginner. With r-comps, you have much more grip, but once you finally push to far, they let go much faster. Slicks then exaggerate this even more, to the point of you're anticipating slides, not reacting to them, because a "reaction" is already basically too late. Compare that to street tires, where you could be sliding for 1-2 seconds before you make your correction and still be OK
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