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I know this thread is several months old, but for continuity sake, I'll add a few of my experiences. If you are new to driving on track, do NOT use an R Compound tire. They mask mistakes. Sure, you'll be faster on them immediately, but you cheat yourself out of learning the fundamentals... which generally reduce your range of learning, making you slower long term as your peers continue to progress. One again, not directed at TTT as I don't know his driving background. Just in general.
For a track day, I'd go with an "extreme performance summer" or whatever they are called now. Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec, Nitto NT05 Kumho XS, Advan AD08, Falken Azensis RT615, etc... GRM does a very comprehensive test involving these tires every year. This year has been even better than previous. I personally love the Z1 Star Specs of the ones listed above. They come in a pretty good range of sizes and are relatively cheap comparitively. In 09 when I got back from the last deployment, I purchased a set of star specs to make sure I shook the rust off and hadn't developed any bad habits since I'd been gone for 15 months. I fully expected to wear the tire out and move back to an R Compound. I want to say around 15 track days, 5000 street miles, and a few AutoX's later... they still had around 60% tread left. The other thing of note about the Star Spec's is they seem to have more consistant/sustained grip than some of the other tires I've ran. For example, the Falken 615's tend to get greasy after a couple of sessions. The Star Specs grip at the start of the session and always held on consistantly through the duration of however long the session lasted. I've seen alot of Lemon's/ChumpCar's run these tires for the same reason.
Once you are ready to make the jump to R Compounds, most people jump to a middle of the road r compound tire, like the Nitto NT01. These tend to be a little sticker when shaved new, but you give up over all life of the tire. I don't reccommend it. If you are competing, you generally aren't going to be competitive on this tire.
The "top" tier for us grassroots guys are the Hoosier R6 and A6, Kumho V710, and the new Goodyear tire(not readily available). I'm very partial to Hoosier as they offer a great contingency for us. They also offer the fastest tire, period. Hard to argue with that. Depending on the car will determine how long each tire lasts.
The Hoosier A6 is the fastest for the Road Course. They are a must have for Time Trials. I know plenty of people that have road raced on A6's for several years now as well. Some have had issues with heat management and making them last for the entire race. Most don't. Driver style has alot to do with that. Another great thing about the A6 is grip is there immediately. That produces alot of driver confidence at the start of a race knowing that the grip will be there to control the car. It'll take other tires a couple of laps to get up to temp.
Kumho V710's are a really awesome tire as well. They last forever and are also a tire that is great for AutoX and the Track. Not quite as fast as an A6, but generally last longer.
R6 is a little harder of a compound making it a little slower than the A6, but has a better heat range for longer events(obviously).
Again, understand this is seveal months old. Just sharing some of my experience in this thread for future reference.
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