Proxes RA1

[TitaniumTT]

So here's the situation, many years ago I was pretty big into auto-x, then I bowed out for a while and now want to get into it with a vengence. There have been some changes to my car.... only a few and the local club put me in SMA - Street Mod ALL and while I didn't get my ass kicked, I didn't finish where I normally would've previously, or more accurately, would've liked. I was also the only car in that class on "street" tires. Once I get the engine dialed in I'll place better I'm sure but the tires I was running (RT615's) while grippy enough to puke oil out of the filler cap left me wanting after getting a few rides in an original Shelby Cobra equipped with R888's.

So my quest for race rubber began. I came across a set of rims and shaved RA1's. Now, I had previously inquired about the NT-01's and the general consensus was that they weren't worth the extra $150 over the RT615's. The RA1 and the NT-01's share the same wear rating so I would imagine that thier grip would be similar, though I really don't know enough about tires to speak intelligently. Is it really worth the coin for a dedicated set of rims and tires? Are we talking about seconds of a difference here in a 40second to minute long course? Are the RA1's going to be rather noticably grippier than the RT615's? I know this sounds rather noobish, but I have never driven back to back cars with street rubber vs race rubber. The SC with the R888's layed it down through the curves, I have to imagine most of that was due to the tires, the lateral g's that thing put out were insane.