Show me your WHEELS!

[TheBabyBadger]

You may want to look at tire choices before committing to wheels. 17" tires for our cars are becoming limited.

No sure about that. Hoosiers makes drag radials and damn near every other company makes 17" tires in both those sizes. They're still extremely common. Plus the sidewall has slightly more flex and can be run taller in a 17 giving a cornering edge over a stiff side walled 18" tire... I actually prefer 17 over an 18.

[Avalanche325]

No sure about that. Hoosiers makes drag radials and damn near every other company makes 17" tires in both those sizes. They're still extremely common. Plus the sidewall has slightly more flex and can be run taller in a 17 giving a cornering edge over a stiff side walled 18" tire... I actually prefer 17 over an 18.

Hoosier Drag Radials are race tires for classes where you have to have a DOT rating. Drag radials are meant for straight line, cornering is pretty bad. They are race-only. This is from Hoosier.com:

"WARNING: DOT labeled Hoosier Racing Tires meet Department of Transportation requirements for marking and performance only and are NOT INTENDED FOR HIGHWAY USE. It is unsafe to operate any Hoosier Racing Tire, including DOT tires, on public roads. The prohibited use of Hoosier Racing Tires on public roadways may result in loss of traction, unexpected loss of vehicle control, or sudden loss of tire pressure, resulting in a vehicle crash and possible injury or death."

There are plenty of 245 and 255s, but not many 315s. Fewer that you would actually want on a Cobra. I am always concerned about tire choice. I drive mine quite a bit (5000+ miles / yr) and autocross regularly. There is pretty much ONE tire that fits that bill these days in a 17". Nitto NT05. Khumo no longer makes a 315/35 17.

I did some poking around since I haven't looked for 5-6 months:

100 treadwear - These are really track tires that you can drive to the event. <200 is considered a race tire by the SCCA. You will get around 5000 miles out of these on the street. So sort-of streeable. It would be nice to have a 2nd set of wheels and keep these for track days. If you don't mind ponying up for a set a year, or don't drive that much:
Nitto NT01, Toyo Proxies R888, Mickey Thompson ET Street - I can't find a real treadwear rating. I saw 0 on one site.

Streetable - I consider 180 to 300ish treadwear streetable for a Cobra.
Nitto NT05 is a good choice for street / autocross (200 treadwear- sweet spot for Street / Autocross high HP Cobra). They also have the 555G2 (320 treadwear -a bit hard for serious autocross, might be the sweet spot for a street-only <400HP Cobra). There is a Motivo that has 560 treadwear. (Too hard for a performance car, much less a Cobra).
Goodyear Eagle F1 - (380 treadwear) a little hard, expensive and generally poor reviews.
Sumitomo - Cheap but terrible grip. Just about dangerous on a Cobra.
Mickey Thompson Street Comp (300 treadwear) Maybe a good choice? Don't know that much about them. Never seen an M/T tire at an autocross event. So, not for me.

That pretty much leaves Nitto and a maybe on M/T.

There are some REALLY good tires out there like the Rival S and the RE-71R, but they don't come in our size. I would like to hear if there is something else good out there.

[TheBabyBadger]

Hoosier Drag Radials are race tires for classes where you have to have a DOT rating. Drag radials are meant for straight line, cornering is pretty bad. They are race-only. This is from Hoosier.com:

"WARNING: DOT labeled Hoosier Racing Tires meet Department of Transportation requirements for marking and performance only and are NOT INTENDED FOR HIGHWAY USE. It is unsafe to operate any Hoosier Racing Tire, including DOT tires, on public roads. The prohibited use of Hoosier Racing Tires on public roadways may result in loss of traction, unexpected loss of vehicle control, or sudden loss of tire pressure, resulting in a vehicle crash and possible injury or death."

There are plenty of 245 and 255s, but not many 315s. Fewer that you would actually want on a Cobra. I am always concerned about tire choice. I drive mine quite a bit (5000+ miles / yr) and autocross regularly. There is pretty much ONE tire that fits that bill these days in a 17". Nitto NT05. Khumo no longer makes a 315/35 17.

I did some poking around since I haven't looked for 5-6 months:

100 treadwear - These are really track tires that you can drive to the event. <200 is considered a race tire by the SCCA. You will get around 5000 miles out of these on the street. So sort-of streeable. It would be nice to have a 2nd set of wheels and keep these for track days. If you don't mind ponying up for a set a year, or don't drive that much:
Nitto NT01, Toyo Proxies R888, Mickey Thompson ET Street - I can't find a real treadwear rating. I saw 0 on one site.

Streetable - I consider 180 to 300ish treadwear streetable for a Cobra.
Nitto NT05 is a good choice for street / autocross (200 treadwear- sweet spot for Street / Autocross high HP Cobra). They also have the 555G2 (320 treadwear -a bit hard for serious autocross, might be the sweet spot for a street-only <400HP Cobra). There is a Motivo that has 560 treadwear. (Too hard for a performance car, much less a Cobra).
Goodyear Eagle F1 - (380 treadwear) a little hard, expensive and generally poor reviews.
Sumitomo - Cheap but terrible grip. Just about dangerous on a Cobra.
Mickey Thompson Street Comp (300 treadwear) Maybe a good choice? Don't know that much about them. Never seen an M/T tire at an autocross event. So, not for me.

That pretty much leaves Nitto and a maybe on M/T.

There are some REALLY good tires out there like the Rival S and the RE-71R, but they don't come in our size. I would like to hear if there is something else good out there.

AVALANCHE - All good points. You're talking to a former AMA/AFMer so I know you don't get your cake and eat it, too. I wouldn't expect my street tires to make it to the track. The Nitto is agreat street tire, and the NT05 is an excellent track tire. I plan to run some OE cobra wheels for track (17s) and run my sexy FR500s with some G2s for cruisin and shaking my *** at people from a dig!

Thank you for the thorough and kind response. I really do appreciate all the support, insight and information I'm getting here. It's awesome!