I was in the market for tires a few weeks ago. The autocross/HPDE season is starting and I wanted something with a grip of grip.

My 225F and 255R starspecs were awesome, and got me thru 2 seasons of HPDEing and around 5000 street miles. So they lasted a LONG time. They've been through everything. They gripped well in the rain as well. ALL the way to the bitter end lol. This is what the rears looked like when I got rid of them:



The car had a pretty wicked tendency to oversteer. I was hoping to reel that in for something more neutral...but I didn't want the car to understeer either. I was thinking 265/40/17 but was afraid they were going to look goofy.

I only found one person with pics clear enough to see. MugenAP2's S2000 had 265/40/17 DZ101s on it. After some agonizing, I decided to get them because his car looked great.

I got 225s for the front again.

My friend works at Discount tire and I was able to get an awesome price.

The 265s actually run wide...so they're very close to 275s. They're F'ing WIDE.

When I initially put them on, I was a little unhappy lol. The sidewall looked HUGE and they looked off-roady. Plus they were scraping on everything. They bulged WAY outta the fender.

I was about to just have them swapped out for 255s...but decided to get an alignment first to see if I could tuck them into the fender a little better.

Thanks to my awesome alignment guy at Merlin's in Aurora, IL....the car was lined up reaaaaaaalll nice. I have friends everywhere lol.

Rear Camber is set at -3.1 degrees and toe is set at .15degrees positive.

Once the car was lined up, the tires looked GREAT. I actually got 3 different people (including a girl ) on the same day saying that the car looked awesome. I had my friend drive it while I drove behind him in his car and yeah...the car looked awesome. Super agressive.

I haven't had a chance to autocross or HPDE on them yet. The car does exhibit less oversteer...but I'm afraid it's going to push now. I had the rear toe aligned to the outer limit of "out". The toe is as far negative as you can go within the spec window. So that might help with some of the push on the track.

They do look great, though lol. The rear fenders were already rolled and the bumper tab re-located from the old 255 setup. But I did cut away a buncha plastic from the bumper than the tires were scraping on. I don't think that the tires are scraping on the quarter panel at all...and after cutting away the bumper, I haven't heard any scrapes. So...so far so good.

Anyway, here are some pics to help out people deciding whether they want 265s or not. I am a notorioiusly bad photographer lol. Plus I had to do these quick because the shop was closing.

Lots of pics, though:





















Wheel specs are 17X7.5 and 17X9 + 45 all around.

 

That looks sick as shit. Im trying to run 265's on mine next....I have 255's right now

What did you have to do to make that happen?

 

That's freakin' sexy, sir. I'm running 225/255 and it looks mean as **** from behind, but that looks even sexier. +1

 

I am looking into getting the 265 Star Specs when my 255s are done. But I have a 10" wide wheel on the rear.

 

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

There really isn't much more work involved than running 255s with 17X9 +45s. You have to relocate the bumper tab, roll the lip on the fender, and cut out peices of the bumper.

My suspension was set up to have about 1 to 1.5 finger gap in the rear when I was on bald 255s ....but the brand new 265s (more tread = more height..plus a taller side wall) pretty much fill up the wheel well. So you might have to raise up your suspension depending on how much camber you wanna run and what you want to do with the car.

MugenAP2 said he's running 4 degrees of camber and his car is pretty dumped. I don't think that he tracks his, though.

I'm running 3.1 degrees of camber and the tire JUUUUSSSTT clears the fender. So when it hits a bump, the camber goes more negative and it won't hit the quarter panel.

I do track mine and I'm pretty confident that the rubbing issues have been resolved. Again, I'm on 17X9 +45s...so the amount of work depends on your wheel offsets/widths also.

 

You'll be golden as far as tire fitment. 10'' wheels with 265s look great since the tire has room to square out/stretch slightly. They're only about 10mm wider than 255s...so figure you need about 5-10 more millimeters per side of clearance (about .25" to 3/8'').

 

Oh so you're lowered? On what?

 

lol...was that a passive agressive comment because my car isn't slammed or I took bad pics?

I'm on KW V3s.

 

Negative. I was just curious because i'm trying to run your exact setup. So I need every specific detail on how to get there . Because it looks amazing. Can you define what KW is? Dont think ive heard of them for coilovers?

 

KW is a German made coilover. The V3 is a dual duty system that's great for street or track use. 9.5k springs all around and an awesome damping curve plus independent rebound and compression damping adjustment. Lifetime damper warranty. They have external fluid reserviors front and rear. They're made from stainless steel with stainless steel reinforced plastic spring perches. So..no rust, and the spring perches always move when you want them to.

They're T.U.V. approved..so they're going to last a long ass time. They also have helper springs, which is nice on a S2000 since it's torsen LSD becomes and open diff if one wheel leaves the ground.

You can't really dump the car and have good ride quality because theyre not a body adjustable damper. Although, mine is kind of on a "medium-high" setting right now. If I lowered it to the min recommended height, the ride quality/handling does go down and I get a lot of scrapes. I track the car...so that's unacceptable. I'm happy at the height the car is at right now. The shocks have plenty of travel so the car rides good and it's plently low so it looks good too.

IMO, they are some of THE BEST coilovers out there for dual duty use. Lots of people run them. For a while, it felt like KW was taking over the world lol.

Retail is like $2300-2500. I paid $1600 brand new. U can probably still get them around $1900, though.

I love them and would recommend them to anyone. They're super comfortable....my friend borrowed my Si for a while so the S2000 is my daily driver now. No complaints even though I drive like 80-100 miles a day on crappy roads. They soak up bumps very nicely.

On track, the body control is unbelievable for a coilover that rides this good. Bumpy tracks aren't an issue because the damping responds so well. Smooth, high speed tracks like Road America aren't an issue because the body control is so good.

I really have nothing but good things to say about them.

Here's a pic of the rear coilover: