With the Kansas City Championships coming up this weekend, i was anxious to get some half-decent rubber on my car to justify competing.  I’d poked around a bit around town getting quotes and comparing tires, but hadn’t really committed until Sunday, when I buckled down and bought a set of General Altimax RTs from Tire Rack.  They’re no Potenza RE-01s, I know, but they’re the best all-season tires available in sizes fit my puny 13-inch steelies, and I need something I can use in the winter.  They arrived yesterday and I got them mounted this afternoon.

I knew that the no-name budget tires that used to be on the car were bad, but I didn’t know they were THIS bad!  I took the car out to the Park and Ride tonight to give them a try and wear some of the mold-release crap off of them (incidentally, I ran into the KU FSAE team while I was out there… damn, their car is finicky, but awful fast too).  I knew the first time I turned in that I had at least twice the grip I did before.   Things that would have made the old tires howl and shimmy, the Altimaxes (maxii?) just ate up.  I no longer get momentary wheel hop on easy street launches, which is a relief.   The whole time I was out there, doing tight slaloms at speed, I think I heard the tires squeal twice.  Maybe.  My car’s limits just got way higher, and I can’t wait to explore them.

Also, with the wheels being rebalanced, the steering flutter I had thought was alignment-related has vanished, and with it an espescially noticeable shimmy under braking I had thought was a warped rotor.  Whoever had balanced the wheels last did a horrific job of it — not suprising, given the lack of thought evident in the tires he was mounting.  Bottom line is that the old tires were some of the (pardon my French) shittiest lumps of rubber ever churned out of a factory and the CRX drives practically like a new car now.

I’m so happy…