What's the new HStreet tire/size to have for the FiST?

[Rexracer]

My point was that one does not need shocks or a swaybar to be competitive in the class.

Yes, if 3 seconds at a tour race is competitive enough for you. I completely agree with your priority list, tires first, then driver mod. But at some point depending on your goals, suspension is important. Everything is a spectrum, some run a stock car with all seasons and are completely happy, others (like Rob) buy a brand new car, throw 5k in shocks, 1k in tires regularly, and $350 titanium lug nuts.

This last weekend at Packwood I beat a ton of very fast cars in RAW time, Boxster, Turbo RX7, 1LE Camaro, Focus RS, Civic Type R, so yeah you can be competitive in just about anything. But at the pointy end of the spear (tour/nationals), your not going to win in a FiST on stock suspension.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Everything is a spectrum, some run a stock car with all seasons and are completely happy, others (like Rob) buy a brand new car, throw 5k in shocks, 1k in tires regularly, and $350 titanium lug nuts.

Like you've already stated, he may really HATE money, but I've seen open ended, short, 12x1.5, 17mm titanium alloy lug nuts for less than $150.00 shipped (from Acer Racing).
(I am even considering these since they look much better than all of the short open ended steel lugs, and I still don't trust aluminum alloy, no matter which alloy, and these are not all that much more coin than those, anyway. )

Of course, if one wants/'needs' the high zoot exclusive, longer, Nippon brands in titanium, one can spend twice that $350.00 on them.

 

[Fiestadude]

Yes, if 3 seconds at a tour race is competitive enough for you. I completely agree with your priority list, tires first, then driver mod. But at some point depending on your goals, suspension is important. Everything is a spectrum, some run a stock car with all seasons and are completely happy, others (like Rob) buy a brand new car, throw 5k in shocks, 1k in tires regularly, and $350 titanium lug nuts.

This last weekend at Packwood I beat a ton of very fast cars in RAW time, Boxster, Turbo RX7, 1LE Camaro, Focus RS, Civic Type R, so yeah you can be competitive in just about anything. But at the pointy end of the spear (tour/nationals), your not going to win in a FiST on stock suspension.

3 seconds at a national event speaks more to the day the other drivers were having rather than someone had shocks vs the other person didnt. I think we can just agree to disagree.

 

[Rexracer]

Like you've already stated, he may really HATE money, but I've seen open ended, short, 12x1.5, 17mm titanium alloy lug nuts for less than $150.00 shipped (from Acer Racing).
(I am even considering these since they look much better than all of the short open ended steel lugs, and I still don't trust aluminum alloy, no matter which alloy, and these are not all that much more coin than those, anyway. )

Of course, if one wants/'needs' the high zoot exclusive, longer, Nippon brands in titanium, one can spend twice that $350.00 on them.

Lol yes, even at ONLY $150 that's still a lot for lug nuts. ;-)

 

[Rexracer]

3 seconds at a national event speaks more to the day the other drivers were having rather than someone had shocks vs the other person didn't. I think we can just agree to disagree.

Yes we can agree to disagree, but 3 seconds is way beyond good 2 days versus 2 bad days. Day 1 loosing 2 seconds, ok bad day as evidenced by day 2 falling back only 1 second. Rob is a very good driver, and im not that good, 1 second per day is an eternity in AX. That's the difference between 1st and finishing 11th at nationals. 1 second per day would have meant 7th at the last Nats.

We can meet up at Nationals and do some runs on the test track to compare.

I was only trying to give the OP a different data point with as many facts as possible and let him draw his own conclusions based on the information provided by the entire community, not a hard and fast "stock suspension is fine".

 

[faust]

one more factor not mentioned in this thread is the changes Ford made in the suspension over the model years (was 16 the cutoff?). I've been confused by that in the past. Different FSB, different shock valving.

 

[Fiestadude]

one more factor not mentioned in this thread is the changes Ford made in the suspension over the model years (was 16 the cutoff?). I've been confused by that in the past. Different FSB, different shock valving.

Yeah, I think there was some midyear 2016 changes, that softened the spring rates a little and stiffed the front swaybar and rear beam.

 

[Fiestadude]

On another note on tires. I noticed tirerack now has the rt660s in 205/40/16. Is this size new? I didn't see this size when I purchased my 215/45/16s a few months ago. I might purchase the 205/40/16s as my next size to see if I can get a better turn-in compared to the 215s. I do have my center delamination on my current 215s. I just kept running them and eventually the wear sorta evened out, so the whole center delamination thing isn't a concern for me anymore.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^Those 205/40-16s are a full INCH less overall diameter than the OEM setup, so unless you desire an effectively higher numerical, quicker final drive ratio for some reason, without changing the ring and pinion, I would steer clear of that size.

That size could potentially result in MORE shifting on some autocross courses, unless you raise your rev limiter substantially (which I believe is a NO GO in the /Street classes).