My two cents agrees with my friend Ken's two cents on most points.
First, I agree that it is probably premature to use track tires at this point. I agree with him that you should wait until you are driving in the fastest student run group (and not just as the slowest car in that group), which probably means after minimum 15-20 events, I'm guessing. The problem with running track tires at this point is that they give very little warning before losing traction, which means that it's difficult to recognize when you're getting into trouble until it may be too late. But that's your call.
You really don't have to worry about "tearing up your street tires" on the track. Assuming they are decent street tires, you can use them on the track as is. You won't use them up in one or two track events (or even five or six); not even close. Even the stickly OEM tires aren't likely to wear down by more than one or two 32nds of an inch in an event. If they are so worn that you need to replace them for the track, then you probably need to replace them for street use anyway.
You refer to "slicks" but what most of us experienced track drivers use on the tracks are "R compound tires", which are track tires that have tread grooves. Those grooves can be as little as two circumferential grooves, on tires like the Hoosier R3S05:
or a conventional-looking tread pattern such as on the Toyo RA-1:
(However, as the RA-1 wears, those lateral grooves wear down and disappear, so that a fairly worn RA-1 looks like the Hoosier above.)
The term "slicks" refers to special, soft tires with NO tread grooves. Even at the club racing level, drivers still use R compound tires, not slicks. It's only at the top levels of competition that you see slicks in use. So I'm pretty sure you don't really mean to talk about "slicks".
If and when you are you decide to start using R compounds, I also agree that you are going to want to get a second set of wheels to mount them on, so you don't have to have tires mounted and balanced (twice) every time you go to the track (assuming you use your car at least occasionally on the street). Remember that your '98 has the larger front brakes introduced in '97, so if you get stock wheels, you will need to get '94 or later ones, not the 15"/16" '91-93 wheels. Check other topics here on NSXprime (there have been many) about track tire sizes for the NSX for larger wheels. Fortunately, those of us with the '91-96 NSX can use the original stock wheels from the '91-93, which are often sold used for next to nothing. We can also fit a set of track tires inside the car and drive to the track on our street tires; that may depend on what size tires you get.
There are a lot of different excellent R compound tires on the market, including the following:
Toyo RA-1
Yokohama A048
Yokohama A032R (being discontinued)
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup
Hoosier R3S05
Avon Tech R-A
Hankook Z211
Hankook Z214
Kumho V700 Victoracer
Kumho Ecsta V710
Pirelli PZero Corsa
Most of these brands are available from the Tire Rack. You can get Toyo and Hankook from
Frisby and other dealers, or click
here for a more complete list of dealers carrying the Toyo RA-1.
I wouldn't worry about ANY of these tires for a short drive to the track (under 45 minutes); after all, even those who stow our track tires inside the car or on trailers, usually drive on the R compounds between the track and the hotel each night. For longer distances (say, if you went to Road Atlanta), some of these tires would be fine, while others wear rapidly and/or could be problematic in the rain (particularly those with only those circumferential tread grooves or tires that are fairly worn).
I do not get my track tires shaved, and I heat cycle them myself. I use them until they start to show the belts in small spots. On my NSX, I got approximately 1200 actual track miles (plus 700 street miles between the track and hotel) to the Yokohama A032R
rear tires before they were shot. The
front tires had 1600 track miles plus 500 street miles and still had tread; I could have used them further on the NSX, but at that point I decided to make them "hand me downs" for my Integra Type R, which takes the same size. I have not yet used up a set of RA-1 on the NSX, but on the ITR, they are lasting me about the same number of track miles as the A032R did on that car.
I don't think it's necessary to do anything to your car's alignment or suspension in order to use R compound tires.
