Another Noob car prep question

[Bbrazz]

I've been wanting to try autocross for a long time. It's time to take action.I like the sound of the club, and look forward to meeting you all.
I've read the novice tips, and I agree that worrying too much about setup would be foolish given my lack of skill. Still I have a few questions about getting my car ready. I welcome any feedback, especially from the S2000 drivers. I have a 2005 S2000 that is completely stock.

Tires
1. my rear tires are shot (not just worn). Fronts have about 50% tread left. For street use, I would just buy new matching rears. Do I want to do that for autocross? Or will that cause unpredictable handling?
2. Are extreme performance tires more or less forgiving for a novice? Trying to decide weather to buy 2 or 4 tires. My current tires are Sumitomo HTRZ3, good for the street but are they good for learning?
3. I read on an S2000 forum that that the AP2 oem front tires are abnormally narrow for their size. So if replacing it made sense to increase the rear tire size so as not to get unexpected oversteer. This made sense to me for the street, but for the track, does the logic hold up? Anyone familiar with this?

Clutch
4. My car has 60k miles on it. The clutch is showing early signs of wear. How hard is autocross on the clutch? I realize my driving will effect the answer, assume I'm a novice trying not to abuse the car too badly while learning.

thanks for your input.

[Loren]

Autocross is easy on clutches. Drivers on the other hand... not so much. A typical autocross run (especially in an S2000 that revs until tomorrow) consists of one launch and one shift. That's it. How abusive that is comes down to you... if you baby the clutch, it's just like street driving.

You'll really appreciate and get more out of switching to really good tires if you get some experience on lesser tires first. Maybe look around and see if you can find a cheap pair of used rear tires? Something that would be on par with whatever you have in the front? Run those for a few events and go from there.

If you had to buy a new pair of tires... if you can get some crap cheap enough, maybe do that. Otherwise, might as well get something good if you intend to get into autocross. Grippy tires in the back will help. A lot of S2000 newbs find the car to be "twitchy". But, putting grippy tires in the back with less grippy tires in the front could make it understeer horribly. Which is worse (horrible understeer or twitchy oversteer) depends on your driving style, I guess.

[Rosko]

What Loren said plus ....

If you buy 4 new tires, keep this in mind ... If you end up autocrossing for a long time, it will be a super good choice to buy some Dunlop Star Specs or some Hankook Ventus RS3.

However, if you're just trying out autocrossing, and find that you don't like it, then you might regret these tires because they won't last as long as you might expect. And they might be noisier than what you are accustomed to.

I like Loren's idea about buying some cheaper (perhaps used) tires to compliment the ones you have on the front. And then when you find out that you like/dislike autocrossing, make your long term tire choice.

Sometimes there is an entire army of S2000s that show up. I'm sure those guys will have some good advice.

[impalanut]

It never hurts to have good tires. Tires are what connect your car to the ground. I am always amazed at people who scrimp on tires, especially when they put money into other things. The two tires listed are good choices for autocross, the only real drawback is they won't get a zillion miles on them. I personally buy the highest performance tires for my car and accept the fact that they will wear out a little faster than others, but its worth the performance and safety.

[jreid1000]

Everything, Loren, Chuck and Howard said plus...

Welcome to FAST! Your gonna have fun.

[Loren]

Absolutely true. It's best to run on the highest performance tires you can get your hands on. (of course, street tires are always a compromise between dry grip, wet grip, wear, noise, comfort, cost and a few other things I forgot)

But, I saw a quote today that sort of applies:

"A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor."