Tire Brand: Hankook RS3

Size: F:265/35/18 R: 285/35/18

Favorite psi:32 hot

Mods: A lot

Wear rate: I only have about 1000 miles on these tires, 1/2 a track day at Heartland Park Topeka and about 5 laps at Mid America Motorplex, so there's lots of tread left. Normal wear patterns for hard driven tires, no chunking or ripping of the tread blocks.

Review: I can't give a direct comparison to previous tires since I just added new coilover, alignment etc. But they have a linear break away at the limits and are easy to push hard. When pushed beyond the limit they come back easy and smooth. They have a great deal of slip angle and are forgiving. As far as shear stick they are very high for a street tire, well in excess of 1g on my car. Even after several laps the tires never felt like they were overheated like I've felt from some street tires, RT-615's most noteably. For comparison at MAM these tires were only about 1 second off my BFG R1's (1m46.4s vs. 1m47.8s). They didn't have the razor sharp turn in or feel of the R-comps but gave tons of confidence and allowed me to push harder in some areas were the BFG R1's were lacking on the confidence scale. I give them a huge

Few other tid bits: I ran a various amounts of camber during track use. These tire love it or so the tire temps say. I started them around -2.2 deg and my last outing was in excess of -3.0 degrees. I never had too much time to play with pressures but they felt stable and controlled at about 32 psi hot and them tire temps were fairly linear. The staggered tires are nice at the track but not quite tossable enough for an auto-x, I'd probably go square if that's their primary use. I only auto-x them once this year but they were the fastest street tires there that day and I was knee deep with the R-comp guys.

 

Here's my setup, currently have two different one's thought you guys might be interested in some 17" wheel choices that clear BBK's. I have the wilwood 6 pot 13.1" BBK and clears both of these wheel sets fine.

First setup is my RPF1's

Front 17x10 +18(+10 mm spacer for effective +8 offset)
Rear 17x10 +18(+25 mm spacer for effective -7 offset)







Tire choice:
Dunlop Star Specs 265/40/17 front and rear
I measured these tires and they run WIDE, more like in between a 275-285 size tire. Great tire, used it for a few tracking sessions and autox sessions. Grip just as well as the RE11's, however feel a bit more numb. Put out identical times in autox sprints.


Second Setup is my Volk RE30's, these wheels are SUPER light, weighed only 13.8 pounds on my scale!

Front 17x10 +15 (Going to run a 15 mm spacer for +0 offset in the front after I fix my alignment settings, just installed my aftermarket front control arms yesterday) Currently sitting in between -5 and -6 camber in the front thats why they look so sunken lol! Need to get my alignment asap hoping to run -2 in the rear and -3.2 in the front
Rear 17x10+15 (+25mm spacer for -10 offset)




This did some more coilover adjustments today and will be running this height for the track


Please excuse the crappy tires on the re30's they were on my winter car (r32 gtr) so I had 245 winters on them.... just received my 285 kumho v710's so I will be mounting those at all FOUR corners

 

The R32 is your winter car? Nice setup for winter.

 

Tire Brand: Nitto NT-05

Size: R=275/40-17 F=255/40-17

Favorite psi: R 32 hot F 40 hot

Mods: See sig. running -2.5 camber up front, -1.7 camber in the back.

Wear rate: Poor. - even for an "extreme" trackable street tire. They didn't chunk or blister, the just wore out quickly.

Review: Good: Progressive loss of traction at/past the limit. Easy to drive "on the edge". Good heat tolerance.

Bad: ~.5 seconds slower than the Kumho XS's on our 40 second test and tune. (less grip) Poor wear rate. I got 2 autocross events. (~25 runs total) and a 2500 mile total road trip to and from ZdayZ. ( including about 6 spirited runs on the Dragon and a few on 28 maybe?)

Note: I never tested these in the wet, but I assume no tire with tread on it sucks as bad as the XS's in the wet. (So I *hope the NT-05's are better than the XS's in the wet, but don't know.)

If they lasted longer, I could tolerate the slightly lower grip levels because they cost ~$130 less per set than the XS's. But I usually get another 2 events out of the XS's. So I don't see the savings.

 

bump

 

Compared the star specs to the NT-05's I replaced today.

I was concerned because I had to go from 275's to 265's in te back since Dunlop didn't make 275/40-17's.

But wow they run wide for their size.... (The difference was less pronounced once the Star specs were mounted and the NT-05's were off the wheels, but the Specs were still wider.)

275/40-17 NT-05's on the left, 265/40-17 Star Specs on the right.



This one is with 255/40-17 on both sides.

 

Bump for reviews on the new crop of tires.

 

Autox season starting in few weeks.. i am having some used nt05 to use for the first event days.. till i get more seat time will buy new tires.. soo it will be helpful if more guyz review their current tires/setup

 

IMO...

RS3's are still the top tire. I didn't like the Z2's as much as the Z1's on an STU Evo I drove, but they are little faster. The BFG's have a ton of hype, but have failed to live up to it. Only STF was won by BFG this year at Nationals, and that was mainly for contingency purposes. They also have some major tread splicing issues. The RE-11A's and Michelin PSS's are not up to pace, but excellent all around tires.

 

^^ gotta order the RS3 from tire rack.. unfortunately our local hankook dealer not selling them. the only R-rated tire i can get locally is the NT-05.

tough decision, RS3 or RE11.

 

I recently got some S-04s, and I'm really liking them so far. I guess the full name is Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position. I ran them on the Dustball Rally. 3500 miles total. City, highway, thrashing Tail of the Dragon, high speed runs, and even a track day in the wet. So far they've been awesome. Grip is impressive and minimal wear so far. My only complaint is they do seem a bit on the noisy side though.

 

I also agree that the rivals may be a little overhyped. I compete against someone who used both this year and he prefers the ZII's. He also stated he was disappointed with the wear rate of the rivals were which I found surprising.

I chose the ZII's over the rivals for a couple of reasons.

1) ZII's are directional vs rivals asymmetrical meaning I can properly them flip them for even wear.

2) they seem to be as fast as the rivals providing the are driven in a more precise manner.

3) Last and most importantly, because they require a more precise driving style, smoother inputs, etc I feel there is a training benefit I can take advantage of to become a smoother faster driver long term. My car is at a major disadvantage, so getting the most out of my driving ability is crucial. The rivals I feel could limit my growth since the consensus is they'll take almost anything you throw at them and still be quick.

 

My review on the ZII's. I have just replaced my NT05's with them and so far I'm very impressed. My fastest time around TMP on the NT05's is 1:23.5, but the problem is that was a one time deal. It's the only time I broke the sub 1:24 mark out of many many laps on those tires at that track this season. Majority of my laps were in the mid to high 1.24 range. In my last time attack event switching to the ZII's saw an immediate improvement. Once I scrubbed the release agent off, I immediately started turning laps in the 1:23 range and managed a pb of 1:23.2. Huge improvement in consistency. I'm confident there is lots left in the tire. I only put in about 25 laps the whole day, hardly any were clean without traffic, and the temperature was fairly chilly at 13 Celsius. Hopefully I can get one or two last practice days in to give these a fair shake on a warmer day. Stay tuned.

 

Fwiw the December 2013 edition of grassroots motorsports is still declaring the rival as king. This test was done on a road course. They claim it's even quicker than the rs3. Their tests were done on a light crx. Nothing was mentioned about tire wear this time around.

 

It's just not. They can publish it to their hearts content. Simply put, no one winning championships on street tires (sans STF in solo) is on a BFG. They also still have major tread splicing issues.

 

I am also skeptical about their review. I hope their review is genuine and merely a result of that particular driver, in that particular car, on that particular setup etc.

It was always my understanding the tread splicing issue was only cosmetic and didn't actually affect the tire, or is it proving to be a bigger issue than BFG is admitting?

Out of curiosity, what tire faired best out your way?

 

RS3, Pixie Dust sized R1R's and Z2's.

 

Unfortunately, none of those are available in sizes wider than 285. At least the Rivals are available in 295/35 and 315/30

I really wish Hankook would make R-S3's in 305/35

 

There would be no need for 305 rs3 unless you were on a like 11.5" wheel.

 

I run 10.5" in the back. Toyo R888 305/35/18 calls for 10"-12", with 11.0" being their recommended rim width. A 305 is fine on a 10.5" wide wheel.

I love my R-S3's but 285 is just not enough tire for my power anymore.