So, I’ve had a few more practice days, and just completed my first autoX of the season. I’m loving the tires and feel like I’ve gotten accustomed to their handling. Here’s a short review of them so far, and also an update from the 1st autoX of the season.

Tires: Hankook Ventus R214, C70 (softest compound) 275/40/17
AIM_tires - sells hankooks

Practices: I had a practice a few weeks ago, and we usually get around 4-6 runs in per session…with temps around 50-70, the tires have always felt solid w/ no signs of greasiness or degraded traction. However, I did have a session where I co-drove the car w/ a more experienced 350Z autoXer to pick up some pointers…we each got 4 runs, and by each of our 4th runs, the tires felt greasy; these sessions had less than 20 drivers, so the time between runs was really short. (In the end, I plan to buy a little watering bottle to cool the tires down when summer temps come just in case)

Compared to other tires: This is just my opinion from my experience with driving on Hankook’s tires, having others drive on them (who have also driven on Hoosiers and Kuhmos), and from talking with lots of ppl…obviously this is a subjective review, so if you disagree, please do so knowing that I’m not trying to pass this off as fact, but trying to provide more information for the Z community.

Hankook vs. Kuhmo V710’s : the Hankook’s appear to have better traction right from the start…the kuhmo’s take a bit longer to heat up (not much). This makes sense to me because the Kuhmo’s are also used for full track days which require a higher operating temp. Also, the traction does not appear to change much from the beginning to end of the course; so it seems like there’s not a long warm up period for the Hankooks.

Hankook vs. Hoosiers (A6): The Hoosiers can tend to overheat by the end of a run…so far, when not co-driving the car, the Hankook’s have shown no signs of overheating or degradation of traction, even on longer autoX courses.

Traction: the Hankook tires feel like they a smaller transition from grip to slide than most of the street tires I’ve driven on…this lines up w/ my general impression between street and R-compound tires. When going into a slide, I’ve found the tires to be predictable and easy to control…I’m getting better at using the suspension to ‘bounce’ off one corner as a set-up for the next (loading the suspension such that as I exit the corner and enter the next, the suspension has already loaded for that upcoming corner…this had allowed much fast entry speed, while maintaining exit speed), so having a little bit of lateral slide that is predictable is very useful. (If you’re into drifting, it’s kinda like a bit feint move, but not used to induce a drift, but rather used to properly load the suspension for the corner)

**In general, it seems like many people prefer the Kuhmos because they have about the same traction as the Hosiers, but last much longer. At this point, the Hankook’s have been providing great traction and the tire wear appears to be on par for around 100-150runs…but I’ll wait to see how many actual runs I’ll be able to do. Only downside so far is all the rocks I have to pick out of them after each day!


First AutoX of the season:
I trophied with a 2nd place in IA (Improved A; a combination of SCCA ASP and BSP…so I’m competing against faster cars ). The club website is: www.wwscc.org

Competition:
1st place was a Dodge Viper that was driven by Stacey Molleker…he runs National events and from what I hear, he won nationals in '04 . There were some other fast cars out there too…a few S2000s, and a co-driven ‘93 Porsche 964 RSA.

Here’s my runs:
1st run: 1 cone, had to learn the course at speed…it was fairly complicated and even though I knew the course from walking it, there were some areas that were difficult to judge (58.7s ,+1 cone)
2nd run: was by far my best, but a I clipped a cone! (55.7s ,+1 cone)
3rd run: I slowed down a bit to ensure I got a clean run. (57.0 s - clean)

Here’s some pics from the event:



Next event is on mother’s day…what better way to say “Mom, I love you!”, than with a big smile on my face!

 

great reivew! i luv my hankooks...much better than falkens imo...and they come with road hazardous warranty too

 

where are you located? Somewhere in China?

 

I'd be interested to hear other ppl's reveiws on R-comp AutoX tires relative to the Z...

1) what brand do you run?
2) tire sizes?
3) traction, feel, overheat issues....
4) Tire life (how many runs do you get out of them)
5) traction vs. life (how much traction do they loose as they get near their end?)

 

1) I've run both Hoosiers (A3S04 and A3S05) and Kumho V710s on my 350Z, Kumho Ecsta V700s and Victoracers on my SpecV.

2) Hoosiers - 275/35R18. Kumho V710s - 245/35R18 and 285/30R18 (coming soon!)

3) Hoosier S04s - decent traction (4/5), relatively predictable, handles heat well. Hoosier S05s - OK traction (3/5), totally unpredictable (one turn they slide, the next they grip), dislikes any heat. V710s - good traction (4.5/5), very predictable, tolerant of heat, but don't like really high heat.

4) Hoosier S04s - good wear (100+ runs). Hoosier S05s - poor wear (18 runs, flipped, another 15 runs before cord showing). V710s - very good wear (they'll heat-cycle out before they run out of tread)

5) Hoosier S04s - good lifespan. Hoosier S05s - one-weekend tires. V710s - very good lifespan (1-2 seasons regionally, 1/2-1 season for national-level events, although they do drop off over time).

 

V710s, V700s, RA1s

varies, best size is 245/45/17

710s are like clue when they are new. For 3 events, I was the car to beat in both raw and pax FTD. After that, it was getting slower and slower. I only had problem when I do back to back runs, they feel great. Toyos wear, but they don't lose time at all. My time is the same old as they are new, thats why i love them. It's harder to challenge for FTD with them, but I do okay in them. I would say top 8 almost every event at the regional clubs i run with out of 100 cars. I only have to toss RA1s because of cording