(2015) 200+ Treadwear Autocross Street Tire Thread

[vroom4]

Let us know if they need some more autox testers. We're running our stx Brz with two drivers in stx and stxl every weekend from now until November. That's a lot of tires!

[tahdizzle]

Originally Posted by CSG David

I don't believe SCCA will go after tire companies, but the 200TW rule will keep the 200TW competitors in but a specific companies out. Specifically, companies who don't really care much about grassroots environments.

I'm not in autocross, but based on the competition, Hankook RS3s seem to be heavily supported out there. RS3 is king in the time attack field, but we all know that car setup and driver skill also play a big role too.

I think a lot of that has to do with contingency also.
I don't see hankook on the contingencies for 2015.

BF goodrich, Falken and Khumo is there though.
I don't really know how competitive they are, but I do feel that with contingencies you see more use out of that certain set of tire/product.

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by tahdizzle

I think a lot of that has to do with contingency also.
I don't see hankook on the contingencies for 2015.

BF goodrich, Falken and Khumo is there though.
I don't really know how competitive they are, but I do feel that with contingencies you see more use out of that certain set of tire/product.

That is true about contingency. In terms of Rivals, RT615K, or Kumho tires...I honestly haven't tested the Kumho's yet.

Rivals have never been a favorite of mine, but others favor them. For our given set of drivers and our competitors, the time difference has been consistently large compared to the top tier tires.

RT615K is an old compound. Relatively competitive at the time, but really obsolete now.

[simpleisbest]

Originally Posted by CSG David

- Bob Endicott was able to lap the 245 SX2 within 0.5 seconds or less compared to 255 RS3s on a 1-minute autocross course.

So...basically you're saying it is well constructed and durable...but not competitive....

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by simpleisbest

So...basically you're saying it is well constructed and durable...but not competitive....

Depends. Taking his times for the day, he would have won with the SX2s compared to the RS3 competitors.

If it came down between tire vs. tire RS3 is better than the whole list of tires. Again, a relatively unknown tire hit the market, just providing some feedback. The SX2, IMO, is pretty good given its price point, but still difficult to say if it'll be enough to take you to the top. To win, everything needs to fall into place...driver, setup, tires, conditions.

[Chillracing]

I ran on the GT Radials at the last 86 Cup event and have to say was pretty impressed by the tires. Like David said they take a lap or so to come in but once they are up to temp they have consistent grip through out the run. They felt predictable and controllable. Overall I think they have a good tire. If they develop them to get some more overall grip I think they'd have a great tire. Looking forward to seeing how they evolve going forward.

[renfield90]

Originally Posted by G_Ride

I believe the issue with the Rivals is they picked up OPR at Lincoln (if someone wants to correct me on that, please do).

Fastest CS twin on Rivals here.

I had zero problems with OPR at Lincoln. What I did notice though is that the grip gain from running on concrete was negligible - it almost felt like running on asphalt. I think the compound simply doesn't like concrete for some reason; based on rumors that BFG will offer the Rival S[olo] alongside the original Rival, and with their testing of the new compound immediately after nats was over, I think that's the conclusion they came to as well.

A buddy of mine won the STF jacket on Rivals though. So maybe I'm just a hack.

[Kostamojen]

Honestly, most of these tires could have a class win any day of the week depending on driver and conditions... I think the point is that there are a lot more options coming soon than what are available right this second, so its only going to be more interesting.

A lot of the info about the RS3's being "the best" seems to be the version 1's not the version 2's, I don't see a lot of info supporting the version 2's as being vastly superior, in fact they may be compromised and more on par with the rest of the tires now.

The SX2's do sound interesting, especially if they are a tire that doesn't overheat quickly and are predictable. Kind of the opposite of the Rival perhaps, more along the lines of the RE-11's? Certainly an interesting option.


I just ordered my tires BTW... Went with the Dunlops because they are available RIGHT NOW and I need to start testing to make sure I have the car setup properly before next months first event. I also downsized a size in terms of diameter, should be interesting to see how it pans out.

[brn12345]

Originally Posted by CSG David

As you know, we were invited in 2013 to extensively test the Maxxis RC-1 tires and have also been featured in their advertisement videos.

We have been invited to be GT Radial Champiro SX2 tire testers for the past 3 months and have had the pleasure to work with the GT Radial team to provide data on their tires. GT Radial has also been present at the autocross working with Bob Endicott to test the potential of the SX2 and compare against some of the competitors.

GT Radial is a sponsor of 86CUP as well so more data at the consumer, enthusiast, and competitor level will be trickled to the community as the season progresses.

On another note, we have tested virtually all those tires except for the new Dunlop Z2SS and Bridgeston RE71R. We're very interested to find out the performance of those tires and find out where they stack up against the competition.

I run in a local championship 2000cc that mandates minimum 140 tread wear and have been racing for 8 years in it now. I can tell you that we tried nearly all the tires and for road race we have always had the Kumho XS as the fastest tire on track over the 15 laps. That is until one racer went to the Dunlop Direzza II Star Spec (we had others running the Direzza II non star spec and they were slower than the Kumho). The star specs ran over 0.5 sec faster consistently and maintained the lap time to the end of the race, since then nearly the whole field moved to the Star Specs and now everyone is faster by 0.5 seconds. To the say the truth we are about 1 second away from times we used to set using Hoosier R6's..

On autocross, I have been racing for over 10 years and have used many tires on many cars but most recently (last 18 months) I have autocrossed by BRZ using Rivals and Dunlop Star Specs and I want to once again say the Dunlops are super fast. I am a good 1 sec + faster than the next BRZ/86, cars that I used to run about the same time against using the Rivals.

I can safely say that from the above experience the Dunlop Direzza II SS is the fastest 200 tread wear tire I have used (have to qualify this by saying we have never tested the RS3).

I also suggest to David to try the Dunlops.. you will be pleasantly surprised.

And we run these tires at about 32 psi hot so for road race civic we start at 24psi F / 26psi R and for autocross in the brz I run about 30F and 29R.

[Thorpedo]

What tire size do you run, @brn12345 ?

[SeanRTR]

Originally Posted by renfield90

Fastest CS twin on Rivals here.

I had zero problems with OPR at Lincoln. What I did notice though is that the grip gain from running on concrete was negligible - it almost felt like running on asphalt. I think the compound simply doesn't like concrete for some reason; based on rumors that BFG will offer the Rival S[olo] alongside the original Rival, and with their testing of the new compound immediately after nats was over, I think that's the conclusion they came to as well.

A buddy of mine won the STF jacket on Rivals though. So maybe I'm just a hack.

I was the fastest Rival tire'd twin @ 2013 nationals, and I loved the tires all year long until nationals. I thought it was OPR too, as we ran Thur/Fri that year. Next year I went to nationals Rivals and ZII's. I got on the test n tune course early, before it was well rubbered in. On a 45 second course with 3 runs on each set of tires, the Rivals were clearly 9 tenths slower, and you had to drive like a crazy person to assure it was ONLY 9 tenths slower. It's just that surface. They don't work at Lincoln. It's not concrete, it's not OPR, it's just Lincoln. That being said, I'm blown away at how many people are avoiding Rivals who won't even be racing at nationals, or Lincoln....ever. The Rivals are just as good (sometimes better) than the other tires at other surfaces including concrete. The Rivals are also MUCH less obnoxious on the road than the Dunlops. Everyone says the Rivals suck in the rain, I didn't find that to be the case either, but the ZII's were better in severely wet conditions. I may be on Rivals again next season (old style), to start...I really haven't figured it out quite yet, I may not even be in CS though....we'll see.

[brn12345]

Originally Posted by Thorpedo

What tire size do you run, @brn12345 ?

225/45/17

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by brn12345

I run in a local championship 2000cc that mandates minimum 140 tread wear and have been racing for 8 years in it now. I can tell you that we tried nearly all the tires and for road race we have always had the Kumho XS as the fastest tire on track over the 15 laps. That is until one racer went to the Dunlop Direzza II Star Spec (we had others running the Direzza II non star spec and they were slower than the Kumho). The star specs ran over 0.5 sec faster consistently and maintained the lap time to the end of the race, since then nearly the whole field moved to the Star Specs and now everyone is faster by 0.5 seconds. To the say the truth we are about 1 second away from times we used to set using Hoosier R6's..

On autocross, I have been racing for over 10 years and have used many tires on many cars but most recently (last 18 months) I have autocrossed by BRZ using Rivals and Dunlop Star Specs and I want to once again say the Dunlops are super fast. I am a good 1 sec + faster than the next BRZ/86, cars that I used to run about the same time against using the Rivals.

I can safely say that from the above experience the Dunlop Direzza II SS is the fastest 200 tread wear tire I have used (have to qualify this by saying we have never tested the RS3).

I also suggest to David to try the Dunlops.. you will be pleasantly surprised.

And we run these tires at about 32 psi hot so for road race civic we start at 24psi F / 26psi R and for autocross in the brz I run about 30F and 29R.

I've driven on Z1SS in the past and really liked the tire a lot. It was very consistent and very easy to drive on. I have driven other cars with the Z2s but never the Z2SS. The Z2SS is still relatively new in this area so it hasn't quite filtered out to the community as readily yet. As the season progresses, I'll have sufficient amount of time on the Z2SS to reassess the pace. Currently my opinion of the Z2 has been peaky.

[Dezoris]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

please note this thread's title...

It was in response to the tire rack video. Just mentioning there is more to the tire performance than just testing them new and in autox.

They don't account for how wear/heat cycling factors into grip, noise levels etc. That's a large omission. Just something to add and not shitting on thread.