Hankook Ventus RS3... I have a 200TW RS3?

[Sccabrz192]

Tread Wear ratings are a joke Welcome to the new D.O.T. Approved.

[xwd]

They are the same exact tires like Kido said. They just put 200 TW on them to meet new requirements from various racing organizations like the SCCA and make them eligible for things like the Chump Car series.

I know some people who have recently ordered them and got a mix of 140 and 200.

[03Z33]

I saw them on the car also, funny thing is the date stamp wasn't that recent, 3312 I believe...

[D1cker]

Mine are 2412 and still 140, but I'm going to order a set again in the next couple of days.

[Rougenite]

yes i have 200tw.....4212 dated on two....funny thing is two tires are missing the treadwear portion completely, but have teh date....the other two have no date, but have treadwear lol......Got them in....january

[BlaineWasHere]

I just got a set of 245/40/17 on the car a few weeks ago and I'm gonna go look at the TW rating now...

If the number is different doesn't something physically have to be different about the tire? Otherwise what does the number actaully mean?!?!?

[B L U E S L A T E]

April fool's trolling?

[03Z33]

Originally Posted by Rougenite

yes i have 200tw.....4212 dated on two....funny thing is two tires are missing the treadwear portion completely, but have teh date....the other two have no date, but have treadwear lol......Got them in....january

Date and tw are on opposite sides, you'll need to pull the wheel off to see it.

[BlaineWasHere]

Ok so I just went outside and crawled around on the ground to see that all 4 of mine are 140...

So is this April Fools? I cannot tell...

[SkullWorks]

no sirs not april fools...wel some of us are foolish and it is april...

but that's not the point, check the PDF referenced on the first page and my very real threat to stab CSG_mike....all real $hit i assure you.

[SkullWorks]

according to Wikipedia, a manufacturer can under rate a tire (call a 200 treadwear tire 140) but you cannot overstate the treadwear of a tire, (cannot call 140 200)

UTQG is a guideline to be used by all manufacturers but as described above they can say a tire is softer for "street cred" but you cannot over inflate the number to be higher than actually measured....measurements are based on milage VS "Course Monitoring Tires" which are made to a spec to limit variability....

so that leaves 3 options,

1.) the tires are harder now than they have been and therefore $hitty...we just lost the best known secret in track tires

2.) Hankook has been underrating the treadwear and is now rating appropriately to get more use in more racing series where >200 TW is not allowed

3.) Hankook is now lying about the treadwear and is in danger of getting nailed by the DOT for incorrectly stating the tires wear characteristics.


My personal experience with the OG 140TW tires is that they are not under rated they really are just sticky as all hell. Mike's input above leads me to believe scenario #1 is true, but I hope we are both wrong and he simply cannot drive

[juliog]

4) Maybe just more factory tread depth on the 200TW versions?

Edit: nah, just checked, still 8.8/32"

[03Z33]

There is no standard testing for tw. They can put whatever number they want on the tire, it's only used as a guideline or recommendation. DOT have nothing to do with it. My OEM Yaris tires have 140 tw and last well over 60,000 miles. Some low end generic tires are actually pretty grippy but have artificialy inflated tw of 340+ because they think that will get them more sales.

[GTM_Challenge]

Originally Posted by 03Z33

There is no standard testing for tw. They can put whatever number they want on the tire, it's only used as a guideline or recommendation. DOT have nothing to do with it. My OEM Yaris tires have 140 tw and last well over 60,000 miles. Some low end generic tires are actually pretty grippy but have artificialy inflated tw of 340+ because they think that will get them more sales.

Actually there was a standard initially used for all of the UTQG ratings, not just TW. Only after the tests were run, a tire company could index their tires against their own tires, creating a very skewed approach to TW ratings. Generally, you can compare TW ratings within the same tire company, but its tough to compare from tire company to tire company.

The RMA has been trying for years to get new industry standards in place.