The new BFGoodrich R1-S
 

I thought these tires were interesting so I will be trying out a set.
These will be going on my MX-5, but given the wheel sizes are the same on the FT86, I figured that you may find it useful.

Here are some initial observations. No real formal testing is possible for me, but I will share some feedback once I run them.

Size: I typically run 225/40-17’s on 17”x7” wheels. BFG R1’s come in 235/40-17 or 245/40-17s. I went with the 235/40-17’s. The 245’s are made with the same mold with a 10mm wider tread spacer to create more width, so the tire height/diameter should be the same. I figured the 235’s would fit my 7” wheel better and allow the sidewall to be less compromised. As a side note the tires took A LOT of pressure to bead up.



The mounted diameter is short for the size (all dimensions are for tires mounted on 17”x7” wheels). The shorter tire works out well for my gearing situation. As mentioned above the BFG 245 would be approximately the same diameter.

• 225/40-17 Hoosier A6 – 24.0”
• 235/40-17 BFG R1-S – 24.3”
• 245/40-17 Hoosier A6 – 25.0”

The BFG mounted width seems to be in line with comparable Hoosiers if not a smidge wider (all dimensions are for tire mounted on 17”x7” wheels). Widths were measured by measuring a stack of 4 top to bottom and dividing by 4.

• 225/40-17 Hoosier A6 – 9.0”
• 235/40-17 BFG R1-S – 9.3”
• 245/40-17 Hoosier A6 – 9.5”

Visual observations:
· Two symmetrical grooves, may wear differently than A6’s (reduce the groove of doom?):

o The groove spacing is notably narrower than the A6, result is more shoulder area outside of the groove.

§ 225/40-17 Hoosier A6 – 3.75” c-c
§ 235/40-17 BFG R1-S – 2.5” c-c

o The grooves are filled with what appear to be frequent tire wear indicator bars, which could reinforce the groove.

· Tread depth indicators

o These are located closer to the shoulder wear area, may actually make them useful for camber challenged cars.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/4468/tires2w.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/4598/tires1h.jpg
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Becarefull of those tires. This happened to a local driver of ours at one of the tours. After 12 runs. Thats right I said 12. http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...y/DSCN1322.jpg

Also coming from Hoosiers and Hankooks he had to run a lot more pressure up front not to roll over. normally 45 psi up front but I think he was pushing 55 with these not to roll over. Mazda 3 hs driver.

I promise to be careful, thanks for your concern :)

Thanks for the info. A 245/40/17 A6 works without rubbing with a +42 rim on the FR-S/BRZ. That's without the crash bolts, but I imagine it would be okay even with them, so the 245/40/17 R1-S should fit fine.

I think these are actually more expensive than a comparable size A6, so I look forward to seeing your feedback. I've read some other good reviews of them out on the interweb but it'll be interesting on a somewhat similar car.

Interested to see what you think of the R1s versus the A6s.

I had a set of the older R1 tires on my Evo in a 265 width. I wanted something that would heat up a little slower than A6s and last better & longer between TA events.

They worked out very well for me - lasted 4 months being daily driven and tracked. Unfortunately my car got confiscated by the cops (not because of the tires but because of my exhaust - they were dong one of their infamous anti-modification campaigns here) and the R1s baked in an impound lot before I could wear them out.

Can you drive these (legally)on the highway?

Good question, it is technically legal.

To quote from the BFG literature:
"A word about DOT-legal competition tires - DOT-legal tires meet the minimum requirements established by the DOT for tires used on public roads. However, DOT approval doesn't necessaryily mean that a tire is well suited for frequent use on public roads, particularly in the case of competition tires. The BFG g-Force R1 is such a tire, and we recommend that it not be used on public roads"

This is the same with any DOT competition tire (i.e. Hoosier, Kuhmo, etc.). You will find folks how run them on the road, but they are typically driving very short distances to events. I have never run them on public roads... and realize they would be very dangerous in any standing water.

Thank you for that very cogent reply. I only ask because i'd need to drive on them for the trip to and from the track.

Have you considered just carrying them in the car and changing at the track? The car was designed for it and I can confirm from personal experience that an extra. Set of wheels fits inside without disturbing the seating position of the driver and passenger.

Actually, it'd likely be for my Celica before my FRS-- i haven't gotten one yet. http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...fforums/h3.png

And i suppose i could, i just didn't know if there was a place at BIR to change my tires.

So what's the verdict? :)

At a local NASA event an e36 M3 set the track record in TTA with these tires. From what everybody is saying they were really sticky.

you can run them, but a cop could pull you over for "insufficient tread depth" / bald tires and not listen to a word of your logic

you'll end up fighting it in court and winning, but it's all a big headache.

http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/solo/2...esults.Pax.htm

The Sunday results are still getting posted...

From the Bench, seems the tires are at least treading water.

Those names at the top are MEGA, at least IMO.

Tim Aro won CSP last year, Chris Shay was beating Matthew Braun after Day 1 of Nationals last year, Jason Frank was beating Andy Hollis after Day 1 of Nationals, and Canak's the STS champion two years running.

Though from our lowly Chicago Region perspective, this is exactly where we expect Chris to fall, so its hard to tell if the tires are +/-. Bench perspective, having these proven drivers within this range of each other probably means the course was well crafted to NOT be particularly biased to car type.

I think Chris was going to run both tires at Cendiv, so I'm not sure which runs were potentially with the R1S and which ones were with Hoosiers.

I expected those results from Chris whether he's on Hoosiers or BFGs so he'll have to chime in with some more info.

Here are more raw data results, now pending specific driver commentary on differences and impressions... I hope the seal strips weren't a huge issue like they were last year that put an odd unpredictable element into the testing...

Weather was nice, hovering around 80 degrees both days.

http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/solo/2...nly,%20Pax.htm

http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/solo/2...lts,%20PAX.htm

2007 Mazda MX-5 Red
61.864 61.762 61.312 61.155 60.812 60.905

Saturday Runs

2007 Mazda MX-5 Red
62.086+1 61.805 61.474 61.448 61.035

Sunday runs

Thanks for posting the results.

I am far from a verdict and do not have definitive data to prove anything (not a controlled experiment by any means, just my $0.02). Realize that I only have 2 runs on the R1S's at this point.

Here are the facts:

· I ran in the first half of second heat (runs 1-3) and the first half of fourth heat (runs 4 -6)
· The new (un-scrubbed) BFG R1-S's were on the car for the first two runs of Saturday only.

o I ran the first run with two pound of pressure more than the Hoosiers all around.
o The second run I ran with pressures equal to my typical Hoosier pressures.

Commentary:

· Jeff put together two days of challenging courses for our CEN DIV event, which was excellent, however this made it difficult to put together consistent runs. Unfortunately I it was not a good weekend for tire testing due to this. Ideally we would have a simple course the driver knows well to minimize the driver’s errors/inconsistency.
· Many folks were commenting about the limited grip in the early heats, so I wouldn't read too much into the raw times.
· I realized after switching back to the 1 year old; 27 run Hoosiers for the third run that I likely need some time to dial in some different shock settings and further refine pressures.

o I don't believe that my typical Hoosier set up is going to be effective with the BFG's.
o The feel of the BFG's was not immediately familiar, so it may take some time to adapt or learn the feedback queues.

· On Sunday I decided to work on some other adjustments and needed to limit my variables (note we only had 2 runs in the afternoon heat).

More time with the tires will be revealing. I will share more as I learn.

Please have the driver of the Mazda3, who I believe is Adam Deffenbaugh, contact me regarding the tire pictured above. I would be happy to review the situation w/ him and am interested to hear his feedback.

Rgds,
Peter Calhoun
Motorsport Manager
BFGoodrich Tires
peter.calhoun@us.michelin.com

Its too bad BFG doesn't offer a NASA TT contingency as i really want to test these. It would less points than the Hoosier R80s we run so we could up the HP but I win so its hard to give up free tires.

If Michelen had input from their slicks on these you probably need substantially stiffer suspension and way less tire pressure than you run with the A6. Initially switching to a slick didn't net much quicker lap times until the suspension was altered along with finding the sweet spot for tire pressures that delivered more grip.

Thanks
Phil Grabow

I need to get a set of these to try them out!! I wonder what psi was used on the pic of the torn up tire.

Hi all,
I ran some additional runs during the 8/12 Milwaukee SCCA 'border challenge' event. I am posting the results. The weather was consistent all day, sunny with highs in the high temp around 90deg F. The daylight and number of cars at the event limited us to 5 runs. I made changes to make the car drivable with the BFGs, including altering tire pressures and softening the rear bar.

Event result links:
Class results: http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/solo/2...2,%20Class.htm
Pax: http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/solo/2...-12,%20PAX.htm

P - 'Pro' - Total Entries: 9
Times
1T CS96 Chris Fenter 2007 Mazda MX-5 Red
51.902+1 51.104+1 51.247+2
50.767+1 49.924

Note: raw times are shown above, penalty time for the pylons NOT included.

The first three runs were on BFGs R1-S, I was very happy with the second run (didn't even realized I based one of the cones in the slolum, +1), made one notable mistake on the third and it cost me being able to backup run #2. In my last comparison I ran the BFGs against 1 year old - 40 run Hoosiers. This time I pulled out a sticker set for runs 4 and 5. So this should be a straight up comparison given that the BFGs had only 2 runs at the beginning of the day.

I recognize that this is not a good format for a true comparison test, primarily since I didn't get to go back to the BFGs after the Hoosiers. And I may be able to better tune for the BFGs if I had all the T&T time in the world. However, I have a hard time getting more than 60 runs in a whole season!

All I can say is given what I know now... on that setup there is no way I would be able to improve one second over that second run. On SCCA forums folks asked if I ran enough pressure. Good question... I don't know. Some claim they are faster than Hoosiers on their cars. All I do know is when I ran higher pressures the tires still didn't feel confidence inspiring, should I have added more... good question... If you want to find out for yourself the tires are now for sale.

Take care,
Chris