Quote:
Originally Posted by 86league
Listened to a webcast today about this tire, they had someone from Hoosier/Continental give a presentation and answer questions.
Sounds like they benchmarked the Hankook RS4 and they think they exceed its grip by a slight margin (0.4-0.6s they quoted -- but no indication if that was per min of lap time or over an 8:40 nurburg ring lap) and the wear is also slightly better.
They didn't say much about heat cycling performance - their testing has been endurance racing for 8+ hour stints. They did say they expected this to heat-cycle out before wearing out. So for HPDE, it seems to me tire life will be dictated by heat-cycles and not much different than the RS4.
To me, it seems hard to justify the 35-40% price premium for a very slight bump in lap time (maybe wear?) over the RS4 (~$237 vs $173 for the RS4 in 245/40-17), unless you are using it in competition.
Seems like a very good tire for endurance racing, but maybe not a big gain for a HPDE tire.
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Sat in on the webinar too, seems like it will easily out last an RS4 with quite a bit more grip. RS4's heat cycle out before end of life, but from what i've heard from chump car/WRL drivers that the RS4's don't really last for an 8hr enduro. They also tend to overheat often and have trouble maintaining a consistent pace in the last half of their life, which the ECF seems to address.
The biggest take away is that these will wear like iron and will probably out last the RS4's. Will be interesting to see if Hankook replaces them with another endurance tire or an autocross competitor to fight the A052/RT660.
Also a lot of this could be marketing fluff. Won't really know until people get their hands on them and start driving.