Michelin PSS vs Federal 595RS-R

[churchx]

Goingnowherefast: your list tires might be faster. But how well tires from it will do for DD? How long they will last? What is their wet grip? Are they really best choice for one learning? Will they work well with minimal suspension & brakes changes? Why not go right away for hoosier slicks if one wants to prioritize dry grip only and very fastest laps and ignore everything rest? :P
Tires are important, but there is also such thing as right tool for a job. (leaving aside availability issues in EU)

[Icecreamtruk]

Originally Posted by churchx

Goingnowherefast: your list tires might be faster. But how well tires from it will do for DD? How long they will last? What is their wet grip? Are they really best choice for one learning? Will they work well with minimal suspension & brakes changes? Why not go right away for hoosier slicks if one wants to prioritize dry grip only and very fastest laps and ignore everything rest? :P
Tires are important, but there is also such thing as right tool for a job. (leaving aside availability issues in EU)

You are totally right, but I would like to add that people often make the assumption that fast tires are bad tires to learn on. The thing is, when you are learning, the most important thing is how much feedback the tire gives you and how progressive their brake away characteristics are. Usually, crap or non track focused tires have horrible feedback (mushy sidewalls) but slow and progressive breakaway, which is why so many people recommend them. But there are tires that have the same breakaway but with much better feedback. How are you supposed to learn what the car is doing if the tires arent comunicating anything at all? So yes, you can have your cake and also eat it.

TL;DR no dont go for hoosiers slicks but there is no reason to learn on crap tires, feedback is important.

[Goingnowherefast]

Originally Posted by churchx

Goingnowherefast: your list tires might be faster. But how well tires from it will do for DD? How long they will last? What is their wet grip? Are they really best choice for one learning? Will they work well with minimal suspension & brakes changes? Why not go right away for hoosier slicks if one wants to prioritize dry grip only and very fastest laps and ignore everything rest? :P
Tires are important, but there is also such thing as right tool for a job. (leaving aside availability issues in EU)

All your questions in no specific order:

1. But how well tires from it will do for DD? All of those tires listed are a better dd options than the Federals you mentioned

2. How long they will last? You can expect over 10K miles from those tires; however, actual mileage will vary depending on how many track days you do. The 200TW's tend to be pretty resilient to heat cycles, but most tend to fall off after ~20-40 heat cycles

3. What is their wet grip? A/B testing of wet weather performance can be found in TR's newest test here: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...y.jsp?ttid=242

4. Are they really best choice for one learning? No, but they are better than all the other tires you mentioned.

5. Why not go right away for hoosier slicks if one wants to prioritize dry grip only and very fastest laps and ignore everything rest? :P Because literally almost no time attack sanctioning body allows hoosiers to be ran in a street class. I.e you will be restricted to street tires (normally above and including 200 TW)

6. Tires are important, but there is also such thing as right tool for a job. Exactly, so best not to select cheap tires (Federals) or decade old designs (PSS)

[churchx]

Please take note though that i never mentioned federals and even if PSS might be not the latest tire model, it had been very competitive in it's class and what other vendors tried to compete with or designed theirs with PSS as benchmark. Another thing worth not ignoring, that both me and OP are on other side of pond with very different available tire lineup, unless you think that doubling or tripling tire cost to get some specific available only in US shipped & imported overseas still is best choice for slight performance gain.

[Goingnowherefast]

Originally Posted by churchx

Please take note though that i never mentioned federals and even if PSS might be not the latest tire model, it had been very competitive in it's class and what other vendors tried to compete with or designed theirs with PSS as benchmark. Another thing worth not ignoring, that both me and OP are on other side of pond with very different available tire lineup, unless you think that doubling or tripling tire cost to get some specific available only in US shipped & imported overseas still is best choice for slight performance gain.

More talking towards the OP, but again he is on a US based forums so he will likely get US answers. Also it's not a slight performance gain, the difference between A052's and multiyear old PSS's is absolutely massive. That's assuming the PSS's don't chunk before that lol

[churchx]

You are putting that much weight on that one thing as max grip and fastest laptimes at expense of other areas. And not accepting possibility that someone may have different set of wishes/priorities/use specific from tires. And then stack up different class tires and fault one for being designed, well, for different use/of different class. Even though A052 claims to be 200 threadwear tire, imho it's similar to how RE71R is of 200 UTQG tw. Real rate of wear imho is not that far from Cup2, which at least doesn't try to hide it's specialization to sneak under some class rules. Will that difference on that so emphasized by you single area be as massive compared to Cup2 (btw, locally accessible, and for same cheap prices as PS4/PSS, unlike A052 that costs twice as much) aswell?

[biggie]

@Goingnowherefast I appreciate your suggestions!

For now however, considering that the best tire I ever used on a track is the MPSS and that I only have a few hours of seat time, I think jumping directly to something like RE71R is a bit much.

Also there are other considerations as @churchx mentioned (thanks!) such as availability in my country, price/wear and DD usage (if a tire is a bit better than RSR does not mean it's ok for DD, since there's a huge gap between RSR and PSS).

I really do understand the importance of tires since I personally got a 10sec difference between stock (Primacy) tires and PSS on a ~2:10 track.

Bottom line is that I really need more seat time before investing 2-3x the money in tires. If (hypothetically) there was a .5s gap to reach the podium in some competition then none of these arguments would matter, but I'm not there (yet)

[Goingnowherefast]

Originally Posted by biggie

@Goingnowherefast I appreciate your suggestions!

For now however, considering that the best tire I ever used on a track is the MPSS and that I only have a few hours of seat time, I think jumping directly to something like RE71R is a bit much.

Also there are other considerations as @churchx mentioned (thanks!) such as availability in my country, price/wear and DD usage (if a tire is a bit better than RSR does not mean it's ok for DD, since there's a huge gap between RSR and PSS).

I really do understand the importance of tires since I personally got a 10sec difference between stock (Primacy) tires and PSS on a ~2:10 track.

Bottom line is that I really need more seat time before investing 2-3x the money in tires. If (hypothetically) there was a .5s gap to reach the podium in some competition then none of these arguments would matter, but I'm not there (yet)

Are Hankook RS4's available in your country? Those are also an excellent tire option that holds up great for DD duties and have great wear rates.

[biggie]

Originally Posted by Goingnowherefast

Are Hankook RS4's available in your country? Those are also an excellent tire option that holds up great for DD duties and have great wear rates.

Unfortunately, no (RS3 neither).
I think I'll go for a set of AD08R.

[HaXx]

can i dig this up from the grave-
it seems like the op has made up his mind and i dont want to make a new thread for my question-
SS595 $400/set vs Indy500 $550/set for DD----GO!
im looking at cheap tires for a new set of wheels, i have winters so im looking in the uhp summer category. im looking for insight on road noise i heard the feds are loud but idk if thats only the rs-rr's. i only track once a year just for kicks, so performance is right out. are these tires a death trap in the wet?
tires must be 255/35/18 so double check sizing before making a recommendation

[biggie]

I actually ended up with a set of RSRs since I could not find the AD08R either...

The PSS are more comfortable, less noisy, way lighter (and you can feel that, especially without force induction).
The RSR have more grip (without a doubt) and are much cheaper. On the track I was able to extract about a second off my record on a 2:05 track. I really don't know if they worth the trade-offs, considering my needs.

For DD only(ish) there's no contest, I'll take the PSS.