Toyo R1R vs Kumho Ecsta XS for DD and AutoX

[ls1ac]

All tire choices are tradeoffs. Each of us like different things. So in the for what it is worth-- I have been using Yokohama Advan AD08 tires for, well since they came out.
Great dry traction and good wet (well good for a high performance tire) traction. I had them on a slightly modified Mini S. Summer DD and many weekend track car. I went through many sets and can not give a mileage guess as the track eats them at high rate. The first gen did not winter over very well (in storage). Since then no problem. I took off the stock tires when I got the BRZ and have been running them since. The only problem was on a hot day at Mid Ohio it did roll the rubber off the tread and got greasy. Since then got some other track tires, but still drive and like them for DD.

[Ashikabi]

Well tire rack has the Ventus RS3 v2 for 20$ less than the others so I'll probably get those. Thanks for the input guys

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by Shutter

wait, you got 30k(miles?) out of Kumho XS tires, and expect to go another 15k?

I was under the impression the Kumho XS was similar to re-11a, star specs, rival, rt615k etc and would be 20k, at best...

I just might look into the XS again, if thats the case.

I thought like you did but checking tire rack there are a quite a few people with 20k+ on these. If only they were 200tw I would just run these year round. Damn stx rule change....

[Ashikabi]

I thought I read somewhere the R1R tread wear rating was getting updated to 200. Is that true?

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by Ashikabi

I thought I read somewhere the R1R tread wear rating was getting updated to 200. Is that true?

Yes, its rolling out certain sizes at a time. I was referring to the Kumho's though

[Ashikabi]

Yeah just reminded me of the R1R

[orangeblue]

I have the XS that I use for track days, and they work great for that. As a DD tire, they're not great: loud, not great wear characteristics, and notoriously bad in the rain.

[Vracer111]

I only got about 8k miles life out of my Kumho Ecsta XS - That's with only 1 track day and all other mileage normal daily driving. This is what they looked like after ~ 8k miles:




I have noticed one thing about the FR-S and my driving style, the rear tires wear twice as fast as the fronts - I HAVE to rotate the tires within every 2k miles to keep wear reasonably even. My Kumho Ecsta Sport LE's are almost as worn down in about the same mileage as well...but they are a much better daily driver tire with phenomenal wet weather handling.

To OP, just get a good inexpensive tire from the Maximum Performance category to get the best possible daily driver tire and just work on solidifying the fundamentals. You can worry about which higher performance tire is the better tire to have for class once it's really something that is stopping any further progress. I wouldn't recommend Kumho XS as a daily driver tire when Kumho has the cheaper Sport LE which is better in basically every aspect. You give up dry grip...but gain phenomenal wet weather ability while also being better in the cold (below 40 - XS grip starts falling off a cliff when you push below 40 degrees...)

[ShadowTS]

How much noise do the Kumho Ecsta XS produce? The official dB rating is not much higher than many other tires, and definitely lower than the AD08R. Is it comparable to directional tires?