Wondering if anyone has any further feedback on the RC-1? A local who has tested them (with data) says they are worth ~1 sec on a 2:25 lap around a power course, ~1.5 sec on a 1:55 handling/braking course.

Ultimately, I'm wondering if they're worth dumping the NT-01s for. Seems like the answer is yes...

Chiming in to say that the Rivals are in fact the bee's knees and are fantastic under braking when compared to the R-S3s.

What tire was he comparing to?

Sorry, NT-01s were the comparison tire.

Did the Toyo R1R's not come in 225/45/15 in the past, or is there something magical about the 195/50/15 that makes them better than the 225/45/15?

Just wondering,

Keith

Yes. Different compound. Do a google search.

Same compound. The 195/50R15 and a couple other sizes have the sticky compound all the way to the cords while the other sizes have a hard compound at around 3/32. So you can shave the 195 down to 2/32s and it fells way less like a snow tire, and doesnt over heat as easily.

Big fan of Z214 C51's. Last forever, affordable, decently fast.

You better have a ton of horsepower, One of my friends is the GM at PPIR, several hill climb teams use PPIR for testing, and as their home base for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. One of the teams brought and left several sets of Avons in two different soft compounds. We have tested on the soft and super soft, lower horsepower cars, the super soft tires were about 2 seconds slower, you can haul ass around the corners but they eat up hp when trying to go down the straights.

Probably been mentioned before but make sure to check manufacturer's tire dimensions to get a true picture. Big differences in actual widths sometimes.

I didn't re-read the whole thread, but the Hankook Ventus TD isn't in the list on page 1. Does anyone have any real world experience?

I've read everything on the first few pages of google results and they sound pretty great, but I'm interested in how they compare to a Hoosier R6.

Emailed you the Hankook .pdf from their site. My thought is to compare it to the RR (the other 9pt tire) as that is really what you need to determine.

Thanks! You're right that it's a 9 point tire like the RR, but they only make it in a 195 (with an 8.2" section width) which means it's actually one point less than an NT01 and 4 less than a Hoosier. I'm not sure what I'd do with those extra 4 points, but I'm still curious how it compares to a Hoosier.

Same here. Freeing up a point gives me a few interesting options.

Does anyone have thoughts on the Kumho V710 in 215/50/R13?

I'll be running these at VIR this weekend but since I don't have any experience with this car on other tires I won't be able to compare them very well. Hopefully they will last a few weekends

The V710s were around when I started autocrossing back in 2007. It's an old tire that delivered 90% of what an A6 could do (for autocross) for half the price.

I hated them when I autocrossed on them. Sold them with 80% life and got the Hankooks instead.

So if the Rivals are ~ NT-01s is it worth running them on a PTE car to get a +7 tire performance out of a +2 tire? I guess the real question is can 8 points be spent elsewhere to make up the difference between a Rival and a R6.

I had that same suspicion and did my first PTE race this past weekend with a PTE* dyno reclass, Rivals, air dam, and wing. There were 3 other PTE miatas there- 2 with hoosiers and no aero, one with RC1s and an airdam. I got destroyed... they were all about 1.5 seconds faster than me.

I think part of it was that Autobahn CC doesn't have many corners where aero is beneficial, but the braking performance was what killed me. I was the only car on track on street tires, so I was constantly fighting out of class cars. I'd pass them on the straights, then they'd almost rear end me and pass me back when I broke 100 yards earlier than they expected.

I'm done playing with street tires in PT for now. I still think a Rival setup could work at certain tracks, or in TT, but I don't suggest it for Autobahn lol.

I was actually wondering about braking. The track I race at (VIR) has two fairly large braking zones that start in the triple digits and end in the high 40s. That's good to know, and BF doesn't seem to do contingency on Rivals anyhow.

Another data point on Rivals:

I was at Putnam Park this weekend and borrowed a friend's 225 NT01s for two sessions to compare to my 205 Rivals. Both sets are about a year old, halfway through the tread, unknown heat cycles. Between 5 sessions yesterday and one this morning, my best Rival time was a 1:21.8. Two sessions on the NT01s and I got down to a 1:19.9. I ran a 1:20.8 on the Rivals when they were new last summer, but I don't think I could do that again with this set. They've definitely fallen off a bit.