Another "What tire" thread
 

I conversed with Hustler about this and it seems that hands down the NT01 is better for the street because of grip. We never discussed the price vs performance point.

Hustler: chime in since you have run both.

Prices below are for four tires shipped

RS3 225-45-15: 510
NT01 225-45-15: 526
XS: 205-50-15: 385

Assume this is solely a DD car.

What would you pick and why?

Feel free to add a tire that is not on the list.

I would think that the NT01 is a little extreme for a solely daily driver. I would opt for the rs3, t1-r, rt-615, or xs on a daily.

I only have experience on the rt-615 and personally don't favor them because they get greasy fast. They are still very predictable but the fact that they get greasy is not good.

I will replace mine when worn with rs3's until I can have track wheels. Then I would use nt01.

I've had the NT-01 and the XS. The NT-01s are livable in the rain when new, but not great when worn, and they will wear quickly when you are putting on the miles. They are also not very grippy when cold, late Oct-early Nov here in upstate NY, I could do rolling burnouts in second gear just by getting into boost.

That XS is fine to great for a n/a car, but with the power you want to run, probably not enough tire. The way I see it, we are kind of stuck with the RS-3 in the 225 to put enough rubber on the road.

To the guys with less power, in the 205s we have lots more choices, and an XS or Direzza are both great choices.

No experience with neither one, but RS3s seem to be the street tire of choice. :dunno:

lately i have been running toyo R888 and love em
perfect on the road and just as good on the track if you do a track day now and then

'Kook RS3
Toyo R1R
225 45 15

Jerry has 225 45 15 NT01s on as "streets". I'm not sure I agree with doing that, but they look awesome. :)

I like my R1R's....havn't driven much on them but they've already surprised me with the added grip. Granted I was coming from 205/50 bfg gforces :giggle:

OK, so the XS is out because i want a 225 tire. Has anyone run their RS3s long enough to see how many miles they can get out of them?

Do the R888 come in 225 size? What price are we talking about for the R888?

Star spec is supposed to be an excellent tire in the wet, but gives up a little in the dry. I'm not sure about size or prices on this tire.

One more thing I almost forgot about the NT-01s. They are frigging loud, you will notice on the street. Others can confirm, but I'd bet the R888s are similar. I JUST DROVE the other car with the 205/50-15 Ecsta XS on it today. A great tire, lots of bite, lots of feedback, great steering feel, not at all noisy on the street. Again, probably not enough rubber for high horsepower, but I wouldn't totally discount them on an 8. Fitment with a totally stock fender, even with soft springs would be on the money.

Ben, thanks for the heads-up on the R1R. To me, this or the RS-3 in the 225/45-15 would be the choice. OP, be aware that the 225/45-15 NT-01 on my ATS Superlights, 8 inch +30s would rub with lightish (350/250#) springs in fairly extreme circumstances, like autocross turnarounds and 1.1+G track loading. They will rub really bad on front plastic liners (remove them along with the hardware), and rub some on the lips front and rear if you don't do a roll. Just one more thing to consider.

W

I've DDed NT-01s, they are extreme. Loud, they tramline like no other, but they grip like no other too. I did get ~6k out of them, mostly highway miles but lots of canyon runs, track days, and autox as well. Got about 10k out of my RS2s with similar use. I think RS3s would be a bit better in the rain, though.

For a true DD that sees use in the rain, I'd do RS3s.

How many miles a year? 5K, NT01's for grip, 10k or more RS3, wanna make your 260ish hp feel like 400 XS.

Jake

It's looking more and more like the RS3 is going to be the best compromise between bite, tread wear, and price. I wish the XS came in a 225-15.

Always an advocate for proxxes 4. Cheap, come in a 225 (only 225-50 though), amazing rain performance, great dry performance, and amazing tread life (20,000+ miles including 5 track days). I have many fond memories of my proxxes 4s, I still can't believe there is a faster tire than them. I'm probably going to shit my pants when I actually use my r-comps.

On the street I'm riding on the Dunlop DZ101s's. They're CHEAP. If I to push these things crazily on the street to where I need more grip then I'm doing something illegal. Tracked them before, definitely not a dual purpose tire. Good for broke people like me.

I only have 3K miles on mine and one auto x. That said, they still have the lightly molded in flames and logos in the tread. They can't be more than 1/32" worn.

Don't overlook the R1R (not 888). I picked up a set 2 weeks ago. They're great.

Well no one has mentioned the Yokohama Advan AD08s
I believe they come in 205/50/15. they aren't prohibitively expensive and Tirerack has a $75 rebate on them.

I think the R1R will be a candidate. They seemed to be priced right. onlinetire.com does have the NT01 on sale for $114/tire. What makes a tire "extreme" for the street? A noisy tire is definitely less appealing.

RS3
R1R
NT01 still a contender never mind, not willing to risk rubbing fender issues.

I don't think my rubbing was entirely because I am running an NT01, more it's the overall size of the tire, width and height. Also, it has something to do with the offset, as well. +36mm 6UL will be 6mm less likely to contact fender lips than my +30mm ATS Superlights, in the 8s.

Extreme for the street: not full treaded, or like the NT01, circumferential grooves deeper than radial grooves, quick wear (treadwear rating will give you at least a relative IDEA here), tread not suited to "pumping" water from the sipes, noise, which is big if you are putting in lots of dd miles. Then, not considerations for the street, but still considerations, are things like breakaway characteristics and feedback. An r-comp will not telegraph before breakaway as much as a true street tire. IMO, the Azenis 615 is unparalleled for feedback in the UHPs, but it's not the tire that the more modern designs are as far as ultimate grip.

Indeed....saved my hiney today. :giggle:

Back from dead after GRM tire comparison
 

Just an FYI. Grassroots motorsports did a tire comparison in their recent issue. Those of us sporting small width wheels don't seem to gain much benefit from cramming the rs3 onto it.

Looks like those of us with a wheel width of 7.5" or less might as well run the Kumho XS.

I thought the results were pretty interesting.

I run Nankang NS-1's or something like that on the street. They're like $96 each, and get really good traction in cold weather. They also have a cool tread pattern, and pretty sticky.

howdy, i run potenza re11 205-50-15 25 offset dd on turbo miata with no problem,i had rt-615 & no match to re11,nt01 is good for track days,noisy doest last long,rs3 is good but ill go with direnza star spec insted of rs3 for dd & weekend autox,r1r is for for trackdays,do a research on potenza re-11 good for dd & mild autox,more money but safe on street,i was using kumho 710 last year r-comp and i try re-11 this year, i was surprise.good luck,just pls no matter what happen dont get the rt-615,not enought grip.

Seconded for the RE-11, my only concern is tread life... don't know how long they'll last. But they kick the shit out of the T1Rs I had on there before. Downside for you is biggest 15 they have is 205.

my re-11 has 12,000 miles still look new.i dont drive hard on street on when need it,on i drive hard on autox.

I don't think I've ever suggested anyone run the NT-01 on the street because its too slick when cold, and wears too fast. RS-3 is my vote.

I ran rt615 and re11s back-to-back at a practice autox and it was night and day difference. I'm a big fan of re11s now.

The pic is 205/50/15 on 15x7 for both rt615 and re11. The re11s are really wide for 205s (more like 215s), just something to consider.

http://66.25.13.59/rt615vsre11.jpg

I fucking knew it! I just swapped my 205/45/16 Toyo T1Rs on 16x6.5 to 205/50/15 RE-11s on 15x7 and they just looked wider, bulging from the rims, thought it was an optical illusion with the wider tread blocks on the RE-11.

I can't wait to have Bridgestone money...

I will definitely look at those. Has anyone seen a comparo between the RE11 and the XS?

Pretty sure both the RE-11 and XS were in GRM's tire shootout last year. Too lazy to look at GRM's website right now as I must go eat lunch, but my recollection is that they were very close/competitive to each other. I know a bunch of people get the XS because they are ~$120/set less, then a bunch of people picked up RE-11s when Bridgestone was running a rebate special. What that tells me is that they aren't so different in performance that folks won't be swayed either way by a relatively small amount of money. ;) Go look and see if GRM has the article online. If not, I have it in print somewhere at home.

XS on a wheel under 8 inches because they're cheap and 99% of the performance of the RS3 on a street car.

wide wheels: RS3 unless you're cheap and not competing. then XS again, slightly stretch a la crub loadster.

Don't know what's expensive to you, but I ordered mine from Costco and they were around $120/ea mounted.

^^^^ THIS

Because of

----- THIS -----> For the June 2009 issue. Just got my Grassroot motorsports where they did some Extreme tire testing. Tires were tested in 15 inch sizes on a hond civic.

Here is a summary of times from worst to first.

6th - Falken RT 615 Mean time: 35.302 Sec Quick time 35.125 Sec.
5th - Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec Mean time: 35.209 sec. Quick time 35.061
4th -Toyo Proxes R1R Mean time: 34.522 sec Quick Time 34.452 sec
3rd- Bridgestone RE-01R Mean time: 34.478 sec Quick Time 34.430 sec.
2nd- Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 Mean time: 34.266 Quick time 34.238 sec.
1st - Kumho ECSTA XS Mean time :34.170 Quick Time 34.030 sec.

All tires were shaved to 3/32 nd and test performed on an Autocross set up.

you should keep your subscription up to date. they just retested the XS and RS3 and they were very nearly dead even on a sub 8" wheel.

I'm aware, check post #21. Last years test compares the RE11 against the XS

they just retest them at grm,its on last issue of grm verdict is rs3 did better than xs,615k and star spec.but they are all close time.re11 is more compare to rs3,ill try rs3 next time.

Best R-compound tire that can be used as a street tire hands down is the Toyo RA-1. Twice the streetable tread depth as the NT-01 molded at 8/32 instead of 6/32 rides quieter and smoother.

Unless you’re mounting on at least an 8” wheel a 225 tire will gain you next to nothing over a 205 I believe.

Bob

Bridgestone is having a $70 rebate this month. Picking up my RE-11's for my subie Monday.

I've got 4 track days on RE11s and a shitload of freeway miles (more than I ever put on RS2s or Azenis), and I'm not even at the wear indicator yet. I r plz'd.

Prob buying them again.

Absolutely do not get the nexxen n3000 whatever you do and don't ask me how I know, it's to embarrassing. I'm glad they haven't even been considered. They blow goats by the herd.

Have had NT-01 and RS2.

Don't get the NT-01. They need to be warm to work. If the heat falls off and you take a turn, you'll suddenly find yourself with far less grip.

After that experience, i'll stick with street tires on the street.

None of you bitches have anything on my new tires... 195/50/15 Falken ZE-912's. My last set were 205's, but I wanted the 195's since I felt the 205's were too wide (lol) for my puny 6.5'' wheels. Many the 195's will help me pick up some tossability. I was going to do the RE11's, but I felt the price was too high, and the tread life too short for what is still a daily driven car that sees 30k miles a year or more. Can't afford 2 or 3 sets of those a year at nearly $500 a set. The 912's a damn good all seasons though. Not relevant to this thread though, I think.

How is the ride from the RE11's?

Where have you found the best price?

Costco has them for the same price as tire rack and then you have to add $15 per tire for mounting