No real controlled testing but we did finally run our 225/45/15's on a dry track at ACS last weekend. Not many laps but they felt good. Hard to say anything meaningful about grip levels. They seemed to tolerate heat well. They steer nice, better than Rivals. Despite being narrow compared to the other 225's, they stopped really well and had good feedback both under braking and max slip angle cornering. No adverse wear observed. Again, not a thorough evaluation at all, just some small observations based on a session or two goofing around on track.

Hey Emillio. I was just curious what kinda lap times do you guys usually run there?

In what car?

Which ever car you ran the V720s on.

Just curious where my personal abilities/car stand within the realm of people who can really drive and also might be useful for others to have an idea what kinda times the tires can do there.

Meaningless without car specs and weather. Give me your car specs and I'll give you a target for ACS

Year chassis
whp
rev limiter
5 or 6 spd
diff ratio
diff type
wheel width & offset
shocks
spring rates
sway bar diameters
alignment

Year chassis ('04 MSM)
whp (200WHP)
rev limiter (7500)
5 or 6 spd (6SPD)
diff ratio (3.28)
diff type (Getrag) (Clutch type I think)
wheel width & offset (Your 15x8s)
shocks (Stock MSM Bilsteins)
spring rates (400F/350R)
sway bar diameters (Stock MSM)
alignment (I think -1.5 all the way around.)

Emilio, I'm going to assume you didn't experience anything similar to the delamination posted in the rx8 thread. And I know you probably didn't test them on the street. But any insight on longevity? Currently trying to decide between zII*s and these and the zII*s are known for their long lasting wear.

Assuming the same V720 on the same day/weather I ran and your car weighing about 2400# and the brakes don't fade, I think I could do a 1:55 or so in your car. You sure 3.28 is the right diff? Doesn't sound right.

You think I wouldn't mention it if they had fallen apart? No idea on wear rates, sorry. They seem soft, dunno.

Judging by how they looked on a local FRS after a couple events they'll wear faster than the ZII*S

Spent the day on the 720's yesterday on the ND. 245 tire on 17x9. 80* F ambient, surface temp ~105* F

We did this twice: Three sessions/drivers back to back, close to 60 minutes of straight use, with just two 4-5 minute gaps of cool-down while we swapped drivers. The tires felt solid throughout with just a bit of a fall-off if you overdrove them for several laps, but bring slip angles back in check and the tires were good just half a lap later. Never had a point where they got greasy and needed a substantial cool-down.

Sean also did two 20min sessions separately, so we put 8 total sessions on the tires.

Rear:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1456682631

Front Right - we ran CCW, so this was the corner that took the most abuse. Overall normal wear except, and it's hard to see, but the center block was worn noticeably more on the outer half than the inner half. The Front Left tire did not show the same wear:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1456682631

No back to back testing with other tires so all I can say is they feel sticky. Probably not RE71R level, but quick. Very strong in braking, which is nice to see in a "street" tire. They don't talk to you much, with just a bit of a howl if you're full-on sliding. Predictable when slipping though.

I'm glad I got the rc1s instead.

The wear shown on the V720's is about typical for the "special" 200tw's. RE71-R's and Rival-S will feather like that when run hard from full tread, even with lots camber.

I've been reading some good and bad things about these tires.

Sav has me worried with -
I just need a tire that will last a whole year of occasional street/mountain driving (2000 miles) and maybe 6-12 HPDE sessions for fun/ride alongs/downpour events.

Would I be better off with the 245/40/15 VR-1 on my 15x9s for the tires relatively non-competition purposes?

IMO, for NBs, the VR-1 should be a no-brainer. Similar speed potential to the 225 RivalS and far better life expectancy. For NAs, it's more of a toss-up, since you have to hammer on the car to get the 245/10" combo under it.

My old car was so loud I never noticed the noise. Now that I put them on a stock miata they howl like a mud terrain tire.

Despite the tread separation reviews I picked up a set in 225/45-15. I needed a 200TW tire for a regional time attack/fast auto-x series, so they won't see the prolonged heat that seems to plague them, just a bunch of repeated short bursts. I guess time will tell on the durability. I'll be putting some mountain roads under them, and maybe an open lapping day or two as well.

Pics below are mounted on 15x8 Kosei K4R, comparison pic is 205/50-15 Federal 595RS-R on 15x7. I really like the Fed's but the treadwear is marked 140 so they weren't legal for the series. First race is this weekend so I'll see how they feel.

Can confirm the noise, they are by far the loudest tire I've ever had on this car.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459570251

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459570251

This is from some friends' of mine Lemons car,the V6 Geo at around 2200lbs wet 180-200hp I believe.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462116200

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462116200

Looks like they flat spotted it pretty bad a couple of times, not sure that's the fault of the tire

I just see wear. No immediate indication of a flaw in the tire itself. I'm going to guess the Metro had perhaps less that optimized damping, roll stiffness, camber control, etc.

That's what I see too, and in fact, the center rib which is the spot really under scrutiny for this tire looks OK.

would you say that tire needs a camber adjustment (more or less, not sure which side was the inside)

A Saturn ran those and wore to the cords in the middle, not as bad as the picture but kind of expected for a soft tire being ran for 9 hours on track.

Just an update on my experience w/ the 225/45/15 v720s. They feel good on track but I dont have any back to back data where the car was setup the same or on this same size, so I can't give a direct comparison... But heres how they look after 4 events, one of which was only 3 sessions, the others being 4-6 20 min sessions. I diagonally rotated them after each event (but forgot to alternate front to back rotations), camber is -2.6f/-2.3r, ran at 25psi hot.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1d288b2b52.jpg


LR

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3fa221e602.jpg

RR

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c8f20d7a7f.jpg

LF

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0b60b3919e.jpg

RF

Hard to see maybe, but the rf and lr tires are definitely doing something odd in the center rib. I started out running these at 35psi hot, but was only getting wear marks on a very small contact patch, and they felt odd under cornering like you were rolling over on them as if they had a rounded cross section in contact with the pavement... gradually aired down to 25psi and contact went all the way out to corners where you'd expect and handling felt normal.

These are 225/45 on a 15x9 wheel btw, on a 2340 lb car w/ driver, making approx 180whp.

Fellow instructor at the local BMWCCA autocross was running these and they failed on him. These tires only had one track day on them and a handful of autocrosses.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8652/2...bc25b5af_c.jpg

Update:
after another 4 session track day...
All 4 tires now showing those skits in the center rib, and 1 of them looking pretty bad.https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9da59d9245.jpg

Massive bump to this thread, but it looks like I lost that center section of my thread everyone else seems to be losing. The tires were at the end of their life anyway, but this was with 100% street driving. Nothing on the track and they still fell apart.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a600637e9e.jpg

I was thinking about running these on my miata this summer but may reconsider after seeing some of this carnage. Hancook RS4 is roughly the same price and should last longer. How many street miles were people seeing from these?

Highly recommend the RS4, not sure about street miles but we beat the crap out of them in enduros and they maintain grip and wear like iron

...not many street miles outside of trackdays, but still, even that mileage wasn't much. I'm not getting them again. Probably try the rs4 myself next.