Petitioning Hankook for 255/40R15 RS3
 

Not sure how much interest their will be for this here (I hope tons), but I figured I would go ahead and share it:

Hey guys, so I know many of us have been itching for larger tires to put on our 15x10s and 15x9s. Bobby and I are starting a petition/community effort to convince manufacturers that making these tires will have a market.

Specifically we are aiming to get Hankook to make a 255/40R15 Ventus RS3. We have written up a template e-mail, but we ENCOURAGE you to write your own e-mail with any unique ideas of why this tire is good that may not be included in the template. Lastly, we would really appreciate it if you voice your support in the thread, which will easily allow us to keep rough estimates of people's interest.

Website:
http://www.hankooktireusa.com/techbo...Num=3&subNum=4
Template:

There is no doubt the 225/45/15 RS-3 has become a very popular tire for those who need a great sticky tire for smaller cars. It is thought of as the fastest tire we currently have at our disposal without full blown race tires. With the huge popularity of this tire, has the company thought of creating wider versions?

The 225/45/15 is already very competitive with tires even outside of its class, but it is too small for higher HP applications. A 245/40/15, 255/40/15, or 275/35/15 could be an awesome tire for the powerful small cars or just small cars that are looking for the ultimate in grip while still having decent tread life.

Avon already makes a 245/40/15 which is stock on the caterham, but it is a rather poor choice in tire. They don't even sell them in the US. Hoosier makes 245/40/15, 255/40/15, and 275/35/15 in the a6 and r6 compound. These are quite popular competition tires, but a lot of these cars are street cars too. Many v8 swaps or turbo cars just dont have a sticky tire option for the street.

Cars that could benefit from wider 15" RS-3s:

Mini cooper
Miata
Mx5
Neon
Focus
Caterham
Ae86
180sx
Older porches
Civic
Integra
Sentra
MR2
etc...

Many wheel companies are now producing wider 15" wheels now. 15x9-15x10 wheels are readily available off the shelf from companies like Rota, XXR, 949racing, as well as any of the custom wheel producers. In custom wheels many companies support wheel sizes up to 15x12 for barely a premium over their 15x7-15x8 counterparts.

I hope that your company can help make many enthusiasts faster and safer with a larger 15" tire. Our small cars are traction limited. We should change that.

I personally,would love to see this! Count me for a trial set.

Me too! I'll take a set for mini and miata.

make sure to send them an e-mail! As we get more people on forums to respond to these thread, we hope to links out to Hankook to see the support this idea has. Hence why I encourage you guys to post a support message if you like this idea!

This is a good idea.

Trying to help here:
You should definitely proofread what you have there before pressing send or they will never take you seriously. There are misspellings, cars that don't exist by those names being referred to, and cars that are omitted entirely that would be a possible match. I would even include year model ranges if you wanted to gain credibility for the proposition. If you are going to do it, do it well.

Sent

thanks for the suggestion Steve, I didn't write the Template but I would like to get your help on this. I will PM you about it and perhaps you can help me write up a more professional one.

This and inaccurate information. Hoosier does not make a 245/40/15 or 255/40/15 in A6 or R6. They do make the 275/35/15 in both and a 245/50/15 in R6 only.

Are you guys all prepared to run 30+mm flares front and rear to run a 255/40-15 on a Miata? Getting the 245/580s on the car was not even remotely plug&play.

That size tire wont fit on a 15x9 with roll?

225s require front/rear roll and they polish the shock towers. 255s will require a big pull front/rear, if they fit at all.

Here's the 245/580 on a 15x9:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1325207182

If they'd produce a "street" tire that needs them, yes.

Exactly my point Andrew, they will fit on 9's. Just because a 225 is faster on a 9 and a 245 is faster on a 10 doesn't mean you HAVE to have a 10. A 245 is faster than a 225 on a 9 is my guess.

I am on an NB, If I can barely fit 225/45 with a roll on a x9, then I am pretty sure I can get 255/40 with a roll and a pull. If not, then **** yes I will flare the car.

From what I know through work, I believe Toyo has the capabilities to do this right now. They have a segmented mold machine that they build certain lines of tires in. I believe they can simply add a spacer into the 225/45/15 mold to make a wider version tire. Theoretically, they could take their 225/45/15 r1r mold, put r888 tread rubber and a spacer or two in and rock and roll.
At least, thats how it was presented to me in a slideshow by toyo regional people.

Who are you talking to? I never said anything about wheel width. I am talking about the tire itself interfering with the shock tower and the fender, regardless of what you mount it on. The pic I posted is a 245/580 Hoosier on a 9" 6UL, and it fouls the fender big time. That's not even full bump, either.

I'm not dissuading you guys, I would LOVE to see a 255mm RS3 become available. Just making sure you all understand what's necessary to fit them.

Thanks for the support and just to follow up with everyone's suggetions on the template, I am working on a new one with Steve. I didn't write this one, and did not mean for it to sound like a joke or anything. expect an update to it by tomorrow night.

Subbed for the new template.

I'd be more worried about their manufacturing capacity, this needs big improvement. They couldn't supply 225/45/15 RS3s for shit. Tirerack said they were getting 8 tires at a time, and shipping them out soon as they got them.

I run 275 A6s on 15x9s and don't have more than the roll and pull that a regular fender roller offers, probably depends a lot on how low you go... After buying savington's old Koni's and GCs, I can tell you I prefer to have the car quite a bit higher off the ground he does :)

When I did the 245/580 fitment I took the spring out of the coilover, then compressed the suspension until the bumpstop started to compress/tire touched the top of the fender (I do get that level of compression on track, as evidenced by the tire marks inside the fender). It is entirely possible my standards for clearance are higher than others, but IMO you need full bump travel with no fender contact to say it fits.

Ian, what does your car weigh? When I last used those shocks, Theseus was ~2030lbs, so if your car is heavier you'll see a bit of drop. I did run the car fairly low, though, since those shocks are very short on droop travel.

My car is basically stock weight.. minus ac/ps + turbo and ebay radiator. Very valid point about bump clearance. We found out the hard way that the flanges for the bumper to fender need to be bent back some too. We're on the bump stops w/ the 1.4gs these tires generate on our local crappy surface... Need to get some real bump stops in there, as we occasionally get bad behavior from the instantaneously infinite spring rates. Surprisingly we don't get any rubbing with almost no bump stop though.

(edit attached a couple pics, showing 275 a6s on TR 15x9s, jacked up probably .25 to .5 inch from savington height)

I think there is a small market for this but the tire make s sense. Some of the other cars listed can fit a larger tire like this without fender modification possibly needed on the miata. I have been sending dunlop emails like this for a while trying to petition for a 225/45/15 star spec and haven't heard back from them once. Maybe I need to get something like this going.

I'm in for these....the wider the better. ESP with the SCCA making the "street tire" classes more competitive. The ONLY tire I can run right now is the 275/35/15 A6. A same sized tire in a RS3 or R1R would get all my business.....ESPECIALLY if they started offering a contingency.

If only there was an SSM equivalent street tire class :(

Message sent. I plan on buying a set of RS-3's this spring and I'd love if they could bring a larget size to market by that time.

+1. It would be awesome to see at least a 245 street tire but we have been dealing wih supply issues for years on 225s. I just cant see them expanding options when they cant meet current demands.

But oh there is

http://www.nationalstreettirechallenge.com/

Speculating is great, but its not going to get you the tire you want. If they contact us and tell us "hey, we can't make it because we can't meet the demand already" then fine, we will move on to another manufacturer. Otherwise, I think this should continue. I am waiting for Steve to respond before I post up the new template, I will give him a couple of hours.

That was my first thought as well. It does not bode well to mis-spell "Porsche" in such a context.

Working...

I'm tired of adjusting it. You guys run with it awhile. I'm passing the baton...

Soo Il Lee, President & CEO
Hankook Tire America Corp.
1450 Valley Road
Wayne, NJ 07470

Dear Sir,

Hankook Tire is very obviously a market-driven company dedicated to its loyal consumers. And there is no doubt that the Hankook Ventus RS-3 has become a popular tire among car enthusiasts, performance oriented drivers, open track day participants, and autocross competitors. Particularly in the 225/45R15 sizing, few others can compare. It has become known among many as the best choice in performance street and occasional track day tires for smaller sporty cars.

As you may know, many wheel manufacturers are now producing 15x9 and 15x10 wheels for the booming performance aftermarket. These new wheels are feeding the ever increasing numbers of enthusiasts that are constantly improving their street cars and taking part in open road course track days on major raceways like Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, or Sebring Raceway. But the tires currently available to the drivers in 235-255mm are track-only or DOT-legal slicks made by manufacturers like Hoosier and Continental and not true dual duty tires like the Hankook Ventus RS-3 (Hankook’s Ventus Z214 competition tire only comes in sizes up to 225/45/R15). This has created a quandary for people using 15x7 and 15x8 wheels who want to move up to the larger wheel and tire combinations, but do not want to leave the Ventus RS-3’s streetable use or longevity behind. Many sadly must use a smaller tire on a narrower wheel for the street and a pure race tire on a wider wheel on the track, leaving them with ill-fitting and less than optimal street wheel and tire combination. This also makes it necessary to bring the extra wheels and tires to the track to switch every track day, and then they must be switched back to drive home.

Many drivers have expressed on various car enthusiast forums, the desire for an aggressive, streetable, dual duty tire like the venerable Hankook Ventus RS-3 in a size that would complement the many 15x9 and 15x10 wheels readily available to them. Please consider making such a tire available to enthusiasts who wish to consume these tires regularly. What is particularly desired is a Ventus RS-3 tire in the 245/40 or 255/40 range of sizes to make full use of the 9 and 10 inch wide wheels. While there is a modest selection of R-compound tires available from other tire manufacturers in the 235-255mm range, there is still no maximum performance street compound tire available.

Having surveyed among drivers at open track days, autocross events and on several enthusiast forums, here is a partial list of cars that could benefit from a RS-3 of this size:

Acura Integra (1985-2002)
Chevrolet Camaro (1967-1992)
Chevrolet Corvette (1962-1982)
Dodge Neon/Neon ACR (1995-2005)
Ford Focus/Focus SVT (1998-present)
Ford Mustang (1964-2004)
Honda Civic (1984-2005)
Lotus 7, Super 7/Caterham/Birkin/Locost (1960-present)
Mazda 323/323GTX (1985-1989)
Mazda Miata (1990-2005)
Mazda Protégé (1989-1994)
Mazda RX7 (1979-1991)
Mini Cooper/CooperS (2001-present)
Nissan 200sx (1994-1998)
Nissan 240sx (1989-1998)
Nissan 240z/260z/280z/280zx/300zx (1969-1989)
Nissan Sentra/Sentra SE-R (1982-present)
Porsche 911/911s/911sc/911 Turbo (1965-1989)
Porsche 914 (1969-1976)
Porsche 924/924s/924 Turbo (1976-1982)
Porsche 944/944s/944 Turbo (1982-1991)
Toyota Celica (1971-2005)
Toyota Corolla (1983-1987) (Often called the AE86)
Toyota MR2/MR Spyder (1984-2007)

This is but a partial list generated by talk among drivers regarding their desires and needs. We are hopeful that Hankook will grace us with a Ventus RS-3 that fills this void in the marketplace. We will be forever grateful.

With humble regards,

XXXX





cc: Kim Hyun-Kyung, Vice-President of Public Relations

We need to change the tire size to 255/40 or 245/40

Dooo eeeet!

Edit: Dundidit.

Very well written letter. I will cross post onto a few other forums I am on.

Thanks, most of the credit goes to Steve. He spent the time researching model years and using big english words that I could only hope to learn when I am his age ;)

Just glad people are interested and willing to put forth effort. Let me know if they contact you with any information btw, it would be nice if they say "yes" or "No" so we know if we need to move on to another manufacturer.

This may or may not mean anything but...:

Aww, shucks! 'Twernt nothin'.

Wait, was that an old guy joke in there?

of course not! :giggle:

totally willing to crack the paint on all my fenders pulling the hell out of them for some 255s.

just sent my letter

Thanks Lukas!

So you would choose to run an same sized RS3 or R1R over an A6?

you should put this on change.org and watch it really grow

Couldnt find a better spot to put this:

Quote from Danny George Racing on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/dannygeorgeracing

"If you or anyone you know wants a wider then 225 15" tire you need to like and comment on this. I'm pushing Hankook hard to take that risk. RS-3 245/40/15?? It can be done. What do you race and do you agree this is a beneficial size? These would also fit nicely on those new 15x10 wheels we are working on "

FYI: He is working with STR(china wheel manufacturer) and Hankook as drifting sponsors. He wants the 245 rs3 just as much as we do.

Liked, commented. Hankook guy in the thread, that's hopeful.