Has anyone seen the recent (October 09) Sports Car magazine, titled Ultimate Street Fighter. Just got it today. There is some conflicting info in regards to the GRM issues. I figure they are based on differing surfaces, the fact that RWD was used vs. FWD, and maybe vehicle weights. GRM used a Honda Civic (ST) while Sports Car used a Mazda RX-8 (STX). The 265/35-18 tires were shaved to 3/32 mounted on 18x9 wheels. The course was Adams Motorsport Park in Riverside, CA, it was set-up to be comparable to a typical Solo course. The article does not call one tire the winner, but says they were after the tire with the fastest lap times, not the highest G's.

Here are the tires test from slowest to fastest:

7. Toyo Proxes R1R- Best Lap: 48.0
6. Kumho Ecsta XS- Best Lap: 47.4
5. Nitto NT05- Best Lap: 47.0
4. Yokohama AD08- Best Lap: 46.8
3. Hankook R-S3- Best Lap: 46.4
2. Bridgestone RE-11- Best Lap: 46.2
1. Dunlop Direzza Star Spec- Best Lap: 46.1

Oh, the GRM article had tested the Kumho XS as the fastest tire in their shoot out. I think that the Nitto NT05 do not even come in MINI friendly sizes. And these test do not factor in wet conditions, noise, nor tread wear, only fastest lap times.

 

Wow the Star Specs beat the RE-11? Impressive. Those Star Specs really are something. Good price for superb tires.

 

Here is the Grassroots Motorsport Results for comparison

 

Yeah, and I bet if you got a third publication you'd get a third set of results.

A few issues I had with the Sportscar tests - they spread testing over three days which would seem to mean more variance in conditions, not less. (They said it was "about 75" the whole time ) I preferred GRM's where they re-tested the first tires to see how much improvement there was because of conditions / familiarity with course. Instead, Sportscar kept running the initial fast tire (RS3) for three days.. I also wonder how they figured out tire pressures, because a lot of dismissals were because of "heat sensitivity." Totally off-base pressures could go a long way towards overheating a tire. And with their test car being just under 2800lbs, and half the tires struggled with that weight?? Seems kinda odd, that's hardly portly in the real world. They were also using data acquisition but didn't share any of the data. I'd much rather have had access to that info than raw times on some random course I'll never run.

 

I believe the R1R was the 225/45-15 in the second comparo. They said the wider width didn't help, but looks like it did gain a few tenths compared to the competition.

The R1R keeps coming up as an "also ran" in these comparos, but they're winning tours and available in some neat sizes (225/45/16) so I think I'm getting a set...

 

Yup sorry my bad, corrected.

Third Set of Results:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=118

 

So, thought I'd add the August 2009 issue of Car & Driver tire test results as well. They set a $140 price limit on a 225/45-17 tire. BMW 328i coupe was the car of choice. This test was done in collaboration with Tire Rack at their facility. A variety of test were conducted in both wet and dry conditions, but I will only post dry autocross lap times.

Here is a summary of times from worst to first:

9th Nitto Invo: 60.5 sec

8th Yokohama S.Drive: 60.3 sec

7th Michelin PS2: 60.1 sec

6th BF Goodrich KDW: 60.1 sec

5th Hankook V12 Evo: 59.8 sec

4th Falken RT-615: 59.8 sec

3rd Bridgestone RE760: 59.6 sec

2nd Dunlop Star Specs: 59.3 sec

1st Kumho XS: 59.0 sec

This test included auto-x laps, sound levels, skid pad, braking in both wet and dry conditions. I omitted one tire from the results, the Ling Long.
C&D rated the cars differently, please see link below for those details.
Here is the website to article:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...mparison_tests

 

Redskunk, I'm wearing 225/45-15 R1R this year, on a 15x7 rim.

I've run twice in the wet and once in the dry.

First at the NER Race Against Leukemia weekend at NHIS (an autocross event) where the car took top pax and the Jeff Gorden Challenge Trophy. Absolutely unheard of. I've been running against the NER SCCA crowd for five years now and I know my rank, and that isn't it.

Second, the next day in the dry where I paxed 22nd out of about 70 and was half a second off a good driver that I somehow beat the previous day. That's more like it.

Third time was today, and a NESHOC event at Devens in MA, with rain falling all day. Against AWD, Porsche, some SCCA regulars and all comers I held FTD for the greater part of the day. Again, unheard of.

My conclusion is that I have stumbled into one hell of a wet setup, but on a dry day the RE11 or even last year's Direzzas beat me.

Go figger.

So if you get a set, mebbe you should pray for rain...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Charlie, nice meeting you yesterday. I'm the other guy with the MINI that worked the corner with you yesterday. I'm hoping I'll meet up with you at another event so I can get a ride along. Nice driving at NESHOC.

 

The pleasure was mine. Thanks for making about 30 trips to fix that Chicago box. I'd be glad to have you as company on a run - I'll keep an eye on the NESHOC schedule. NER SCCA has two events on October also I believe.

 

Ah, more food for thought. OK, I'm pulling the trigger on Kumho XS in 215/45-16 instead ($95/per, can't beat that). My 7.5" wide wheels are still taken and it's arguable whether the wider R1R would be of any benefit on the 7" wide set. Wish I had the choice of Hankook RS3 in 16". This purchase is for teh track, although they'll end up getting autocrossed too I'm sure.