intresting link with rt 615's and tien setup for mx5

[Brad]

Cool, just what I'll have shortly

[StanTheMan]

me...toooooooo

except i'm not sutch a big fan of drifting.

[kula]

25psi?

i would have thought it should be higher for dorift

[adamjp]

What kind of wear are people getting from the RT615s on the street?

I am looking at them for street use only. I do 18k kms a year, mainly around town, but the occasional 3hr drive into the country. How do they handle constant highway speeds?

[Brad]

Adam, sounds like the same driving I do. Very limited use during the week and weekend driving. These are really too new to know what the extended wear will be, however I've had mine for about 4,000kms and I'd say they are about 1/5 worn with 1 track day and 3 very spirited drives up Mt Glorious. I'm running 1.25/1.5deg camber front/rear and 0 toe.

With presures I ran 32psi hot at the trackday and this seemed to be the best. I run 32 cold on the street.

On the highway they are fine. Not the quietest, but much better than the RS's or RT215's. Provided your alignment is set properly for street use and they are rotated you should get 25,000kms out of them.

For me they are the perfect balance of excellent grip, reasonable wear, wet weather preformance, price and track day use all in the one tyre. They really are the jack of all trades for someone who doesn't want to be swapping rims every weekend, nor have a place to store any.

[smiles]

I don't think they'd be much (or any) better in the longevity department than the outgoing RT215's so I doubt you'd get anything more than 15 000 kms out of them. Unless you're like me and run them until they resemble slicks!

[adamjp]

Thankyou to those who replied.

I got 25k kms out of my last 17" tyres and they had a treadwear rating of 220. The main reason they had to come off was that I had an overly agressive camber set on the rears and they wore on the inside edges. Probably could have got 30k kms with a less agressive camber setup.

I drive the car every day, to and from work. Canberra is well suited to sports car driving and I am looking for some tyres to suit.

From what I have seen I should get 20k kms out of them, but they will be scrap when they come off. My main concerns are wet weather performance and heat at continuous highway speeds.

[StanTheMan]

wet traction on the RT 215 is very good. The 615 is supposed to be better. Now here is a contradiction. Don't hit any puddle....or you'll be aquaplaning very easilie. I've personally never experienced this. I've had these tyres along Putty rd & the National park in sydneys south in torrential rain. Going reasonably hard for the conditions. Never had a problem. However I keep reading & hearing about this aqua planing issues.

on the track.....my opinion is the 615's leave most tyres for dead in the wet grip department. does not get a chance to overheat ( Wakefield in this case)


in the dry.....(I'm treading very carefull here.) For a road tyre it should be sensational. cant imagine them getting too hot on free way.....Putty rd has plenty of long streches with a 100km speed limit. On the rd you will need 2 or 3 corners to warm them up. unlikely to overheat them unless your are going absolute apeshit.


For a track tyre it sounds like its good for a few laps.....then meltdown occurs.

my experience is with the 215 however the 615 is supposed to be just slightly better in every department. But I paid $185 for my 215's I'lll be paying $220 for the new 615's which are only marginally better in all the departments. This is why all the mags suggest not to rush out & get these tyres.....but to use the old ones 1st.

I'll be getting pretty close to 15k km out of mine but they'll be absolutely thrashed......
hope that helps.

[smiles]

Well said Stan.
The 215's (and no doubt the 615's) are an excellent tyre for track and road use. But the thing to keep in mind is that their actual level of grip isn't really greater than other good road tyres. The difference is they usually hold up better and you can't beat them on price. A similar sized top spec Michelin or Pirelli is close to twice the price, so bang for buck it's a no brainer.

I've seen at a skidpan how easy 215's can be susceptible to aquaplanning, each car that was running them thru standing water lost all control, it was easy to see it was due to the tyre. The other thing is because you have grippy tyres you tend to push that little bit harder everywhere so you wear them out quicker and as they get low they get worse in the wet. This applies to any tyre but with such an aggresive tread design the Azenis aren't the rain masters!

Highway speeds aren't an issue, constant speed doesn't overly heat the tyre compared with spirited cornering.
I think they're better suited to someone who does more aggresive drving, than for someone looking for a city driver.

[adamjp]

To clarify, I am considering these tyres for my stock rims 185/60-14.

It is getting hard to find high performance rubber with stiff sidewalls. I think the 615 may be suitable.

In 15" and bigger sizes, performance tyres are somewhat more plentiful.

[Brad]

I've had no issues with my 615's aquaplaning yet, though we are in a little bit of a drought up here in Brisbane and we haven't seen a big deluge in years. They have substantially more water pumping ability over the 215's which is clear when you look at the longitudinal groves and the shorter path to get tot he outside of the tyre.

615's


215's




The 14's are 195/60/14 BTW.