BFG g-Force Rival - The new "IT tyre"?

[Lokiel]

FYI for those on the lookout for their next tyres:

BFG has introduced a new "g-Force Rival" tyre that is supposed to "Rival" Hankook RS3s and Toyo R1Rs but has a Uniform Tire Grade Quality (UTQG) of 200 vs 140 for the latter 2 tyres which means that the Rivals will wear better, making them more suitable for everyday driving.

Andy Hollis (Post#18) gave a very favourable and unbiased view here: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=487779&highlight=BFG+Rival

See http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=g-Force+Rival&sidewall=Blackwall&partnum=05WR5GFR&tab=Specs for Tire-Rack specs.

Product Description (from Tire Rack):

The g-Force Rival is BFGoodrich’s Extreme Performance Summer tire developed for sports car, muscle machine and pro-touring car driving enthusiasts who want their tires to turn heads on the street and lower lap times at the track. Created with razor-sharp reflexes, the g-Force Rival is designed to raise the limits by delivering extreme grip that’s extremely predictable. However, like all summer tires, it is not intended to be dríven through snow, on ice or in near-freezing temperatures.

g-Force Rival tires feature a Silica-infused compound molded into asymmetric tread designs that are performance-tuned to match tire width (255mm and narrower sizes feature a 3-rib design, while 265mm and wider sizes use a 4-rib pattern). Large, solid outboard tread blocks and BFGoodrich’s Extreme Tread Edge (ETE) shoulder design wraps the tread compound farther down the sidewalls for predictable feedback and maximum cornering grip from start to finish. Lateral groove draft angles promote consistent performance and wear, while chamfered block edges resist feathering under extreme cornering and braking.

The tire’s internal structure features BFGoodrich’s Performance Racing Core reinforced internal structure that reduces flex to increase steering response. The tread is stabilized by twin steel belts and an Equal TEnsion Containment System (ETEC System) of spirally wrapped nylon to optimize the tire’s contact patch and traction at speed. g-Control sidewall inserts tune the sidewall stiffening to promote steering response.

[16bit]

looks interesting, good find.

[MINX]

Great to have another choice in 225/45/15

[vrmmmpshhh]

They seem really cheap on tirerack. Any indication of pricing in Aus?

[Hjt]

thanks for the find!

[gslender]

Interesting!

G

[project.r.racing]

They seem more of a rival to a KU36 looking at their specs. The RS3s or R1Rs are in a different league.

[Lokiel]

Emilio from 949 Racing posted a pretty good review of these tyres on miataturbo.net so I thought I'd quote it here for those that don't frequent that forum and would like more information from someone who has used them in anger:

04-17-2013, 03:05 AM:

"We had the chance to run the 225/45/15 Rival on Buttonwillow 13CW last Sunday. Car was our 95R street project car. Xida 700/400, 15x9's, 140whp, 2550# (with passengers all day). Ambient was 75~85° with track surface temps of 93~106°. We have run this car with RS3's on several different tracks and weather conditions. Very familiar with min corner speeds, braking points and overall feel of the RS3 on 13CW in particular. No A/B testing done against the RS3's Sunday but some impressions stood out.

Lateral grip
SOTP, the Rival seems to generate about the same peak lateral grip as the RS3. The difference was that the Rival would still generate useful grip when well past optimum slip angle. More like a race tire than the RS3 which prefers small slip angle and loses grip more rapidly with large slip angles. This made the Rival easier to drive and allowed a few "toss and catch" entries into double apex turns that were a touch faster than the slight lift the RS3 required in the same spot. This ability to generate useful grip at large slip angles made them feel more like race tires than any other feature.

Steering
Response and feedback were, like the RS3, very good when the tire was lightly loaded as it would be entering a turn at full throttle. The noticeable difference was under straight line or heavy trail braking where the Rival communicated available grip and slip angle much better than the RS3. The RS3's can get a little numb under heavy trail braking. So unloaded they steered about the same. Transfer weight onto the nose and the Rivals talked more. Overall I would rate the steering response and feedback as very good.

Braking
This is where the Rival is significantly different than the RS3. The RS3 has earned a reputation as a tire with braking that does not quite match is stellar lateral grip. The Rival had noticeable better braking grip and feedback compared to the RS3. Of note is the RS3's characteristic of requiring the driver to transfer weight onto the nose more carefully while the same car/driver on Rivals could reach peak line pressure much sooner without locking.

Temp range
Since we were not conducting A/B testing that day, data collected was minimal. Peak temps were only in the low 170's even after a full session. We did see that the Rivals lap times stayed consistent even after several laps at full speed. This is rare for a street tire. Most street tires have slightly heavier casings and more tread mass than a race tire so they tend to not shed heat as well as a race tire. This typically manifests as the street tire being fastest on it's first hot lap. While there was some drop off late in the session it was less than .6s on a 2:05 course. This is excellent for a full tread tire. The indication here is that the tire sheds excess heat very well, possibly better than most other tires in this category. My guess is that autocrossers with a co-driver will fare better than solo drivers on this tire. We did not run the tire in the morning while it was still cold so I can't comment on cold performance. We ended up with about 35psi hot which compares to 29~34 psi we usually run with R compound tires.

Overall, the RS3 feels like a really fast street tire, having a narrower range of optimum slip angle and weaker braking than a true R compound. The Rival in contrast, felt quite a bit like an NT01 (R compound) with about 5 heat cycles on them. An educated guess is that the 225/45 Rival would be less than 1s slower than a 225/45 NT01 on a ~2:00 road course, everything else being qual. That is just astonishing to this driver. A 200 treadwear (grain of salt) that can nearly keep up with medium compound race tires for a full track session."

See http://www.miataturbo.net/wheels-tires-78/225-45-15-bfg-g-force-rival-70589/ for the thread (Emilio's comment is on Page 2).

[Mr nanotech]

These sound pretty decent and for the price even better. I know this is really not important, but that has to be one of the ugliest tread patterns I've seen on a tyre in a while. Otherwise these seem great.

[Red_Bullet]

Revisiting an old thread, does anybody know if these BF Goodrich G-force Rivals are available in Australia? They sound pretty interesting as a tyre option from the reviews but can't seem to find much on them locally.

[hks_kansei]

Not listed on the Aussie BFG site.

Australia seems to be a bit odd when it comes to tyres, plenty of manufacturers seem to not bother to bring in much of their range.


For example, on the Toyo Australia website their performance range consists of the same T1R, Proxes4, R1R trio that they've had for years.
The US site lists heaps more models (granted, some are distinctly not suited to Australia, like snow tyres etc)


I'm in the market for tyres, and it's a hard time finding something in the 300tw, decent grip, and not too costly trifecta.
Used to be heaps, Proxes4, KU31, etc, but it seems most manufacturers (well, with their Aussie offering) are killing off the middle ground and leaving you with either economy tyres, or borderline semis.