thoughts on Hankook RS3?

[Alex 2550]

looks like I may need to go back to 15"

i think they are the best size on our cars not just looks but tyre selection and fitting brakes ect.
i was surprised at how sensitive our cars are to sprung weight, i got SSW peaks that were very light but not as light as RPF1's for example but a fraction of the cost, same look but in a bead blasted matt bronze. i have it written down the weight but they are an inch wider than the NB8a wheels i had on the car but dont quote me 500-600gr per rim lighter and you can feel it.
one day i will get a set of RPFs but for now they do the job.
Wilwood front calipers shave a massive amount of sprung weight off the car im sure i read 2KG or something crazy and im sure that would be felt......maybe one day lol.

[Alex 2550]

hi guys,
thanks for all the replies, at the moment i don't think i would get the use out of a full R-spec and it would be a bit of a "hard parker" exercise.
i had on my AW11 supercharged MR2 a falken s spec for street and Rspec for track and i cant remember the name but they were awesome.
i got a deal from the Falken rep that gave me an awesome deal on both sets but i had to sticker the car, people who regularly went to wakefield around 06-08 may remember it as it had the big Falken logo on the front splitter, was white and loud as anything and now is in NZ.
i have dríven on the Nankang Rspecs in a mate pursuit ute and they had great grip when warm but not a great tyre cold, also the weight and torque of that car destroyed them pretty quickly.
the RS3 seems like it will be the choice of tyre for me, at the end of the day im still getting to know the MX and im not yet at the point of needing more from the tyres, the RS3 probably has more potential on the car than what i have behind the wheel.
i think these are great discussions to have and yes tyre convo's can be a COW the fact is with ever changing tyres designs, facts and info change so threads like this are worth while for those that use the search feature.
thanks again guys.

[Luke]

RS3's are fast and cheap is the short form of my answer.

Bridgestone supposedly make a better tyre in this class of aggressive dry weather oriented road tyre, the RE71R. There are 2 big problems with them. 1, you have to order them in Australia and wait for delivery from overseas and 2, you will be shocked once you see the price they quote you.
I could start another flame war regarding Yokohama AD08R's not being as fast as RS3's, or just say look at Gurans 3rd post. He has tried a few tyres out on the same standard car and pushes the tyres to the absolute edge. They were slower than RS3's and Kumho KU36 on his standard NC at various tracks. I will be very interested to see what he chooses next as I know his RS3's are getting towards end of life.
AD008R's are a better road tyre though, but for the price you pay extra, you may as well have a proper set of road tyres RE003, PS4 etc and a dedicated track tyre NT01, AR1 etc.

Yes you are right, RS-3s have plenty of potential. I like your attitude regarding R-Specs. There are a lot of people out there who do buy R-Specs because they believe their S-Spec tyres is what it making them slow without actually pushing them hard to begin with. It is a lot easier to push a lower grip tyre hard than an R-Spec. Incidents go wrong a lot quicker with an R-spec as well.

Regarding what I have found having owned 3 sets of RS-3s.
They are definitely a "S Spec" tyre at 200 tread wear and are marketed as a road tyre by Hankook. A lot of chains tyres places can get them in.
They do make some road noise, due to the aggressive tread pattern. They are not as bad as Kumho KU36 were and no where near the crap NVH levels of any proper R-Spec.
They do work surprisingly well in the wet. As with any tyre as they wear down their wet capabilities reduce.
They were awesome in Tasmania on a drenched Baskerville Track as well as the country roads.
I've done a 1'12.02 in a standard NC around Wakefield Park on them for reference of track performance.
They also wear pretty evenly once you factor in the standard NC's body roll. Just flip them once at about the half wear point and they last a fair bit of time.
On KU36 I did high 12's and had very uneven wear as per Guran as well. Not sure how he managed 1'12.4's on those. On OEM Michelin Primacy's at 5 years old I managed 1'13.78.

I previously also had 225/45/15 RS-3s on my SE. I did 1'10.2 on them around Wakefield.
For comparison I did 1.09.2 on Nitto NT01's and Yokohama A050's on the same rims, both are proper R-Specs. I'm hoping to better that Yokohama A050 time next weekend as it was disappointing considering they were almost double the price and far softer rubber compared to the Nittos.

I actually run a set of 205/45/16 Bridgestone RE003's on my SE as well for Motorkhanas and Marulan driver training days.
They are definitely a superior road tyre to the RS-3, but not as good at being a dry track tyre.
They are really quiet even with a lot of wear on them.
They need heavy rain and very high speed before aqua planning.
They are surprisingly good around a dry track. Not such a surprise considering they have soft rubber reflected by the 220 Tread wear rating.
They have more sidewall flex which can be seen in shoulder wear on the tyre compared to RS-3s. This gives them a much more comfortable ride on the road.
They make a good wet weather track tyre. I loved them last year at SMSP North in Monsoonal conditions. I was doing the same times as other cars with full wet race tyres. Although there may be a bit of madness from my side contributing to that.
Plus regular 4 for the price of 3 deals make them a bargain. These or Michelin PS4's will be my next road tyre for my other cars as well.