Track Tyre Mega Review

[Luke]

I though I would put up my comparison of the many track tyres I have run over the last few years.
I'm writing this because of the mythical AR1's that are being over hyped by many I have talked to out at the track. Tried them and not impressed. Read on.

To keep this fair and even, I have picked 2015 until now as the car in question has not changed significantly in that time. To summarise:
2015 2004 SE With 2.5" Exhaust, Intercooler, MBC, Tein Street Flex Coilovers, no rear swaybar.
2016 Added BD Roll bar, so 20kg in weight but definitely stiffer and more rear end traction.
2017 Bush nightmares!!! http://www.mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=75429&hilit=bush. Sorted by the end of the year.
2018 Swaybar changes. 24mm Whiteline front to replace factory 23mm set on soft. Then Set to stiff with 11m rear added in.

All the tyres were mounted to the same Buddy club 15x8 +32 rims except the Federals which are on Advanti Storm 15x8 +25.
All tyres I bought as new stock except the last 2.
All are in order of time.

Hankook RS3 225/45/15 (2015) 200TW Came with the rims brand new. But price was around $700 back then
Nitto NT01 225/45/15 (2016) 100TW Price: $716.
Yokohama A050 215/50/15 (2017) Also had 2 replacement 205/50/15 after killing 2, 215's. (No dot codes only E Codes so no TW) Medium Compound Price: $1460 Additional $100 for 2 used less ~ 50% worn tyres.
Nankang AR1 225/45/15 (2018) 100TW Price: $820
Kumho V70A 225/45/15 (2018, old warehouse stock, 2016 manufacture, not used) 50TW Medium compound. Price: $676. New ones are much the same price as Yokohamas!!!
Federal RSRR 205/50/15 (2018, bought used with ~ 50% left, 2016 manufacturer) 140TW Came with rims. New can get 4 for $530!!!


So to start with the controversial part, track times.

Wakefield Park.
RS3: 1'10.2
NT01: 1'09.2
A050: 1'08.5
AR1: 1'09.8

SMSP GP
RS3: 1'50.5
NT01: 1'49.9
A050: 1'49.0
AR1: 1'51.9 (Warm day, and my car does not perform in heat, but still slower than when I ran NT01's or A050s in the heat suspect 1'50.5 may have been possible on a cooler day based on data I have.)

SMSP South
RS3: 1'04.6
NT01: 1'03.7
A050: 1'03.6 (I did this with literally no front lower control arm bushings and delamintaing rears! So faster would have been possible)
AR1: 1'04.4
V70A: 1'03.4
RSRR: 1'04.8 (ran same day s the V70A's)

SMSP North
RS3: 1'14.4
NT01: 1'25.0 (VERY WET!!!)
A050: 1'14.0
AR1: 1'14.5

Tyre life
Hankook RS3. Somewhere around 12 rounds from memory. Still had life left when I scrapped them but were heat cycled.
Nitto NT01: 7 Rounds. Had 1 more left. but was forced to scrap them because NSW Supesprints banned them. Last round on them felt heat cycled.
Yokohama A050. 2 tyres lasted 4 rounds. The other 2 last 6 rounds. All 4 delaminated at the last event I used them at. Had grip until the end. They are a very soft compound compared to anything else.
Nankang AR1. 6 rounds. Flat spotted all 4 on the last one. Could have got 7 rounds. probably worth 8 rounds as I got more laps than usual at 2 events. I could not get them to wear evenly. The outer 30mm of tyre would have tread, then the next 30mm would wear then the rest would be even. Like the tyres were folding on themselves. The flat spotting revealed why. There is a join in the carcass at that point.
Kumho V70A, 1 so far, will find out I guess.
Federal RSRR, already used so no data.


My car is road registered and I drive it to the tracks so here are my thoughts on road use.
Hankook RS3: Best road tyre of the lot which should be no surprise, pretty quiet, comfy sidewalls. Really decent in the wet. As they got heat cycled towards the end of their life, they started lacking grip when cold. I have RS4's on the ND. They have gone more racey then the RS3, so noiser, stiffer and less good in the wet.
Nitto NT01: Quiet and smooth for a R-Spec so ok to drive around on. Mine worked pretty good in the wet, but also had the side grooves grooved to same level as circumferal grooves.
Yokohama A050. Noisier than NT01. Quieter than AR1 or Toyo R888(Not in performance comparison as the car was to different at that point). Never run in wet. Harsh ride and you can feel the tread pattern through the steering wheel.
Nankang AR1. Never again!!! Super noisy, you can feel the tread pattern pulsating through the wheel. They sound like 4WD muddies at speed. Never ran them in the wet and from what i have seen it is a good thing I didn't have the chance to.
Kumho V70A: 2nd best road tyre of the lot as long as it is dry. They even look like road tyres. Really quiet. Really smooth. Wet performance based on a set I had many years ago was woeful though.
Federal RSRR. Very Noisy for what is more of a high end performance road tyre. You can feel the tread pattern through every rotation. Have not dríven in the wet on the road, but they felt good on a wet skid pan. At the price these are, I would say livable if you don't want to go full R-Specs and don't want to pay the extra dollars for RS4's, AD08R's etc. Believe later ones are 200TW so could be used in club classes requiring road tyres.

[rossint]

My only surprise from your results is how well the RS3's stood up against the semis. A1rs were as I expected from my limited experience with them.
Do you have any observations on how quickly the tyres come up to temp and how quickly they go off within a session?
My experience with NT01s was they just keep getting faster until you wear them out. Next set of tyres which I've yet to run is A050s.

[Lokiel]

Thanks for posting this info, all data and user-opinions are useful.

When assessing tyres, don't put too much faith in the TW numbers unless they're radically diffiferent, they're NOT regulated.

eg. The RS3s originally came out rated as TW 140 but subsequently were re-classified as TW 200, a 43% increase (I think that was a marketing thing when a competitor announced that their similar tyre was TW 200 so buyers bought them instead, thinking they'd get a few more track sessions out of them).

[Luke]

I only ever do sprints so my sessions are always short. Most are between 5-10 minutes. I'm sure I'd cook them if I went longer as I am not very kind to tyres.
I have not had any issues with getting any of the tyres up to temp. The out lap is for that. I've watched so many people dawdle on the out lap at sprints then they have no grip on their 1st timed lap.
Generally there is between 4-6 timed laps depending on the track.
I have had fastest laps on all the tyres listed on various laps through a session.
If its a warmer day I generally do the best on lap 1 to 2. Then the car is to hot to run and drops power on the 3rd lap. Standard SE ECU rubbish.
Hence why I normally do fastest laps in Session 1 or 2 as the morning is cooler.

[Luke]

Thanks for posting this info, all data and user-opinions are useful.

When assessing tyres, don't put too much faith in the TW numbers unless they're radically diffiferent, they're NOT regulated.

eg. The RS3s originally came out rated as TW 140 but subsequently were re-classified as TW 200, a 43% increase (I think that was a marketing thing when a competitor announced that their similar tyre was TW 200 so buyers bought them instead, thinking they'd get a few more track sessions out of them).

Yep a lot of tyres reclassified in 2014 as 200TW as in the US they changed a lot of Street Class's from minimum 140 to 200TW tyres.

[Custardtart]

I’m also surprised how good the RS3’s were! Your times for the NT01 and AR1 reflects my experience.

[Luke]

My only surprise from your results is how well the RS3's stood up against the semis.

I’m also surprised how good the RS3’s were! Your times for the NT01 and AR1 reflects my experience.

And RS4's are quicker still from what I have seen.
Unfortunately I did not run them back to back on the stock NC but Bryan has and has gone a bit quicker with them.

It has also been shown my Michael over here that they are quicker than AR1's on the same day in his stock NB8B.

For reference on the weekend at South Circuit.
My Stock ND on RS4's 1'05.438 Which was also the 5th fastest car on the day.
Bryans Stock NC on RS4's 1'05.908 Although I did a 1'05.902 at South circuit on RS3's in my Dad's standard NC last year.

There is a driving requirement to be quick on them. You have to be happy for the car to be a bit slippery.
I have found that the same does not work for R-Specs as you just rub speed off as soon as you slide.

[Magpie]

Alignment settings for each tyre?
Did you heat cycle them before use?
Brakes/pads change?
Hot tyre pressures?
Damper changes for each tyre?

No secret I swap between AR-1’s and AD08R’s and each tyre likes a different setup.

[Luke]

Alignment settings for each tyre?
Did you heat cycle them before use?
Brakes/pads change?
Hot tyre pressures?
Damper changes for each tyre?

No secret I swap between AR-1’s and AD08R’s and each tyre likes a different setup.

Alignment is pretty much been the same all the time.
Front:
Camber -3'15min
Caster 4.5 to 5.5
Toe 0
Rear:
Camber 2'30min
Toe +1.5 to 2mm each side 3 to 4mm total.

Heat cycle…
Ok I will start with that I am not the type to dawdle in a session bedding in brakes or tyres. I go in, I go hard and I go home.
The A050's were the only ones I gave a hard drive on the road before use and they lasted the least amount of time. I only did it because they were so pricey and supposedly last longer. That worked well for me.
The NT01's and AR1's had a bit of a go on the road before hand so they had some heat and were scrubbed in.
RS3's no point. Road tyre. Used them as a road tyre as well.
V70A's I did not have the time. They literally did a 30k trip to the track and that's it. Had all the nibbly bits and writing on them still. And I go and set a PB on them straight away.

Brake pads always the same.
Front Carbotech XP12, Rear Carbotech XP10.
I now have GLoc R12 on the front which should be the same....

Tyre pressures have been as below
RS3 34psi
NT01 32psi
A050 31psi
AR1 29psi (Tried a range of 25 to 34 and there was stuff all difference to be honest and I could not find a happy spot for wear)
V70A 32psi (Only used them once so far so learning, will probably drop it based on wear or raise from what I have heard about them flexing???)
RSRR 33psi (Only used once so far so learning but appeared to be spot on)

Same damper settings. Adjust as required for each circuit with 10-12 clicks on front, 9 to 10 on the rear. Only 16 in total on these Teins.

One more detail, my SE is on the porky side of the weight spectrum. Over 1120kgs at Eastern Creek when weighed. And no I was not in it either.

[Magpie]

Thanks for the reply.

My bad for heat cycle I meant on first use heat them up then rest them for a minimum of 24 hours before using them again. I always heat cycle my AD08R’s even though they are a street tyre.

Any temps on the tyres? This is good way to see if the alignment and pressures are correct. For the AO50’s 31 hot is unusual high range, at least from my discussions with people who use them often.

I have found the AR-1’s best at 28 hot, whereas AD08R’s 29 hot. Have heaps of data on these 2 tyres

[Luke]

Yeah I knew what you meant by heat cycle. As I drive the car to the track I drive on the tyres I use. So no proper heat cycle can be done economically other than on the road before hand. To clarify the A050's were done the week before and then sat around. I remember jacking the car up so they were the only ones taken at least half seriously.

My SE is a heavy road car so body roll is being compensated by more tyre pressure.
I go higher still on my bog standard cars.
On the NC I was running 38psi on the RS3's.
On the ND I am running 37psi on the RS4's.
Outer shoulder wear is still a problem with the amount of body roll these things have.

Back to the SE.
I measure temps as I go but don't have data recorded. I just use it on the fly to adjust.
Only using laser pyrometer so no true internal rubber temps measured.
60 to 70c surface is roughly what I remember seeing.
On the working side of the car the outside is always hottest then middle then inside. Roughly 5c variance across the face.
On the non working side, the opposite. The variance differs depending on tracks. For instance SMSP North mainly has left turns and lots of straights so the inside of these tyres get pretty hot and outside is a good 20c cooler. I means they could be 40c on the outer edge.

In the end of the day, it is still a compromised road car.
It is set up no where near stiff enough to use R-Specs properly. Prbabkly part of why the RS3's looks so fast on it. Those wore and worked really well.

I did wear the A050's evenly at that pressure. When the rubber started letting go I was losing patches maybe 20mm in from the outside first.
If the sessions were longer I would be at lower pressures. But I am going for that Lap 2 to 3 fast time so it works for me.

[Magpie]

Thanks

[greenMachine]

Thanks Luke for such a detailed and comprehensive report.

I have been using AO50s (205/50x15 M compound) for a while now, ie many years. Most recently on the racecar (c125rwkw), on 8in rims, and at pressures and settings very similar/identical to you. My tyres have had the pre-delivery heat cycling since that became available. However my tyres have also seen service on the GM - stock NB8A - for PI 6 hours (about 2.5 to 3 hours on track over the two days), and for stand-in duty when the racecar was not available.

My AO50s would last me a full year and then a bit more. A year's events for me would normally involve six or seven supersprint rounds, PI 6hr, maybe a driver training day, and then the following year I would do one or two events before they were pretty well shagged. Before being completely shagged, I would have a new set fitted to the 8s, and the old ones mounted on my 7s where they would be finally used up.

Your short life with the AO50s may be down to a couple of factors. Car (weight and power), and driving style. Not having the pre-delivery heat cycling may also be a factor.

I am now using 215/50x15 AO50s on my SE, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the extra power and weight (I would guess our SEs weigh pretty much the same, otherwise pretty much everything else is same-same). As for driving style, I think you are probably pushing your car harder than I am (you are 1.5 sec quicker than me at WP - so far ).

That is about all I can add to this discussion at the moment.

[MrTurkey]

Thanks for the excellent report coverage.

After reading this I am going to consider the NT01's for my next tyre. (AR1's are still fresh though, so will be a while)

I note that you had the AR1's as a treadwear of 100? Mine are 80. I have heard that in or prior to 2017 the AR1's were pretty bad and that they developed a new compound after this which has improved significantly. (others might know the details on this better than me.)

[Luke]

Yep that sounds right, 80TW. They were very late 2017 production. I think they were 5017.
225/45/15 only came out late last year as well. Most of their Tyres are model JCxxx. These were JDxxx and so are all the new sizes since.