bronxbomber252

Ok. So my car is basically a former STR autocross car that I have been driving for 12 years. Due to having less time and more money than when I was younger, and the S2000 being buried in SCCA AutoX, I am pivoting more towards track days.

for the past 1.5 years I have been running in a local time attack series at Sandia Speedway in Albuquerque NM. I have been running in basically STR guise and have been using 200TW AutoX tires (A052 and Rival S 1.5) I find with this category of tire, my fast lap has to be in the morning during cool weather, first session during warm weather, and first 2 laps of the first session when it is hot out. Additionally they slow down over their life with me seeing about a 1s per 1.5min lap difference between them at their best and worst

so I am no longer doing autox and while these tires are doing ok for me currently, I plan to start adding a couple HPDE’s per year at other tracks and the current tires will melt away in a day or two under that useage based on my observations.

thus, I am looking for tire suggestions that are fast, and can handle HPDE lapping. If I only cared about the former, I’d stick to autox tires, if I only cared about the latter I’d get RS4’s and call it a day. My ideal tire would be within 1sec of the autox tires on a 1.5min track but stay that fast through most of their life and be able to handle longer sessions. The tire will go on dedicated track wheels, my street wheels will have More streetable tires that can handle rain so wet performance isn’t a concern. I also have no TW restrictions but do need DOT approval.

my research has turned up very mixed and contradictory information on tires so I am coming to the S2000 community to hopefully figure out what works on this car.

engifineer

Mix of pretty fast, better wear than A052s, cheaper and not getting as greasy after heating up: Falken RT660. They also are fairly competitive autox tires if you still hit some events.

Not quite as fast as the above, but wear even better, are cheap and can be driven hard lap after lap without getting greasy from the heat : Hankook RS4

Similar to the RT660 I think (I have not personally run them): Kumho V730

I have also run RT615K+ as a track day tire and it was affordable and wore well, but the Hankook RS4 I think was better in every way and handled heat better.

bronxbomber252

so I went to the Rival S from the A052 for the same reasons you mention the RT660. It does handle heat loads better but still gets greasy. The heat description I gave above was for the Rival S, the A052 was worse. My Rival S’s are near the end and seem like they will be done after about 1hr of total track time. Others around here have used the RT660 and report similar temperature tolerance and similar to worse wear as the Rival S. But none of them are in an S2000. What have your experiences been like with them?

there is a fast guy in a turbo Ek hatch that LOVES the v730s he destroyed RT660’s but the 730’s seem to be holding up for him, so I am interested in those.

good to know your comparison between the 615K and the RS4 as there is a pretty quick C5 Z06 here on the 615k’s.

thanks for the info!


also, have you tried any of the 100TW tires?

engifineer

I do not think I have seen anyone running Rivals on track or even on autox in a long time. So do not have much to compare on those. I have not run Rivals since they were the autox tire to have (the 1.5S I think it was?) so am a bit out of touch with how they perform.

At a recent track night, I was running close to my fastest time at the end of a session on the 660's so have not felt them fall off much. If I go really hard for a whole 20 minute session I will start to notice them getting a bit greasy,, but nothing like the A052.

I have not tried any 100TW tires as of yet. Since I still autocross the car too I tend to stick to 200TW tires so they are dual purpose.

I have seen a few very fast autocrossers and folks at the track liking the 730's so may try a set after the current tires wear out.

My current RT660's have had 2 track night events and 3 autocrosses so far and wear is pretty minimal really. I do see the tread splice in them like many others have said after running them a bit. But my friend is a tire guy and said every set he has seen shows that and none of them have any issues and will wear all the way down to the chords without issues. But there is tons of tread left on them after the usage so far.

bronxbomber252

great info thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to give a detailed response. I think I am leaning towards the 730 at this point (though I look forward to other responses if I get any). The 100+TW series record was just set here this weekend by the aforementioned turbo civic on 730s. He destroyed his 660s fairly quick and his 730s are holding up well, our local track surface is notoriously hard on tires. Its good to hear that you are seeing other fast guys on the 730.

Bullwings

Kuhmo V730


I found the v730 to be the tire for me. Faster than an NT-01, same consistency on track as an NT-01, and what is looking to be better wear rate than the NT-01. Also starts with 8.3/32th inches worth of tread.
The report is that this tire is like the love child of a Falken RT660 + Hankook RS4.

grassroots did a comparison.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...hang-yokohama/

my own review here at s2ki.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/wheels-t...-v730-1205904/

engifineer

Good info there. And more ammo to me trying them on the next set!

bronxbomber252

welp…. That about settles it!

Nate Tempest

So far the Nankang AR-1 has been this for me. I run within a second of my A052 times on a minute and a half lap, and they last twice as long, as well as handing heat better in the session. It is still possible to overheat them, but they don't automatically get greasy after a lap or two like the Yokos.

engifineer

Some interesting input from a multiple time Solo national champ I was talking to at Spring Nats (Whitener). His input on the A052 is that it does not get slower as it gets hot. He says he can run the same times on them hot or cold. The difference is that they punish every mistake to a higher and higher level as they heat up, so they get increasingly harder to drive at their limit without making mistakes that slow you down. Interesting perspective there. And given the fact that he finished in first in the Sprint nats pro solo (and 3 tenths in the lead) in his STS Miata and was doing burnouts before every run, it is hard to question his opinion there! I still would not run them for track day tires anyways for cost and wear reasons, but still was an interesting tidbit.