Jub

^That's very interesting and from a legitimate source. Last year, I didn't feel that the A052's fell off much at all with heat. Nationals at Lincoln was the first time I really thought heat was a significantly negative impact. This year, I felt they did really hard. Most others I talk to are claiming they fall off too. Many fast drivers have their fastest run on the first go too which seems to support the idea of them falling off. We aren't even in hot season yet. I actually was thinking about it at a test and tune the other weekend where I gained over a second after about 4 nearly consecutive runs, spraying in between. The last one felt really good but was a second off the first. I actually started wondering if maybe the compound changed or there was a bad run or something.

I also did find that I had a burnt exhaust valve and it's probable that as the tires heated up, so did the valve and I was losing more power. So my data point of this year has a skew from that issue. I never felt the tire behavior was bad but the times dropped. I've always felt that way about A052's though. Even when they get greasy, the behavior isn't bad, they just lose grip. Maybe I'm wrong about the tires and it's just head issues for me. I'll be back up and running at full power soon...

engifineer

Yeah I think it comes down to be a super consistent and precise driver. No doubting he is much better at that than I am! He also killed all but my codriver in the super important "STS Impound Foot Race" event lol

ncrx

i find on track with the a052 you have to run a cool down lap between push laps.
for me the main loss in time once they do get hot is time lost longitudinally.

Lateral grip is mostly there with a bit more slip, but laying down power on exit without wheelspin and being able to stop late is a lot tougher to achieve.

i run rt660's for just hpde laps, they're ok. decent for a lapping tire, instead of going off after 1 lap, i find about lap 3 to 4 they fall off and i can grease them up if im pushing them non stop without a cooldown. but wear is pretty decent, have done 2 events on them with double stinting, 40m per hour with about 6 sessions a day. wear is excellent considering

bronxbomber252

The main reason I gave up on the A052 was I did 5 autox runs, and 40 mins of track time in a 1 warm up-3 hot laps-1 cool down format and one completely delaminated and the others were about toast, and they had fallen off pace dramatically by 30 mins of total track time. By comparison, the Rival S 1.5 has barely fallen off if at all after 45 mins of total track time and has at least another 10 mins of track time left in them, probably closer to 20 mins.

mcbru

Read the original post and was glad to see someone mention V730. That's the one you're looking for. The V730 also seems to be strong in the diagonal directions of the traction circle, if that makes sense. Like the A052 is. Which is nice on our cars espeically AP1 rear subframe cars. The RE71R doesn't like trail braking or corner exit acceleration as much as the yoke/v730

engifineer

No doubt the A052 is an autox tire. It is awesome for that and is still the pointy end tire for that. I think the RE71RS will be right with it (and better on street setups that have limited camber). The 730 seems to be getting popular there as well. But the A052 pretty much seems like a tire aimed directly at autocross. Most of us felt it was more numb than the old RE71R, but I was overall faster on the A052.

roel03

The RC1 is also like a fast RS4. They used to be super cheap but not sure of current pricing since they released the V2.

Nate Tempest

Ha, I bought a set based on your recommendation and did not have the same experience. They were the fastest-wearing tire I've ever tried - wore out in under 3 track days. That said they were also slightly quicker than anything else I'd tried by that point, but I don't think quite as quick as the a052 over a single lap. (But did let you push longer.)

Edit: this was the R2. AR-1 lasts me twice as long and is only fractionally slower.

rush2redline

V730's ($189) are often paired up against other Maximum Performance Summer tires, but I feel they fit the Endurance Tire category better than Max Performance. My friends in the ChampCar endurance series run V730's because they are cheap. I also have friends in the same series who run Hankook RS4's ($212) because they are marginally faster than the V730's but are 12% more expensive. Fractions of a second.
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On track, I hated how RE71R's overheated after 4 hotlaps on track during 80 degree weather. I switched over to BFG's w ($261) with no regrets. They are pretty much the same price as A052's ($264) but they hold heat well for repeated laps during HPDE days. You can easily do an entire 20 minute session on BFG's and they wear well for daily driving. As such, I'll be buying another pair after my current set expires. For the record, for TT's, I swap A052's back on. The only time I would not is if it was a 90 degree + day. The optimal temperature of the A052 is 104 degrees F, so if the ambient asphalt temperature is above 100 degrees, I just feel it's not worth it to accelerate the tire wear for non-optimal performance.

engifineer

Interesting to hear that 730s are not faster than an RS4 on track. They destroy an RS4 on an autox course. RS4's are like the never was, not even worth considering tire for competitive autox and the 730s are running up there with the A052 in terms of times. A052 is still faster, but the 730 is not far off from what I have seen so far and plenty of the fast drivers are running them this year it seems, especially in street classes where limited camber seems to really hurt the A052. Interesting there is that much difference on the track.

I liked my RS4's on the track for track days. But the RT660 is faster and while it does not wear as well, it cheap enough that it fits that middle ground for me right now in terms of wear, price and speed.