Lol. I shit you not. Any more info on this kumho tire?
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Not much more from me. Eagerly waiting for its release.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n6ayvlzsJA

Hankook RS3 2014 still faster than Kumho V720 in Korea right now?

 

Can't believe this thread is over two years old. This tire is turning into the new NSX of performance tires. Maybe we'll get it... someday.

 

Well that’s not encouraging. wtf

 

It's an interesting video to watch but all that test proves is that that specific driver was faster on the RS3 with that setup that day.

There are just too many variables for this test to be considered an "accurate" indication of how fast a tire truly is, especially for those of us in North America.

Consider the following:
-The tires we receive in North America are often different (compound and/or construction) than the ones sold in other markets.
-At least with EHP street tires, it isn't uncommon for different sizes of the same tire model from the same brand to have different compounds (Toyo R1R is probably the best example). This means that for all we know a 255/40R17 or other size could have a faster compound than other sizes… We don't know until we test for ourselves.
- The driver is a huge variable in this and the one in the test isn't all that consistent and he didn't look like he could keep the tires in a window of optimum slip angle, getting the most from them. Although this would indicate that the V720 is more like the ZII in that it's a more peaky tire and takes more skill to get the most from it (the top 5% or so of drivers are MUCH faster on the ZII than the bottom 95%) Where as the RS3 can handle bigger slip angles (like BFG Rival) and are typically faster for most drivers because they penalize you less for being sloppy.
- The car and and tire setup are other big variables and we don't know how things were how things were done. Setting cold pressures of the other tires to what the door sticker says for the stock tires might not be what the tire likes, especially for whatever alignment he was running.
- The last big variable I want to mention is the weather. We don't know how long he was on each tire and how the ambient temps, track temps and humidity changed from when he was on one tire to another. If it was within an hour or so it probably wasn't a huge change but if were like morning to afternoon it could have been a much bigger change.

They might be slower than other street tires when we get them. They might be faster. We really have no idea until we get them here and test them. I certainly won't be discouraged until I test them and compare to the data I have on all the other tires I've used. Just my thoughts.

 

That's an awful lot of apologizing for a tire that hasn't even shown up yet. Sure, it's not the final word in performance, but the preliminary results aren't looking promising. At this point you might as well buy tires that have been proven (RS3, Z2 SS) instead of holding out for tires which have not.

 

Yeah I feel you. Oh well, I might just go with some RS3s this weekend.

BTW is it just me? Or has the EHP tire market been somewhat stagnant? The last big hit was the RS3 back in 2009, am I right? I remember when the RS3s first came out, it shocked the EHP tire world because of the insane grip and dirt cheap price it came in at. But ever since then, there hasn't been a "oh wow!" type of tire?

 

I think many of us are hoping this v720 is the next "wow tire", but based on this test it clearly isn't, no matter the variables, because if it was a truly exceptional tire it would still overcome the variables to shine through. Why didn't the test prove to be in the v720 favor instead given the variables? I'm not totally discouraged by one test here, as I'm not putting the entire weight of the tire on one test, but again I'm not encouraged either. Its due to be out this spring, so we probably wont get a complete picture of this tires ratings until summer or fall. Still a ways off.

 

I agree with you if you're not going through tires too often- I would rather play it safe with a proven performer. I however, go through at least 2-3 sets of tires per year (lots of track time and aggressive street use) and have already tested and gathered data on damn near every EHP street tire that has been released since 2009. All I was saying is that I'm neither discouraged by this "test" for the reasons I mentioned above, nor would I have truly believed that they were magic had they been faster for the same reasons (take the BFG Rival for example- Marketing bullshit and preliminary "tests" showed that tire to be faster than anything else and we know for a fact that it is not in actuality). They might be shit when I try them but I won't know for sure until I try them, set the car up for them, find their optimal pressures and compare the objective and subjective data to the others.

No it has not been stagnant. Since In 2012 we saw the RE-11A, AD08R and ZII and this year we are seeing the new R-S3 (V2) and ZII Star Spec (which I believe is the current fastest EHP tire available today). 2015 we will see new stuff from Kumho, Hankook, Bridgestone and Yokohama. There is no "wow" tire anymore because they are all within spitting distance now in terms of lap time when all are set up and driven properly. Some just take different approaches to get there.

We've seen this before with the Dunlop ZII. The ZII is the fastest EHP tire I have ever used but it's more setup and driver dependent than an RS3 or BFG Rival. In some initial tests on a miata with a mystery alignment and pressures the BFG rival turned a lap time over one second faster than the same car/driver/day on a set of ZII. So many people first thought the ZII was shit and the Rival was for sure going to be the tire to be on. It wasn't. Once people started testing them some were mirroring the results of the test while others were much faster on the ZII. I bough a set of BFG Rivals and Dunlop ZII to test for myself and here was my conclusion- The Rivals will be faster for more people (especially inexperienced drivers) because they are less setup dependent and can tolerate more shit from the driver than the ZII will. The ZII requires a different (very clean) driving style to get the most. It will penalize you big time if you're sloppy and it is more sensitive to things like tire pressure and alignment. But get it right and it is FAST, faster than any other EHP tire I've used. This has been echoed by others as well. Having bought and tried a set of RS3 as well I can say that the RS3 is much more like the BFG Rival in that it is easier to drive because you can feed it big slip angles and it isn't as sensitive to other things. The RS3 is a fast tire as well and I'd be willing to bet it's probably faster than the ZII for many just because it takes less work to get a time out of it.

This makes me think the V720 could be more like the ZII in that it is more sensitive and that is why it was so far off the pace of the RS3 in this test. I could be wrong and it may simply just not be as fast as we hoped but again I won't be able to say for sure until I try it for myself.

 

I'm not a good enough driver to tell the differences between one extrem performance tire to another extreme performance tire. All I care about is I prey that kumho will keep the 295/35/17 size.