I bought them for street tires because they are/were generally considered to be the best street high performance tire. Initially they were fine, but over the course of 2 years they lost any semblance of grip on the street. Seriously, I was getting noticeable understeer during "normal" driving in town, and early-onset wheelspin, which always resulted in the car going totally sideways, even when driving in a straight line. Low grip, and worse, zero residual/sliding grip. Seriously, they were the worst street tires I have experienced since the B'stone S-03s heat-cycled out on me after about 8-10 track days.

I only did ~1/2 track day on the PSSs early on in their lives, and they were OK for a couple/few laps, comparable to the Z1 *Spec street tires I had before.

I know people worship the MPSS, but in my experience they were initially OK but turned into utter garbage after a relatively short time.

Currently on 245/40-17 front 275/35-18 rear RE71R. Going to get same-size 275/35-18 NT01 rears before Mosport. Ultimately will have to decide what size NT01 fronts. Probably go with 255/40-17, but not the best fit on 17x8.5. Might go with 235/40-17, but that gives a bigger diameter difference front/rear.

 

You're *sure*? Gran Turismo East and calibrated gauge beg to differ:
-3* front camber, 0.1 degree total front toe-in, 5.4* caster
-2* rear camber, 0.1 degree total rear toe-in
37psi hot pressures (~30 front 28 rear cold)

Of course they'll last a LOT longer than 1000 miles on the street. But if you have 5.5 lb/hp and just let the back end hang out when you get wheelspin on a track like TGPR (coarse/abrasive surface), you might end up surprised at the rear tire wear/erosion rate...

 

I have not run NT01 at TGPR. Yes, the surface is coarse and abrasive...

 

I can't speak to track days, but for autocross RE71r pressures are around 30-31 front hot, and 27-28 rear hot. I wouldn't be surprised if some are running less. The STR S2000s typically run 12kg/mm-16kg/mm springs in addition to a big front bar. Camber is -3° or more front and rear. Wins are measured in 10ths of a second, and sometimes less (ask Nick who lost 3 national championships by a combined total of something like 1/4 second.)

That doesn't mean the RE71r is the right tire for a 500hp car on a gritty track, but it might have been running in a sub-optimal configuration.

 

And I wouldn't be surprised if some are running more... Near as I can tell road course users are running 35-37 hot pressures. I tend to run at the high end to be conservative to minimize/forestall overheating and to maximize tire life. I don't see myself running 27psi hot on a street tire at 150mph anyway...

Mine is a street car, on 13kg/11kg springs with a big front bar. I don't change alignment between street and track, as most of my street driving is getting to the track.
-3/-2 is fine for my car and although I am competing in time trials I don't care if it *might* be a tenth slower than -3.5/-2.5 or whatever is truly optimal for a given track for my car.
FWIW the tires wore as near as I can tell perfectly evenly across the tread, no excessive outside shoulder wear or "camber wear" or inside-tread vs. outside-tread wear.

I'm sure it was "sub-optimal"! But probably a lot less "sub-optimal" than most HPDE, track-day, autocrossed street cars. The lack of setup "optimization" isn't the telling thing here regarding rear tire wear, the ~500+hp is. That and the surface at TGPR are why I wore the rears down to ~2/32 in one day. The takeaway that is *relevant* is that these tires probably won't have the useful tread life of other extreme perf tires or of NT01s, which I've gotten 2x and even 4x the life out of on the same car under similar usage. I haven't run Trofeo Rs, but I would try them on my car before running RE71R again.

My input: *if* tread life is a factor for you, I'd get NT01s (or Trofeo Rs) over RE71Rs based on my experience.

 

How can any person honestly recommend an Rcomp to someone when they don't know the driver's skill level? That's like handing someone a loaded 44 magnum not knowing if they've ever handle a 9mm first.

 

Some tires can turn zeros into heros

 

And other tires can show those Heros are really zeros

 

Saw a guy at my last track day with the trofeo r's and holy crap they are meaty!!
We were both running rpf1's 17x9 with 255's and his tires looked substantially wider than my proxes r1r.

I'm in need of new tires and I was also comparing the two (trofeo r & re71r) but I don't compete in sanctioned events (yet).
I do open lapping days and I'm always trying to best my time so I'm not sure it makes much sense to get the trofeo' after reading this thread.
They're more expensive and they don't last as long but dam do they look good.

 

NT01s are no more "dangerous" in the hands of a novice than RE71R, maybe less so. At least in the absence of standing water... They have plenty of cold grip and decent sliding grip, it's not like you totally lose all traction when you find the limit.

I wouldn't have any qualms at all going out with a first-time student on NT01s at the track.