Track Tyre Decision

[Gunnar_11]

I'm after some new tyres for circuit work and from what I've read on here I've more or less narrwoed it down to Khumo KU36 and Federal 595RS-R. I'd love to get RE55's but they are too much.

The car puts out 260KW's at the rears and have 235/45 and 255/40 17's. The car is pretty much going to be used as a track toy; at the moment for super sprinting. I don't plan on street driving the car too much.

One thing I haven't been able to find though is a comparisons on how the two stack up against each other. From what I know the 595's are a softer compound and would be better.

What I'm interested in is if anyone has used both of them - which do you prefer?

I've used RT615's for super sprinting (although this is on a wrx). For the price I found them to be okay but I think you'd only really get 4-5 laps max out of the 615's.

So if anyone has used any combination of the above three tyres it would be great to get your feedback on them. Thanks.

[mystery_kid]

i am in the process of getting some rims and track tyres together, my car is my daily so i need some other rims and tyres so i'm not ripping up my daily tyres

going with ku36's they are just so damn cheap for a semi slick, if you went through 2 sets in a year it would still be cheaper than 1 set of most other semi's

incidentally how much are 595RS-R's? i haven't really considered them

though i'm going to be using r32 gtr rims as my track rims so 16's will be cheaper in general

[badhairdave]

If you want to run 1 set of tyres for street and track then you can't really go past the ku36 for both price and performance. They aren't a proper semi so you will not achieve the same times as you would with an re55 but they don't suffer as much with heat cycling and don't wear as fast.

[hrd-hr30]

what Dave said.

I'll add that if you are willing to sacrafice a couple of seconds over the RE55 to use a cheaper tyre, then it would make no sense to get the 595RSR which may (or may not!) be a tenth or two faster than the much cheaper KU36.

Edited January 18, 2010 by hrd-hr30

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

if you can spend a little more coin, the nitto NT05's are better than the KU36's for a "semi semi slick"

i have them at the moment on my road car, and with 300rwkw i get full traction from idle to 7.5k in all gears unless i want to break it

[NYTSKY]

IMO the RS-Rs are fantastic for the price.

Sh1t loads better than the Kuhmo.

[MrStabby]

Question for hrd-hr30 and NYTSKY - have you used both types on the same car? More info please

I had sort of ruled out the RSRs as there was one post showing they were a bit too sticky to use on a dyno. Anyone used them for a dyno tune?

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

i use a hub dyno... all tyres fail on dyno's

[badhairdave]

Question for hrd-hr30 and NYTSKY - have you used both types on the same car? More info please

I had sort of ruled out the RSRs as there was one post showing they were a bit too sticky to use on a dyno. Anyone used them for a dyno tune?

My track car got tuned with r888's, the old skyline was done with rt215's.

It apparently causes a few kw loss on the peak figure but there was no issue with using them for the tune

[Gunnar_11]

Thanks for the replys so far guys. Am still in the process of pricing these tyres

[scathing]

Have you had a look at Toyo R888s? They're usually a bit cheaper than RE55S, and I'd still rate them over any S-Comp.

[ssxRicho]

i ran 595rs (the older tyre the rs-r is better) before putting some ku36's on.

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...t&p=5008403

loved the federals, but the kumho's are hard to beat for the price.

[ordinary]

I'd say with the kind of Power you have and the frequency you plan to drive it on the street = semi slick territory.

S-comp tyres are still along way from R-comps. Toyo R888 are R-comp and a lot cheaper than RE's. You can get a set of 235/45R17s for $1300-ish + delivery from St George Tyres in Sydney (found them on ebay too).

I run RE55s on my Evo and have completed about 9 track days with about 1 or 2 to go before they are dead. So you will get 10 track days from them - the Evo may not spin the tyres like the Lines but it does scrubs them bad from sliding or bloody understeering so they still get a good work out!

If you wanna go fast, get R-comps fullstop. If you wanna be quick and lap times arent that important then go with the S-comps.

Good luck

[MrStabby]

My track car got tuned with r888's, the old skyline was done with rt215's.

It apparently causes a few kw loss on the peak figure but there was no issue with using them for the tune

The RT-615s are also fine on the dyno. The RSRs are fair bit more sticky however (treadwear 140 compared to ~200) and had turned to mush in the post i saw, so appeared to be unusable for dyno tune IIRC - Here's a similar link, cant find the one i remember which had pix.

[badhairdave]

yeah, but r888's are proper semis with tread wear well below that and caused no issue. This is in a fully stripped sub 1T s13 making 285rwkw, so bugger all weight over the rear wheels.

My tuner has never cared what tyres i turn up with, other than pointing out that the semis would affect the peak power, or complaining when they are covered with gravel and he has to clean them off...

It's all about strapping the car properly.

[Beer Baron]

yeah I've never had problems running A048s (medium compound) on the dyno with the same power as badhairdave. and they are R-comps so of course softer than any S-comp.

[NYTSKY]

Members get good deals on federal tyres. For the price you cant go past them.

I would not use them everyday.

The KU36 would be the best for street/light track.

[_Wing_]

The general consensus here is that the more you spend on tyres the better they will be. So ku36 < 595rsr < a proper R-compund semislick.

There is no comparison when you goto an R-comp, even the top range potenza RE-01R / neova AD08's / direzza star specs don't measure up when put next to their racing compound cousins. If you want a mainly street cross track tyre then they're the ones to go for, but if it's for mostly track then R-compound is the only way to go. They're not all that super expensive either

[hrd-hr30]

Question for hrd-hr30 and NYTSKY - have you used both types on the same car? More info please

I had sort of ruled out the RSRs as there was one post showing they were a bit too sticky to use on a dyno. Anyone used them for a dyno tune?

I haven't used the 595RSR. Mainly because of the price difference between them and the KU36. 235/45*17 KU36 for $164 each! The Federal would want to be ALOT faster to justify its price tag!

The Federals have always been in the price range of proper semi slicks so they are priced out of the game AFAIC. Either get the cheaper KU36 which is a compromise between street and track use, or buy a proper semi that will run rings around either of them - just don't buy the R888s, they're hopeless! I have them on my current track car. Not a patch on the old RA1 I had on my previous track car, which was the reason I tried them. Complete waste of money!

[badhairdave]

I wouldn't say hopeless, but they are definitely in the bottom 2 (AO48's in MH being worse imho).