Track Tires From Tyre Rack

[Roy]

Well, having been scared away by prices of local semis....what is a decent track tire out of the US?

If you had to chose between

Kuhmo Ecsta V700

Kuhmo Victo Racer V700

Kuhmo Ecsta V710 (not sure i can drive on the streets with these bad boys?)

Hankook Ventus Z214

Hankook Ventus TD Z221 (they are not listed on their website but askign about availability along with A050)

[zebra]

The v700s are the ontrol tyre for the production series now, maybe Duncan can comment, I have heard good things though.

[Roy]

Which V700?

[zebra]

The Ecsta. But I cant help with compound or anything.

[GTS4WD]

I havent used any of the other listed rubbers, but this is what I can say about the Ecsta's.

Have been involved with production car series for a bit now and never had any problems with them.

We ran a commo R8 on 2 sets for the recent 6hour at Sydney and they held up well. The drivers did bitch a little about them going off, but when your hauling a fat pig like an R8 on rubber that you qualified with, you expect a little fading after a couple of hours of racing.

They are a little suceptible to punctures on the saw toothed ripple strips on the inside of the tyre from what I have noticed.

Be warey of of pressures too. They blister quite easily too.

This is from what i have found through my experinces on a different car and set up to yours.

[Roy]

So outright speed, are they as quick as RE55s, AO50s? Where do they sit on lap speed?

[Duncan]

the kumho stuff is good, only about 1sec slower than dz03g/re55s. V70A is the current model but they still sell v700 in some sizes.

one big "thumbs up" for the kumho, they work well (best even) after the tread is gone (ie at and past the wear limiters). the serious guys buff them down to the wear limiters straight away, but I don't think it's worth the trouble on my budget.

the kumhos also want unusually high pressure. I run 42-44psi, the commodores run right up to 50psi for best performance. Yes that is crazy, and they got blow outs on the low profile type (35 and lower) at that pressure. but man they worked well.

haven't tried the hankook although they got good results at B24 and EC12 hours.

Kumho are a good price/performance mix, as are the toyos. If you need the fastest tyres you need to pay up for dunlops.

[Roy]

So Dunlops are quicker then AO50? It was hard to tell as i was not at Superlap, but surely if there was a time advantage to be running the Dunlops then people not tied up/associated with Advan would have run them.

The impression i got was the Sierra Sierra Evo were the odd ones out running Hankook whilst every other person ran the AO50s?

If i can confirm what the fastest tyre is i will grab a set as i wont be getting another chance to punch out a time for suite some time...so want to arm myself with the best tyres possible.

If i cant establish that then i think the Kuhmos for $1k sound like the best option. Who in NSW sells them? May not have to get them from the US!??!

[_Wing_]

From what I can see the local prices aren't that bad from bridgestone, dunlop and yokohama? What size and price have you been getting?

[phunky_monkey]

Let me know if you hear back on the Ventus TD Z221's, I've been trying to track them down but to no avail.

[Roy]

They told me they do not stock them and dont intend to. Seems Hankook spend all this time and money advertising them but dont make them available to the public.

[phunky_monkey]

It's crazy how hard it is to get them!

[FineLine]

Agreed phunk, I was interested in the hankys after superlap but they arent readily available from what I can gather.

[phunky_monkey]

They seem fairly popular in Japan too so would be interesting to try out, price dependant.

[Roy]

Was looking for them on the auctions a few weeks back but only able to find used sets

[Duncan]

re the yoko a050 being faster....I should have said I was talking about race use.

A050 only come in a medium compound (or super soft as used at superlap), not a hard, so they are not an option unless you can afford a set every track day.

full on super sprinting/superlap/whatever is a different story. soft tyres of any brand will outperform sensible/hard tyres from any other brand. eg I ran kumho wets once years ago and took the old blue gtst into the 1.10s at wakie. but who can afford new tyres every session?

[Miguele]

re the yoko a050 being faster....I should have said I was talking about race use.

A050 only come in a medium compound (or super soft as used at superlap), not a hard, so they are not an option unless you can afford a set every track day.

full on super sprinting/superlap/whatever is a different story. soft tyres of any brand will outperform sensible/hard tyres from any other brand. eg I ran kumho wets once years ago and took the old blue gtst into the 1.10s at wakie. but who can afford new tyres every session?

What are you talking about?

[Duncan]

no, "what YOU talking about?"

responding to post 8

[JimmyRickard]

Any tried these tyres out from Tire Rack?

My link

$880 for the set. Seems like they're the only 255/40/17's on the site. What's the shipping like?

[Beer Baron]

I don't know anyone that's used them. I think johnny at unique used either these or the similar looking hoosiers that are basically a slick with the minimum number of grooves required to meet DOT approval for road use. however I wouldn't try driving on the road with them, any state in aus and the police would be all over you apart from the fact that any wet weather driving and you'd find yourself in trouble.

on the track though they should be quite good but if you are driving in a class that requires road legal tyres check with the organisers first if they allow these tyres as some road legal classes exclude slicks like this that just have 2 grooves in them.