powerneedy

So I am looking at picking up some street tires in the 200 tread wear for a local event and being that I have never really ran street tires on the track I am in need of some help. I keep reading and hearing the BFG Rival is a great tire but then I also here the Direzza ZII is where its at? Any insight would be great.

boost ben

We run the Hankook Ventus RS3's on our Chump cars in 225-45-15 and everyone seems to like them including me. My last track day I decided to try them out on my Civic (stiffer springs and a more aggressive alignment than the Chumps) in place of my 205-50-15 R888 (heat cycled out now) and they again worked very well. I haven't tried the Rivals but the other drivers said they liked the Hankooks a little more, can't comment on exactly what they liked more.

We've never tried the Direzza ZII...

EG Civic Si

Ive tried the RS3 and BFG rivals and I must say I like the rival more
is much more controlled during braking and I improved all my lap times over the RS3 using the RIvals

rice_classic

The internet seems to like the Rivals.

powerneedy

Yes but what do my FWD brethren love?

Xian

IMO, the reason you hear so many mixed reviews is that they all drive a little bit differently and they tolerate being pinched on a wheel differently. When you couple this with driver preference and setup differences, you end up with disparate and seemingly contradictory reviews.

Personally, I like the Rivals. They do reasonably well with heat, they've got a decently stiff carcass and do ok but not great pinched. They're communicative and easy to drive. They're ok but not great in the wet. Bonus points for being able to get them in 225 and 205 15 sizes.

I don't care for the Z2 though it does better than the Rival is you're forced to run a narrow wheel. I don't find them as communicative but they're better in the rain than the Rival.

The RS3 was a great tire. Strong grip and loved heat but was bad in the rain or when cold. It also doesn't do well pinched. The new V2 of the tire is supposed to fix the downfalls but it's lost some of the heat tolerance. I haven't driven the new RS3.

For any of these ^^^ in 205, you'd be better off with at least a 7" wide wheel at least (and a 7.5 or 8" width would work better). For the 225's you want at least an 8" wide wheel though a 9" width will work better.

johnjw

yeah we don't like the Z2 either. the Rival is where its at. probably been through 10+ sets in the past year. they seem to require a bit more camber than normal and that outter shoulder is not nearly as thick as it looks.

johnjw

oh and we've run the Rivals ( new ) in the rain and been seconds faster than anyone else on the track. nobody believes me but they make a great wet tire too

powerneedy

Thanks for the input guys! I am on a bit bigger wheel setup 17" and I can run up to a 9.5" or even 10" if needed wide so I am thinking a 245 maybe even a 255.

The runs will be short and I may even want to auto x with them

gramkrackers

My experiences seem to be opposite to most people here. I ran the Rivals for the first half of the year on my ITR and found them to do terribly with heat and they wore quickly. I have also found them to be unstable under braking and they break away abruptly rather than progressively when loosing grip. They wore perfectly evenly however on my stock alignment settings that I am required to run in my time attack class, so they obviously didn't need a ton of camber.

I switched to RS3 V2's halfway through the year and they were much better in every way that I listed the Rivals to be lacking above. Mine have 8 track days on them and still have 5/32nds of tread left. However they do seem to need more than stock camber levels but the trade offs will have me stick with the RS3'S for next year when I am able to run a non stock alignment.

Everyone I know that has gone from Rivals to RS3'S has liked the RS3'S more but you can't really go wrong either way.

scottdh20

everything I have heard is rs3 and rival are neck n neck...rs3 wins because its cheaper...the zII fell behind when the v2 and rival were released

I just made the switch from fwd civic on 205 nt01's to a s2k on 255 r-s3's my first s2k track day is in two weeks. so first hand knowledge soon :/

0AJ@tirerack.com

For many people who want the last edge, there seems to be a real toss up debate between the Dunlop Direzza ZII (the ZII Star Spec is the latest version) and the BFG Rival. The big change with the ZII Star Spec this year is that it comes to temp a little quicker, offers more consistent grip and seems to hold on a little longer, which the road race guys will appreciate.

After our testing, I will put the new Z2 Star Spec on my '14 Si in the spring, which I plan to auto-x and HPDE. The tire grips so hard its unreal. Everything about the tire I loved. Driving it on our test ride on the highway, you could seriously hear it sticking to the roadway. I've never heard that out of a street tire.

The secret to the Hankook Ventus RS-3 is to shave it and heat cycle it prior to shipment. The shave produces a much more stable tread design and the heat cycle seems to help the compound come up to temp a little quicker and last a little longer. Out of the box, I think I think it is a great entry level extreme performance tire.

I hope our test results come out soon. I think the slight edge is on the new ZII Star Spec. Will BFG Answer soon?

As you can see from the posts, everyone seems to have their own thought on what works.

johnjw

gosh we were never able to get near the laptimes of the Rival with the Z2's. They let go alot earlier and make quite a bit more noise (not a bad thing really). Wear was better with the dunlops but they seam to heat cycle out.

the rival has more overall grip imho.

we've never ran the Rs3's. I've heard good things about them and it looked to make a good showing at the Solo Nats.

johnjw

oh and +1 for offering a 225/45/15 for people who want to run a wider wheel. the dunlop does not offer this....probably ok for auto-x as weight>tire temp/grip

Xian

And that kinda highlights one of the challenges with TR's comparison testing. In the interest of apples to apples comparisons, they're running the same size tire. For all the Honda folks stuck with 15" options, we're typically comparing a 225 Rival/RS3 vs. a 205 Z2/RE11/etc.

Regarding the RS3 at Solo Nats, not to take anything away from the RS3 but they were offering solid contengency AND the tire does much, much better than the Rival on that surface (especially so as the "track" rubbers in). For track day use, the gap is likely within the noise of driver/setup.

PS
Yeah, lots of rumor mill stuff about upcoming tire options... new (reformulated) Rival around the corner, new Toyo R1R on the horizon, Bridgestone and Kumho wanting to make it back into limelight, etc.

Davidss

I would probably go with 225 hankooks up front and 195 toyos on the back.

VIPperformance

We run the Rival 225/45/15 on are 95 civic chump car, we are going to be tring out the RS3's this next race cant wait to see the differences.

BRN12345

Having tried all the tires sans the RS3 listed in the replies and having raced on track for the past 8 years I can without a doubt say that that the Kumho XS is the best tire we ever used. Its the fastest over a single lap. It doesn't fall off a cliff after a few laps. And also its progressive towards the limit.

Matt_EH3

You should try the RS3 then. I have not commented on this thread because I have never tried the Dunlops or the Rivals, but I made the move from the XS to the RS3 about 2-3 years ago. I have been running RS3 since. From just changing the tires, I chopped off almost a second a lap at our local track (which is a small 60-second-per lap 8-turn track).

That is with a non-ideal setup of 225 RS3 on a 7-inch wide rim. The sidewall is a little bit soft and the initial feedback from the tire is a bit sluggish at corner entry, but the tire keeps a lot of grip (almost R-compound like) after the car has taken a set. FYI, you need to keep the pressures low on this tire for it to grip well (which adds to the corner entry sluggishness, I know).

X2BOARD

Seeing the extreme variance in opinions on some of the tires, you have to wonder how consistent tire pressure has been in the comparison runs/events. Some of the complaints sound like too much tire pressure for the course.

I hope to try either the ZII or Rival in 205 15 garb in the near future, but on a very rough autocross surface. This is coming up against similarly modified cars that may also run hoosiers.

mdb4879

Would any of you recommend any of the big three tires in a 225/45/15 over any other in a 205/50/15 on a 15x7.5? I'm going to be autocrossing a DC2 GSR in STC next year and have heard a 205/50 would be faster because the 7.5" wide wheel won't provide adequate sidewall support for the 225. I just want to get some more opinions that have tried different setups before. My local autocross venue also has some pretty rough pavement, tire life is also something to consider.

Davidss

Leading up to now the Toyo 195 was clearly the most successful tire in autocross given the 7.5" wheel. Next year the tire rules are changing and a lot of new tires are coming out. I would wait as long as possible to buy anything and see what other people start running.

VIPperformance

They work great!! rain and dry one of the best tires we have had on our Chump Car yet!! Landed us in our first top three finish at PIR this last weekend, most of the other teams ran bfg rival tires ( we have a set two ). We found that after a summer of testing the RS3 is better

scottdh20

so I went from a 205 nt01 on my civic to a 255 r-s3 on the s2k ....the r-s3 was remarkably grippy....I was extremely impressed with the level of grip I got from a non r-comp tire. obviously I had an extra 50mm of tire on the ground which translates to a lot of additional grip but I was pushing the tire all day and it just kept asking for more. never went greasy on me during 20 min sessions....

temps were in the morning were upper 40s to low 50s capping in low 60s in the afternoon. the sun did help. no problem heating the tires on the yellow flagged warm up lap. I know some fwd r-comp guys needing a additional lap/partial lap to get the tires warm enough to not spin out like crazy in the am.

overall im super happy with the r-s3, not to mention putting 500miles on them two track days and I don't see barely any wear. also drove them the other day in the rain...although just cruising around town felt very confident in the grip

johnjw

good work! wish we could have made it..