My 11th annual lapping day at Putnam Park outside Indy was this last weekend. Since I sold the M3 earlier in the week, I ran my steady old CRX Si ZC car and I literally threw together a 400f/600r coil-over suspension system out of parts that were leftovers in the garage. I did install a set of the new Ground Control upper mounts and they seem to work well even though I didn't get a chance to take any measurements. I used the old set of OTS Koni Sports that were on the car with the big springs and sleeves, dropped in two sets of race belts and took the street muffler can from the axle back and put on a very short turndown tube so only the catalytic converter was doing the muffling.

I bought a set of non-shaved 205-55 14 Hankook Ventus race tires and mounted them on the old 14x6 Revolutions that I posted here about last week with the wrong offset (30mm). I put it all together in my garage in one night and didn't have a chance to check the alignment at all, just use a tape measure to roughly set the corner heights in the right ballpark then threw the car on the trailer and headed to the track.

For all the last minute thrash, the car was a ball. Even though the alignment was really whacked out with camber visably uneven and no effort to check the toe, the car was dead steady and neutral rotating really well and very forgiving even if you really pitched it pretty hard. My wife drove it more than I as she was in her first time back in the driver's seat since the baby four years ago. She had a blast and is now reenthused about driving again. For all the people who ask me "can the OTS valving work with bigger spring rates?", my example was that this set of very used ones that I got as rejects from the Koni warranty bin (after who knows what life on someone else's car) did just fine with some pretty aggressive springs. Theymay not have been ideal for front pack, wheel to wheel dedicated racing but I had no complaints driving this car as hard as I could.

As someone who has loved Hoosiers for years, lived with the Toyo RA1s for years, and greatly hated several sets of Kumhos over the years, I've got to say that the Hankooks were excellent. Granted it was not a true racecar in a wheel to wheel situation, but the car was as sure footed (after the heat cycle session which was in the rain as well) as could be and never got too far out of shape no matter how hard we played. We drove it pretty darned hard and chased down through cornering speed and determination cars that should rightfully have walked away from us on track. It was the closest to having this car "overtired" as I have ever been, no matter what level of pushing it or silliness in tossing it about, the Hankooks stuck like glue and didn't seem to deteriorate through probably 7 or 8 30-minute sessions. There is pretty limited wear on them so we will use these for other lapping days and for the first set of tires for the next ITA car we intend to build this summer.

The 205s were about 1/2+ inch more tread rubber than the matching Toyos (the tire company incorrectly sent the Toyos first so I held the two brands side side by side). I was very happy with the price, size, grip and wear of the Hankooks and would recommend them well from my experience

 

Thanks for the write up on the Hankooks. I had read some tire testing from a few people running spec miatas and they sound like a good DE tire. The Hankook tire rep claims they are more technologically advanced than the Toyos. I am looking into buying a CRX track car and giving up my bigger, heavier, higher hp car so you thoughts are a help.
Barry H.

 

Nice writeup!

Hmmm... In the future I guess that I'll look into the Hankook's for use at DE's...

Christian- who is always glad to hear that there is another competitor in the marketplace!

 

Where could I find prices for the Hankook's? How do they compare in price to the Toyo and Kumho?

 

Please note that Hankook makes a lot of different tires with the Ventus name (just like there are lots of different Bridgestone Potenza tires and Michelin Pilot tires and Falken Azenis tires - everything from track tires to family car tires and SUV tires).

You're probably referring to the Hankook Ventus Z211, which is the name of their R compound tire.

These got very good test results in the August 2003 issue of Grassroots Motorsports. They had a comparison test of three track tires, tested on a Spec Miata at Roebling Road: The Yokohama A032R-Soft, the Toyo RA-1, and the Hankook Ventus Z211. During morning qualifying (5 laps), they started with the Toyos, then the Hankooks, then the Yokos, then the Toyos again to determine any effects of the track heating up. The Yokos were fastest, followed by the Hankooks; the first Toyo run was the slowest, but even the last Toyo run was slower than the other two tires.

They ran 20-lap sessions in the afternoon, to see how the tires would hold up in a simulated race. In that test, the Hankooks were the fastest, the Yokos the slowest, and the Toyos less consistent but generally in between the other two.

The Yokos wore more than the other two tires.

You can get the Hankook Ventus Z211 from Vilven Tire in Royal IL:
888-77KUMHO
800-251-0017
217-583-3277
rjvilven@aol.com (no website, sorry)

 

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I got them from Vilven Tire, see the above post for contact info. The 205-55 14s were $125 each plus $8 freight.

 

how do they compare to kuhmo mx tires?

 

r-compound vs a street tire = no comparison.