Just an FYI but I talked to Doug Reed (previously longtime big-wig with SCCA) who is now HanKook Tires Head of Motorsports. Seems that the world's 9th largest tire manufacturer is trying to get into selling DOT race tires in the US. He says they have a tire that will be a little cheaper than the Toyo Proxes even after the rebate but will have similar if not better grip ands wear. Definately better grip than the Kumho and Azenis he says. Apparantly they have done some racoing in other countries but are just trying to break the ice here.

 

I have 16 of them and will report back Monday after 3 days of testing and racing.

 

What happened to the high-po street tire they were going to make for Street Touring classes that was to compete against the Azenis and BFG KD? Is this the answer?

What's the treadwear on the tire? I assume less than 160, so it will be a no-go for ST.

 

I am thinking I heard their R-compounds were adopted by PSM as the spec tire. Not sure where I heard/read that however.

 

Lee, if they are talking about the Z2000 i have been using them for a number of years.

They are a VERY good tire in striaght line grip, braking and gas is phenominal!

However 2 bad things, about 1.5 secs off hoosiers and a secound off kumho's. Also,they have a bad trait, when racing they tend to off rather quickly, slow down for a few laps and then you can pick it up again. Even on the FF1600 this was very very common. A 205 Hankook is the same as a 205 Toyo i think, they are no where near as wide as my 205 hoosiers or 215 kumho.
PS 215kumho=205Hoosier, exact same tread width......EXACT

Atleast on the FF1600 they needed ALOT of camber and rather high tire pressures. I'm running about -3.5neg on the CRX. Hopefully the stiffer torsion bars and shocks will fix some of this problem.
Another good thing is that they are CHEAP. Like i'm talking $400cdn for a set!!!!

I will be burning off a few sets this year. If you would like to compare notes or something let me know.

PS, they also make for soem sweet street tires.

 

I don't think its the z2000( I may be wrong though)

I saw the thread pattern somewhere and it looked different.

Z2000 is a excellent tire with a 80 tread wear I used these as well and they were good at even full thread depth.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=445245

Ventus Z211

 

The San Dimas Auto Racing Spec Miata team will be trying them out this weekend in Phoenix, too. They are the spec tire for the Mazdaspeed Miata Cup Presented by Hankook Tires.

 

I thought the cutoff for ST was 140.

 

Treadwear limit for STS is 140. However these tires are Treadwear 50.

No go for Street Touring.

From a link above:
"WAYNE, N.J. (March 7, 2003)—With the goal of securing a higher share of the
ultra-high performance market, Hankook Tire America Corp. has introduced the
Ventus Z211 R-Compound racing tire. Designed in a joint effort between
Hankook’s research facilities in South Korea and its Akron Technical Center
in the U.S., the tire is designed to provide exceptional grip for racetrack
driving, Wayne-based Hankook said. R-compounds, referred to as “sticky”
compounds, were incorporated into the tire to provide the grip that racers
need. The tire has a UTQG rating of 50/AA/A. Hankook also is promoting the
tire’s grip on both wet and dry surfaces. The Ventus Z211 R-Compound is
designed and molded at 7/32-inch skid depth for wet traction, though it can
be shaved to a depth of 3/32 inches for a tighter grip on dry surfaces,
Hankook said. The tire is currently available in one size, 205/50ZR15, with
11 others in development ranging in size from 205/60VR13 to 335/35ZR17.
Hankook will supply the tire as the spec tire for the Sports Car Club of
America’s Mazda Miata North American Cup Series. Hankook last month entered
the U.S. road-racing arena when it was selected as the spec tire for the
racing venture. Hankook will provide the Ventus Z211 R-Compound racing tire
to all competitors in the series, which includes races on the East and West
coasts. “The development of the Ventus Z211 R-compound racing tire marks an
important development in our effort to capture a larger share of the high
performance market and in our drive to create products for the growing
racing enthusiast market,” said Young Moon Park, marketing manager at
Hankook."





[Modified by KC, 10:24 AM 4/2/2003]

 

there was a thread about these earlier. I emailed about them, and the only size available right now is 205/15s for the miatas.
pricing is the same as Kuhmos.

 

Anyone heard from the Miata guys as to whether these tires are any good?

 

I saw the SM guys using them last weekend at Seattle. They said the grip was as good as the Toyo's but hadn't run enough cycles to see how long they would last.

 

I've got a set shaved and mounted and ready for Sebring next weekend...what did you FF1600 do for pressures? How high vs. other brands you ran?

 

Who's selling these tires?
Any website info?
Thanks,
George

 

I have a friend that is running the Pro Spec Miata series, and he isn't too impressed with them after one weekend at Beaverun. They give up in a hurry when pushed hard. The side walls are softer than most DOT track tires, so steering response is a little vague, and the car has a mushy feel at the limit. They're slower than a Khumo or Toyo, but that's not an issue since everyone else is on Hankooks too.

He's at Lime Rock this weekend with them, we'll see if his opinion improves.

I'm stickin' with Khumo or Toyo unless Hankook stiffens up the sidewalls.

 

Joel Lipperini is running them in SSC on his Civic. He told us he likes them. A few weeks ago, though, the Miata guys were not having good luck. I heard something about tread blistering/separations/something. Joel had no problems. First production run bugs?? Dunno.

Apparently some Miata guys started complaining on the internet and Hankook had to go into full damage-control mode.

More options for the racer can only be a good thing.

 

At our last SCCA meeting in Albany several spec Miata guys were there and had just been at the first race where they had to use these new tires, I think it was at Pocono. They said the tires were junk. They fell apart, with lots of tread separations. A bunch of them were replaced for free. They were also slower than the Toyo RA-1 tires they usually use. They said the tires were reasonably fast at first but were much slower at the end of a 20 min session. Tires were falling apart with less than 1 hour track time on them. The tires were shaved and supposedly ready to race on. This would have been about 1 month ago. A spec Miata is fairly light and not that powerful and easy on tires. A powerful front drive car can probably destroy these tires in minutes. Maybe others will have better experiences with these tires but our guys were furious with these being a spec tire that they are forced to use.

 

Very interesting! Barry Brown is 4th in NEDiv SSC points in his "new" 99 Civic Si which is nearly identical to Lipperini's car in terms of prep/setup/etc. Barry said he liked the Hankooks so far (as of the Nelson Ledges national the other weekend, no problems mentioned) and compared them favorably to the Kumho EV700's in the last week or two.

The SSC guys liking the tires and SM guys not liking them makes me wonder if the problems mentioned are due to production flaws, not design flaws... A Showroom Stock Civic would certainly be harder on its front tires than a Spec Miata!

Curious,

Jon

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mohudsolo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">At our last SCCA meeting in Albany several spec Miata guys were there and had just been at the first race where they had to use these new tires, I think it was at Pocono. They said the tires were junk. They fell apart, with lots of tread separations. A bunch of them were replaced for free. They were also slower than the Toyo RA-1 tires they usually use. They said the tires were reasonably fast at first but were much slower at the end of a 20 min session. Tires were falling apart with less than 1 hour track time on them. The tires were shaved and supposedly ready to race on. This would have been about 1 month ago. A spec Miata is fairly light and not that powerful and easy on tires. A powerful front drive car can probably destroy these tires in minutes. Maybe others will have better experiences with these tires but our guys were furious with these being a spec tire that they are forced to use.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He, that's exactly what i've heard from a few people about their previous r-tire, the Z2000. Hopefully, this time Hankook can learn from that and imrove the tire soon... More (good) tire competition is allways good.

 

any idea if the SM guys started w/ shaved or full tread depth?

 

I think they said shaved. The tires came from the supplier who was at the track, that is why they were able to get replacements right away. I do not believe there was any heat cycling done before use. We have the next meeting in about 1 1/2 weeks, I'll ask some more questions then.

 

Anyone that can correctly say what "Hankook" means - without consulting a dictionary - gets a cookie.

 

korea

 

Quote:
"He's at Lime Rock this weekend with them, we'll see if his opinion improves."

Update:
My Bud was 3.5 seconds per lap slower on Hankooks in dry qualifying than Toyos when he ran there a year ago. No durability issues during the race, it was raining...BUCKETS!

Hopefully, Hankook will learn and develop the tire into something usable!




Modified by Track rat at 7:55 AM 5/27/2003