scottjohnson wrote:
Aaron did several events on the Hankook and then got rid of them. If he weren't busy this weekend, I'm sure he would chime in. He's got a lot more autocross time with the relevant players in this class than the rest of us.
Scott
Scott's right. I'm probably the only person in the club that has tried every 'top' tire in ST except the KD's on my Celica (drove them on Jack Hall's Grand Sport once
)
As far as ST tires are concerned, the test that Grassroots performed was inconclusive. The issues are that no two cars are the same, and what works for one car, doesn't work for others.
As far as overall performance goes, from my experience, as well as looking at National event results, this is how I rank the tires:
1. Kumho MX
2. Falken FK451
3. Falken RT215/RT615 Azenis
4. Yokohama Advan
5. BFG KD's
6. K-mart Specials
7. Hankook Z212
7. Yes, the Hankook is that bad. I shaved mine to 3/32". Longitudinally, they're pretty good. Geez data proves that. They're right there with the top 3 as far as launching and braking. Laterally, they stink. On average, the best I could pull was .2 of G less on any surface with the Kooks as compared to the top 3. When you're dealing with 1.15 sustained G's as the top point, this is a
huge difference.
6. Just a joke of course, but wanted to point out how bad the Kooks were. Billy Brooks, Andy Hollis, Jeff Hurst, and Corey Ridgick (and myself) will never ever buy one of these again. Even some of these guys have $600 worth of Kook money, and are selling it at 2/3rds the value, for they have no interest in them.
5. KD's are a great tire, but only in optimal conditions. They have a very narrow range in which they work (they suck in the cold and wet) but when they hit that sweet spot, they are awesome. You might hit that optimal about 1 out of 15 autocrosses. Factor in the cost and you will be scratching your head a lot after buying them.
4. I tried the Advans and they seem pretty good. Good laterally, but couldn't put the power down as well and braking G's suffered for they lockup pretty easy. Yokohama has a unbelievable contingency though, so you will see people running these. I know Mike King is cleaning up $ wise with them.
3. The top 3 are all very good tires. I ranked them the way I did due to size availability and performance on my car, as well as others. Either Azenis are very good longitudinally and laterally. They're consistent when cooled, but in autocross conditions do get greasy when hot. The RT615 did not fix this, thus it does create issues when running 4 back to back to back to back ProSolo runs. If you have a light car like the Civic, this or the MX is the tire to have.
2. Falken FKGRB451. This is the unknown and the dark horse. Tom won STX Nationals in 2004 on them. Longitudinally and laterally they are better than the Azenis, mostly due to they width you can get them in for heavier cars, and the fact that the bottom 3/32" are Falken Azenis RR215 compound. They don't fall off with heat, which makes them a better all around tire than the Azenis to me. They do require being shaved though. If you run them full tread, they chunk and you tend to overheat them, thus hardening the core Azenis compound. You won't see the Civic guys running these for they only come in sizes for 16" wheels and up. In the rain, this is a superior tire to the Azenis, even shaved to 3/32". Look at the tread pattern and it becomes very apparent why they would be good with rain conditions.
1. I still feel the MX is the king. They're consistent, love heat, and if the sizing is right, they provided excellent grip. I ran my Celica on these for the first race ever in Ft. Myers with the car somewhat prepped. I was 3rd after day 1 and got a 5th place trophy after day 2 (driving like crud). They have very good longitudinal grip (probably the best in the group) and laterally they are as good as 2 and 3, but they don't transition as crisply. They will dominate in a sweeper though, for they hold a set and stay there. Results can't be wrong either. The last two STS National champions were on MX's. To make these work though, you need a fairly light car (under 2500 #), shave them to 3/32" or less and have a stiff setup. If I were to keep running my car, I was going to buy some 205 MX's and run them. I wish I never went away from them for they just felt great, but in ST, development and experimentation is everything.
If I were Miles and would buy the new Azenis RT615. It will work the best and can be run full tread on and not have a lot of loss by doing so. He will need to hit Lowe's and buy a sprayer though
To point out the comments on spraying down Azenis: If you're in a FWD car, you must spray these down. Way too much work is done by the front tires to not do so, and there is a significant feel difference. AWD, it's hard to say. Corey Ridgick and Billy Brooks all spray down their Azenis when they run them. You see just as many sprayers in the ST crowd these days as you do in those running R compounds. If I were running Azenis, I'd spray them after each run if possible. The only tires not to spray are the MX's, KD's, and FKGRB451's.
On a side note, I will never, ever miss ST tires. After driving Toledo on R compounds again (even bad Hankook Z214's), you'll never see me long for street tires again.
- AB
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) they will be down on grip from aging by the time they have optimum tread depth. Therefore, if you want a "rain friendly" (sort of) ST tire to use on the street and/or wet events you might be better off with the Azenis. Then when they get "bald" you can justify a new set simply by the lack of rain safety. The fact that a new set will be faster is a bonus. 
)
Just give me enough room to accelerate, a few nice, big sweepers and enough playtime and I can even put the car in the weeds because I wore all the rubber off the right side tires. 
