New Azenis Performance???

MilesBeam · **Joined:** Fri Aug 15, 2003 1:57 pm **Posts:** 427

I haven't researched this at all, but I may be about to... What is the reputation of the new Falken Azenis tire that came out this year? They finally built that tire in my size, and I have pondered just getting a set of those and not bothering to change tires for the events I show up to next year (getting old and lazy).. and maybe (flame suit on) just running in stree tire once in awhile....

Thoughts??? I'd especially be interested in how they are doing on the heavier cars, like my 3400 lb Vette.

Miles

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:44 pm

MilesBeam wrote:

I haven't researched this at all, but I may be about to... What is the reputation of the new Falken Azenis tire that came out this year? They finally built that tire in my size, and I have pondered just getting a set of those and not bothering to change tires for the events I show up to next year (getting old and lazy).. and maybe (flame suit on) just running in stree tire once in awhile....

Thoughts??? I'd especially be interested in how they are doing on the heavier cars, like my 3400 lb Vette.

Miles

Are you referring to the 451's?

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:52 pm

Miles,
There is a fairly comprehensive write up and comparison of seven street touring tires, one of which is the Falken Azenis RT-615. A quick synopsys is the RT 615's produced the fastest times of the seven.
The test car was a Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, driven by two different drivers. The article is in the August Grassroots Motorsports.
Bernie

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:08 pm

Bernie Baake wrote:

Miles,
There is a fairly comprehensive write up and comparison of seven street touring tires, one of which is the Falken Azenis RT-615. A quick synopsys is the RT 615's produced the fastest times of the seven.
The test car was a Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, driven by two different drivers.
Bernie

Yea... but I dont trust the Rt-615 writeup in the GRM. They used:

a) light cars
b) ST car had NO camber

RT-615s may be great on a LIGHT UNDERPOWERED car, but I wanna see how it works on a high HP heavier car.

The RT-215s work great (last 'Azeni' tire) for lighter cars, but for a 300-hp AWD car, they over heat and get greasy fast (i.e. my current 245/45/17 RT-215s sucked temp wise compared to the 225/45/17 RE070s I ran at L'Burg).

Kevin Allen has the RT-615s... I would consider his PoV on this matter. I have yet to see a post where someone in a heavier/high HP car runs the 615s.

If you are going to read that article, I would also consider the Kooks. Marcus McRae is currently running 225/45/17s against my 245/45/17s and has no temp prbs, and they come in A LOT more sizes.

Good luck Miles!

- brian

DanDurusky · **Joined:** Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:31 pm **Posts:** 686

^yeh but from what i gather, a broader temperature sweet spot is the biggest feature of the new 615s. from what ive read theyre a lot better for track days, etc than the 215s were

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:33 pm

DanDurusky wrote:

^yeh but from what i gather, a broader temperature sweet spot is the biggest feature of the new 615s. from what ive read theyre a lot better for track days, etc than the 215s were

From what little I know, the 215s are good until you start to over heat them from quick transistions repeatedly. It seems that autoX puts TOO MUCH heat into them, but track days doesn't overheat them as bad, and they make generally a good track day tire.

I know the big thing keeping *ME* from using the RT-615 as an autoX tire is its price. For local or regional competition, there is not that significant an advantage that the now *cheap* Hanhooks don't provide. That, and the Hanhooks come in better sizes.

- brian

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:44 pm

The Spec V in the GRM tests had -1 degree of camber, they also said the pressure temperature gain was about half of the 215's but that equated to cooling after the second run vise the first for the 215's
Bernie

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:51 pm

Bernie Baake wrote:

The Spec V in the GRM tests had -1 degree of camber, they also said the pressure temperature gain was about half of the 215's but that equated to cooling after the second run vise the first for the 215's
Bernie

While that is good and well, I *personally* dont think that anyone serious about autoXing in a ST class is going to be running -1.0 degrees of camber on a ST car with MacPherson front suspension.

All they had on that car was the 'Nismo' package which isnt really an 'autoX' setup.

Given, I dont know the camber curves of this car, but I dont find any of the information or testing they did for those tires to be exceptionally relevant to my driving.

I think for me, a 'Kook in 225/45/17 on an STi keeping up with a 245/45/17 STi RT-215 is a better indicator. He has more consistent times per run, and generally has his best times at the END of the day. I generally have my best run on the FIRST run (2-driver car), and lose grip as the day goes on.

Even the 225/45/17 Rt-215s vs the 225/45/17 RE070 test we did in L'burg, the RE070 was faster.

Temp wise... that is nice to know, and I do agree the ST-215 gains WAY too much temp, but I have gotten around that through smart tire pressure settings and other various means....

Overall, I think the Kooks are a much better tire, and that test did little to tell me which was best. The RT-215s finishing ahead of the Kooks on a consistent basis isnt going to happen, IMHO.

EDIT: Sorry Miles -- that really doesn't answer your question. I don't know if Kevin A. has driven his yet, but I think that he would be a good local measuring stick.

I just dont use that test to judge which ST-tire is better.

- brian

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:08 pm

Brian Herring wrote:

From what little I know, the 215s are good until you start to over heat them from quick transistions repeatedly. It seems that autoX puts TOO MUCH heat into them, but track days doesn't overheat them as bad, and they make generally a good track day tire.

- brian

I've used RT-215s at our VIR-Full event earlier this year (on my ~3200 lb DSP-prepped BMW 328is) and was quite impressed with them. Although a lot of people say they get very "greasy" on track, I experienced nothing of the sort - they had consistent high levels of grip throughout each run session without doing anything to cool them down. And the tread surface showed no signs of heat damage whatsoever - no discoloration, melting, chunking, etc. Lap times were in the 2:27-2:28 range.

I did switch to Victoracers late each day to run time trials and found the Victos to offer a higher level of grip, but the Victos were also 30 mm wider than the RT-215s.

I'll better be able to comment about RT-615s on a heavy car after this month's autocross. I just bought a set for my STi and am planning to run them in X-STU at the next few autocrosses.

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:12 pm

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Brian Herring wrote:

From what little I know, the 215s are good until you start to over heat them from quick transistions repeatedly. It seems that autoX puts TOO MUCH heat into them, but track days doesn't overheat them as bad, and they make generally a good track day tire.

- brian

I've used RT-215s at our VIR-Full event earlier this year (on my ~3200 lb DSP-prepped BMW 328is) and were quite impressed with them. Although a lot of people say they get very "greasy" on track, I experienced nothing of the sort - they had consistent high levels of grip throughout each run session without doing anything to cool them down. And the tread surface showed no signs of heat damage whatsoever - no discoloration, melting, chunking, etc. Lap times were in the 2:27-2:28 range.

I did switch to Victoracers late each day to run time trials and found the Victos to offer a higher level of grip, but the Victos were also 30 mm wider than the RT-215s.

I'll better be able to comment about RT-615s on a heavy car after this month's autocross. I just bought a set for my STi and am planning to run them in X-STU at the next few autocrosses.

Sorry to deviate from the topic here.. but...

- Keith -- why dont you run STU Open class instead? I would love you to kick my butt some in the STi.

I want to hear your results as well. I am more interested to hear your tire results on an autoX that does not have paved parking lots (i.e. concrete). The RT-215s seem to do fine on low grip levels as they dont over heat as badly.

- brian

Ps. If you are going for X-class points, please disregard my post.

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:16 pm

I put the FK451's on the Camaro...3100+ rear wheel drive car.

First event in the car was this past weekend in Virginia. I had Richard West and his Mini covered by almost 6/10ths of a second in STX. The car run a top ten raw time and would have been in the top ten PAX with the STX pax (ran ESP and covered that class by 10 seconds).

The tires provided very good feed back and recovered quickly when pushed past their limits. They continue my main gripe with street tires...a lot worse braking than r-comps. Maybe it was me setting brake points for a 114 hp car

The course was a nice mixture of slaloms, sweepers and go fast straights. The tires felt crisp in the slaloms (even the 15 foot ones) and provied good bite out of the sweepers. Although not Hoosier level, not that far off.

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

The RT615s rock. I bought them to daily drive with the bling STi BBS wheels on the WRX & to autox on a few times this year. I used them on the 2.5RS at Danville, where I felt like I could push a little harder without having to "save it" anywhere, and I could brake later than with previous STS tires (Kumho MX, Azenis RT215, Bridgestone RE070). Turn-in is not horrible like the Kumho MX was, but it's not nearly as crisp as the RE070. They don't tramline, they don't make noise, they don't hydroplane in downpours that are hard enough to make ME slow down, and they're not harsh.

I haven't driven on all the other STS/STX eligible tires out there, but I have absolutely no complaints about these.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:39 pm

Keith Quistorff wrote:

I've used RT-215s at our VIR-Full event earlier this year (on my ~3200 lb DSP-prepped BMW 328is) and were quite impressed with them. Although a lot of people say they get very "greasy" on track, I experienced nothing of the sort - they had consistent high levels of grip throughout each run session without doing anything to cool them down. And the tread surface showed no signs of heat damage whatsoever - no discoloration, melting, chunking, etc.

In know I'm not talking Keith's BMW level here, but on my Z-24 on VIR-F I had the same results. The RT-215s had plenty of grip and felt the same each session. Of course it was much colder in February. However I ran the same tires at VIR-S and they were still very good.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:12 pm

Brian Herring wrote:

- Keith -- why dont you run STU Open class instead?

Ps. If you are going for X-class points, please disregard my post.

Oops, I was supposed to disregard your post.

Yes, although I'm not even in the hunt in X class, I still want to give it a valiant effort.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:19 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

on my Z-24 on VIR-F I had the same results. The RT-215s had plenty of grip and felt the same each session. Of course it was much colder in February. However I ran the same tires at VIR-S and they were still very good.

I probably should have mentioned it in my prior post, but I also ran the RT-215s for my first track session on Saturday at VIR-S and had the same impression - surprisingly consistent and high levels of grip.

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