vfrv4

I have about 3000 miles on the Star Specs on the street only. Still working some bugs out of the car before DE/auto x. With aggressive driving they provide great feed back and control. I too have set them to 32 psi street pressure and using an infrared thermo and pressure gauge to monitor after a spirited run. I bought these based on the car and driver test last year, was rated #1. Might be able to hunt the tire test down on their site still. I have not noticed the road noise as one poster noted. Tho priors were a worn out set of bridgestone RE's that simply roared on the road. Paid $900 locally (matched tire rack + mounting) out the door for 225/18 and 265/18

A local club member saved a couple hundred over the star specs and bought the hankook v12's and is reporting great results vs. yoko s drives he had. The hankooks were #2 on the test.

Hope this helps.

Erik N

Just thought I would give my impressions of the Hankook V12's. UTQG 280. They were rated #2 behind the Dunlop Star Spec's in a Car&Driver shootout. My sizes are 225/45/17F; 255/40/17R.

I got them installed Friday, by Saturday 0900 I was on the track. I was careful the first few laps to get them up to temperature slowly. They did feel a little vague, but that might be the tread depth, because that seemed to get better as the tires got more use. I ran a higher pressure than I usually do (40F;38R), that helped firm them up a bit, too. They are pretty forgiving, and they don't scream when tortured around a long turn, which is nice. Also, they didn't really get greasy when cooked, which was surprising. I could smoke them if I jumped on the brakes too quickly, they liked a gentle brake application but once smoothly loaded they would grab fine. There is one off-camber, modulated throttle acceleration turn on the course, they did really well there for some reason. Maybe the tread actually helped them hang on. Some other cars w/ stickier tires were having trouble there, but not me. I got in about 50 laps, 1.4 miles each, with pretty consistent times. Actually I did a lot better times that other cars with way more stickier tires. Faster than a 2nd generation RX-7 on slicks, even.

So actually they did OK. None of the chunking like the pic in a previous post. The tread has feathered pretty severely on all 4 outer tread areas, but the inners still look flat. The shoulders still look good, the actual tread pattern doesn't wrap over, that's probably why.

Traveling the 75 miles to/from the track, they are GREAT on the highway! Very comfortable! No harshness. And extremely quiet, even coming back after the abuse and feathering. I took the car up to 130mph each way, the tires are quiet, even over rough pavement. We know how out 928's can have a lot of road noise, these are the most silent tires I can remember. I like that.

So, ya, I recommend them for what they are. And they were CHEAP! My total, after rebate, was $475! AND, I took the car back to Discount Tire yesterday right before they closed, and they flipped the tires on the rims/rebalanced them for free! How sweet is that?

So now they're ready for another track bout. After that, they should be uniformly feathered on both sides. Then, I will probably run them backwards to try and even out the feathered wear, hoping to keep them quiet.

James Bailey

You really can not use full tread tires on the track without chunking them if you are driving anywhere near the limit .Many of the DOT "race spec" tires must be shaved to 4/32 and all tires need to be heat cycled 15 minutes of gradually increased abuse and left to rest for at least 24 hours, new tires have mold release compound on them and that too needs to be worn off so the tires work their best. And as the PCA instructors point out while drifting / power oversteer might be fun it is also SLOW

Erik N

Meh. They're definitely heat cycled now.

IcemanG17

I thought this too....but the Star Specs we run on the Lemons racer are full tread & do not show ANY signs of chunking & wear nice and even.... & that is driven in race conditions by Anderson & Kibort plus Sean and I "Flat Out"....

James Bailey

I have seen it happen many times. Last POC school day guy with a Ferrari chunked his fronts. Another fellow in an econ box rental car....(he did not want to hurt his BMW) was taking the edges off the tread blocks. If I get lazy and do not switch to my track tires right away it shows on the tires.

James Bailey

Couple quick photos.....it just tears the edges off the tread blocks...or worse

IcemanG17

Jim
My E92 M3 tore the outside shoulders off the front tires in 1 trackday....on Michelin PS2's.....$400 EACH!

I think the main reason street tires fair so poorly on track is due to having STREET alignment..or not anywhere near enough camber in front (typically) which overheats the outer shoulder when pushed hard...BUT makes even treadwear when driven leisurely on the street...which is why they do it....remember the Estate has MAX camber or about 2.5' up front & shows quite even tire wear all the way around....we can get two full races out of a set of street tires...or about 32 hours on track time.....

The test will be in 2011 at the next race.......maybe Feb at Willow Springs

Erik N

Those pics don't look bad at all. The RR F1 I removed on Friday had a piece of rubber peeled off the size of my palm, w/ 2 layers of cords showing.

The last 2 shots are the same Kuhmo's I ran before the Goodyears. They buzzed like a vibrator on a glass table. Glad they're gone.

James Bailey

I run 3 1/2 to 4 degrees negative on the fronts it is NOT a lack of camber issue. And no those tires are not too bad but they only got 10-15 minutes of track time !

Cosmo Kramer

Good to hear the reviews on the Hankooks, I was going to put those on my car but the salesman talked me into the Bridgestone Re760 Sport. I am happy with them, but I think I can get the Hankooks a little cheaper so maybe I will try them for my next set.