mopar bob

Has any one run the RS 3 version 2 yet? What do you think of them. I might try them but they will not ship the 305 X 19 till 4-30 and the first race is 4-15. I have V12's on the 19's now and they are not a very good tire even for the street. My 18,s have snows and in Colorado those must stay till at lest till May. I have RE 11's for the 18's with one season on them but I may sell them to my friend. So my question is the RS version 3 that much better than the RE 11?

Earlydays

Check out the latest tire test of Extreme Performance tires on Tire Rack
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=197
Looks like the best is the Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec......though they don't test the new RE-71R

mopar bob

They don't make Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec's in 19 inch sizes or I would try them. They only have RE 11 or RS 3 at tire rack in my size.

mopar bob

i would run the new RE 71 R if they made them in my size.

edfishjr

I co-drove a car at the SCCA Nationals last year on RS-3 V2s. What I can say is that the tire is much more coldblooded than the previous version. We allowed ours to get overheated on the first 2 runs on a hot day on a long sweeper course and paid for it, unable to cool it back down for runs 3 thru 6 even with ice-water soaked towels. We should have started spraying immediately. As a result, we both got slower and slower.

sjfehr

Ed's being a bit modest I think; R-S3v2 is really damned fast tire and his codriver won the national championship on them. A number of classes in 2014 were essentially spec R-S3v2.

I hear a lot of complaints about R-S3v2 having a soft sidewall, though, and a lot of conflicting and contradictory tire test results. The one consistent factor that makes a little sense of seeming nonsensical results is sidewall spring rate. Stiffly sprung cars light cars (especially with good camber) tend to do better on the R-S3v2 (or Toyo R1R) than the ZII or Rival. Soft sprung heavy cars with poor camber (like ours) seem to do better on the ZII and better still on ZII*. I've heard people complain about the mushy feel of the R-S3v2 if that matters to you, though speeds are usually still very good.

RE-71R is an unknown. As is Rival S. But both are expected to be very vast. Both seem to be in the middle as far as sidewall stiffness goes. The first batch of RE-71R were delivered earlier this week and a lot of people are going to be doing testing the next few weeks. If your first autocross isn't until April, you might want to wait and see what they find.

burglar

^ yes all of that.

Also I've read the RS-3 tends to not like being overtired, also part of that softer sidewall thing.

The Rival seems to have been designed specifically to handle being slightly overtired and used on camber limited cars. A lot of people really liked the current Rival - except at Lincoln. We'll see how the Rival S shakes out.

Also of semi-important note, last year the top few tires were all really close, with some having just slightly different strengths and weaknesses. I don't expect the RE-71R or Rival S to be sudden massive overdogs. I don't think you could go really all that wrong as long as you choose from the BFG, Kook, Z2SS, or RE71R. All great tires.

Joe Ricard

Yep double all that. and pretty much the reason I am waiting to buy new tires and co-driving for Dixie. Which will be on the Kook RS3 v2.

Paul Hagger

Any news on future 200tw tires that might fit a 996 GT3? Right now there is nothing at all (unless I downsize to Dunlop ZII* 285s) but luckily my local PCA allows 180tw for one more season.

I am hoping for 295 - 305 rears, 235 - 255 fronts on 18" rims

sjfehr

Friend of mine did some ZII* vs RE-71R testing today on his DS WRX; the results were very similar, but there wasn't enough data to draw a statistically significant conclusion. His fastest run was ZII* by a slight bit. Not sure how useful the data is since it was friggen cold out, though: 35 degrees.

Another friend of mine is at the same event and was planning to test four different tires on his STS miata including RS3v1, R1R, RE-71R and ZII*. Not quite as quick about posting results while walking to his work assignment, though. Hopefully he posts soon, but given the temps, not sure what he ended up doing.

mopar bob

Well with the softer sidewall it looks like my 4th set of RE11's. I went through 2 sets with my now sold 944S2. I would love to try a new tire but with my soft suspension i don't have much choice. I'm going to run the lobster forks that came on the car new as that looks like the lightest factory 19" wheel. Plus the car don't look half bad with them on. I'm looking at 245 x 35 front and 305 in the back. I have a few weeks to see if more sizes come out for the RE71R. I don't think they will, but you never know.

btwyx

What size do you need? They have them in 245/40R19 and 275/35R19 like the ZII, which is what I run.

mopar bob

The car comes stock with 235/35-19 front and 295/30-19 with a C4 305/30-19 rear. No one makes a 295 in a 200 rated tire only the 305. They put a lot of tire on this car. The 265/40-18 I had on the car last year was to small. The car felt loose to me, plus this lets me keep my snows mounted on the 18's as we can get snow into May or later. We can race in the 70's one day and get snow the next early in the season.

cretinx

I have a regional championship on the RS3v2s and I love them.

I have quite a few on-track hours with the ZII Star Spec. It's good, better feel but not as much outright grip as the RS3v2.

If you can keep the Hankooks in their happy temperature zone, they're an amazing tire.

I did not like the Rival at all. They reward driving like an ******* (happiest at extreme slip angles). I try not to drive like an *******.

burglar

Just made the sad realization why I liked the Rivals so much.