I'm looking for a long lasting track-only tire that won't heat cycle out quickly and that also won't grease up after 1 or 2 hot laps. I've been away from the track for several years, but have a few dozen days under me. If it were 2008 still, I'd get some RA1s or NT01s. Are they still the best option, or should I go with one of the latest Dunlops or other max performance options? I would hope to get 10 or so hours of track time out of a set without them going away completely from heat cycling. Ultimate speed isn't my goal as much as consistent performance over the life of the tire and something that will have a handling balance similar to Hoosiers, which is what I'll probably use for autocrossing.

Thanks!
Rich

 

I'm a fan of the Hankook TD C70 tires, but they do take a while to heat up.

 

What size are you running?

 

I'll probably go with 255 40 17 on 17x9.5s for these tires.

 

For a dedicated track tire, the Toyo R888's have done really well. You shave them down for better dry traction. BFG R1's would be a small step up.

 

R888's get super greasy. I've never been a big fan. NT01's are just as awesome now as they were back in 2008.

 

I've run R888s before in 2008. They were okay for about 4 track days and then fell off a lot. I replaced them with RE01Rs for a street tire class event and I swear the RE01Rs were faster than the heat cycled R888s, even though they were street tires and smaller.

 

i like the Maxxis RC-1, which are an improved version of the NT01s

 

NT01's grip till there coarded. I think the R888 and NT01 share compound.

 

Going to try some R-S3s. Clearly these tires come with little baggies of crack cocaine, because everyone raves about these tires.

 

Best tires i ever had... never put anything else on my car.

Only thing is they get scary in the rain, but i don't drive in the rain.

For the price you would be crazy to buy any other tire.

 

Rs3

 

I do love me some RS3's. For the price they're hard to beat. Not to mention the level of grip they provide. There's a reason we refer to them as cheater tires here in NASA AZ

 

RS3s have a pretty soft tread wall and need a little higher psi to keep them from rolling over.

On my 265/35/18 mounted on 18x9.5, I have put 14 hours of on track time on them and ~20,000 road miles. The alignment is -3.0 camber up front and -1.6 in the back. The tires have been flipped about half way through the wear.

The shoulder blocks are very worn compared to that picture of a new tire (I forget how big the shoulders looked when new). The middle is still decently treaded. Coming from the Yoko AD08R it took me a few days to understand that I needed to increase the tire pressure a bit for these tires.

They don't grease up unless you are driving very inefficiently. The older version 1 suck in the rain. I don't know what the new version is like.

I will be swapping to new Yoko AD08Rs for the rainy season on the track.

 

That's a really good point. I had forgotten that aggressive summer tires tend to have softer sidewalls to account for street driving vs. track abuse.