- Joined
- Mar 11, 2007
- Messages
- 2,015
The ultra high performance street tire category; IE the ones with 200-180 wear ratings that you can still daily drive, have been competitive for years. There's nothing that affects a car's performance more than a good set of tires.
And according to Grassroots Motorsports, who do frequent testing, the current king in this category is the Kuhmo Ecsta XS. I had thrown the name around before knowing it was a good tire, but I didn't know until now that it beats out today's newest tires like the Bridgestone RE-11 and the Yoko AD08.
Both tires just mentioned are very, very good, especially the new AD08, but the Kuhmo XS beats them both.
And the Kuhmo is in the same boat as the RT615, RS2, and Z1 Star Spec as they are all the budget tires in the $90 US range.
Toyo, Bridgestone, and Yokohama seem to be about $30 dollars more for the same size tire.
So for everyone who thinks the Hankook RS2 is the super tire, I would actually rate it last in this grouping just mentioned. The Falken RT-615 is also no longer the best choice on a budget.
I would like to note that all these tires are close in performance, none are really bad. Each tire still has it's merits, for example if you need and stable tire for track day's, the Azenis is still a very stiff and consistent tire, but doesn't grip as quite hard as new offerings. For the record, the Bridgestone RE-01R is a fast tire, but is less availabe and performs worse than the newer RE-11, so I won't talk about it much. The Dunlop Z1 Star Spec and the Hankook RS2 are both slower, relatively underperforming tires.
But if you're in the big category of people wanting a high performance street tire, especially on a budget, the XS is it. If that's unavailable the Yokohama AD08 is the next best thing.
XS
AD08
RE-11
R1R
RT-615
Star Spec
RS2
The bottom three shown have 200 wear rating compared to the 180 ratings of the other tires.
And according to Grassroots Motorsports, who do frequent testing, the current king in this category is the Kuhmo Ecsta XS. I had thrown the name around before knowing it was a good tire, but I didn't know until now that it beats out today's newest tires like the Bridgestone RE-11 and the Yoko AD08.
Both tires just mentioned are very, very good, especially the new AD08, but the Kuhmo XS beats them both.
And the Kuhmo is in the same boat as the RT615, RS2, and Z1 Star Spec as they are all the budget tires in the $90 US range.
Toyo, Bridgestone, and Yokohama seem to be about $30 dollars more for the same size tire.
So for everyone who thinks the Hankook RS2 is the super tire, I would actually rate it last in this grouping just mentioned. The Falken RT-615 is also no longer the best choice on a budget.
I would like to note that all these tires are close in performance, none are really bad. Each tire still has it's merits, for example if you need and stable tire for track day's, the Azenis is still a very stiff and consistent tire, but doesn't grip as quite hard as new offerings. For the record, the Bridgestone RE-01R is a fast tire, but is less availabe and performs worse than the newer RE-11, so I won't talk about it much. The Dunlop Z1 Star Spec and the Hankook RS2 are both slower, relatively underperforming tires.
But if you're in the big category of people wanting a high performance street tire, especially on a budget, the XS is it. If that's unavailable the Yokohama AD08 is the next best thing.
XS
AD08
RE-11
R1R
RT-615
Star Spec
RS2
The bottom three shown have 200 wear rating compared to the 180 ratings of the other tires.
Last edited:
(in the uk that is)
