New "Extreme" Summer Tires for 2013 =)

[Heide264]

I like nice summer tires. They are awesome. They make me happy. They also make my racecar better than most imitation racecar(s).

I ran RE-11s last summer... and they will probably need replaced shortly into this season. They did wear better than I expected considering my alignment and some of the abuse they took. That being said, I was very happy with their performance.

Looks to be two big contenders coming up for me this year that I would like to see compared with the RE-11s in some way/shape/form:
BFGoodrich G-Force Rival
Direzza ZII


Any thoughts? I'm pretty stoked to see these new tires come out after reading what tirerack has said about the initial "samples" they have received.

[zax]

Bewbs are known to perform the best in all weather.

[SD_GR]

It's good to see new offerings in 225/50/16. The more the merrier.

[michaelwfox]

I like the tread pattern on the BF Goodrich more, looks more like a real racecar.

Aside from the purely aesthetic side. I have no opinion.

[Heide264]

It's good to see new offerings in 225/50/16. The more the merrier.

I can't run 16" tires with the rotors on my (overweight) car =(.

That being said, I do wish they would expand the smaller diameter tires a bit more. Most serious track goers would consider it silly to run an 18" wheel on my car for track use - which it is. 17" tires are significantly cheaper and many 17" wheels still clear my brakes. That being said, I don't have a spare set of 17" track wheels, nor do I have the brakes to support tires that are much better than my current ones.

[Heide264]

I like the tread pattern on the BF Goodrich more, looks more like a real racecar.

Aside from the purely aesthetic side. I have no opinion.

Also, the G-Force ones are asymmetrical as opposed to the directional VIIs. It's a consideration, because you can't rotate the directional tires side to side to help even out the wear.

[michaelwfox]

Also, the G-Force ones are asymmetrical as opposed to the directional VIIs. It's a consideration, because you can't rotate the directional tires side to side to help even out the wear.

This is part of the reason I got the Cooper RS3-A's

[Heide264]

Looks like there will be a new RE-11 variant out as well - RE-11A. Not sure how I missed that. I need to go clean my pants up now though that somebody pointed them out on iwsti.

[STiDriven]

I had the new Direzza ZII's on order, then the tire test for the Rivals came out and I changed my order. Can't wait to get them.

[EJ257]

I saw the Direzza ZII tires. TireRack did a comparison to the Z1 SS and seemed to feel they were a pretty good improvement.

[Axex]

Any tests done in the rain? I'm assuming you're going to be using this as your daily tire, if not I guess it doesn't matter as much.

Original star specs were great for auto-x because they heat up fast, but I don't think they were as stable on an extended track run. Not sure which you do more of but definitely keep that in mind.

Both look pretty sweet and I'm sure you can't go wrong either way.

[STiDriven]

Any tests done in the rain? I'm assuming you're going to be using this as your daily tire, if not I guess it doesn't matter as much.

Original star specs were great for auto-x because they heat up fast, but I don't think they were as stable on an extended track run. Not sure which you do more of but definitely keep that in mind.

Both look pretty sweet and I'm sure you can't go wrong either way.

Mine will pretty much be solely Auto-X/Track days. The only way they'll see rain is if it is wet on event day.

I've been super happy with Star Specs. The D1's are a fantasic 'all around' extreme performance tire. They worked from the cold start to pretty hot. They would get a little greasy when overheated, but what tire doesn't..... I ran my last set dead on an HPDE - where as others have noted, once you get to about 2/32" depth the compound gets harder. As it wore down to more of a slick, the little left of the soft rubber started chunking off; they were then done. They are a very consistent tire, which recover pretty well from mistakes IMO - and are FANTASTIC. I repeat FANTASTIC in the wet.

So why switch? The D2's are coming out and are supposed to be a bit faster than the D1 all around. The BFGs are supposed to be a bit faster and the D2's in the dry. The BFGs are also reported to be very easy to drive at the limit vs. the D2's are rumored to respond more like and R-comp (very peaky grip, easy to push to hard and have to waaaiiiitttt to recover from a mistake). It's already sounding like the driver will depend on which tire they will be faster in.

Me - I prefer a tire with excellent recovery so I can attack a course. The STi is not a finesse car and I drive it that way, so I don't want a finesse tire.

That said - how can I already decide when the D2's are yet to be tested fully??? Because BFG is offering a Solo contingency to run them..... Dunlop NEVER has. Support those who support you. Thanks BFG for coming back to Solo!

I'm also betting on this drought to continue so I won't have a need for a tire that can handle the 'wet' as good as the Dunlop.

[Heide264]

All three tires should be excellent and provide better steering response than their predecessors. I think the biggest question will be a small difference in price, but more importantly, availability and time of shipment in the spring

[Soobvirgin]

Also, the G-Force ones are asymmetrical as opposed to the directional VIIs. It's a consideration, because you can't rotate the directional tires side to side to help even out the wear.

Well, you can. But you need to rotate the tire on the wheel, then re-balance. Costly, unless you know someone at a tire shop. It's the directional asymmetrics that are the real P.I.T.A.

[Heide264]

I haven't seen directional asymmetric tires. I have only seen one or the other.

And I guess you could rotate them side to side in that case. I just use the excuse to buy another set of tires :-P