Hankook RS-3 or R Comps

[nando]

I think the point was the RA1s or whatever would be cheaper than getting rs3s. He should make the obvious choice and go with the cheaper tires.

[nando]

Alright...I'll tone it down a bit. R's are fun for sure, but the IMHO the ROI is not worth it unless you are being timed for a trophy and/or have a finish line to cross for a podium. All my opinion of course...and others surely may see it differently and totally disagree. I got no problems with that.

BUT, if I have to pay for tires and run my E30 on Hoosiers (or any other serious R tire) OR RA-1's for an HPDE, I'll take the RA-1's without any thought.

Ed

They arent that expensive, and as you say they should last a long time. I look at it like i do things like brakes; if you are doing a lot of track days it makes sense to have a dedicated set rather than thrash on your street setup.

The r888s have served me pretty well personally, but im not trophying, im just a wannabe :p

[brian52555]

Great information/discussion here. Learning towards the RA1s, but I have 1 month or so to make a final decision. A set of 4 Hankooks from tirerack will be 450 shipped; four used RA1s will be 300+ shipped.

I've heard the same things about RA1s being good until corded, and since I will be keeping the miles down on them I think that's the direction I'm going.

[nando]

go with the RA1s and sell the 235s to me :p

[Axxe]

I'd get RA1's on the track setup, and show up on your street setup with the falkens. Go a session with the falkens and at the end ask your instructor if you should switch to the Toyos for the next sesssion because the falkens aren't cutting it (they will overheat like crazy). This way you go out on "street" tires and then learn the track without R-comps, and then switch to r-comps.

[kalib0y]

Falkens rt-615s got greasy on me really fast...dont know if I would run them again

[liquidgroove]

I assume you will run 15".

If you are looking for bargain track worthy tires, may consider Federal 595RSR (not 595). 195/50/15 is only $66.23 + shipping which is 2/3 the cost of similar level tires.

Don't believe they sell 205/50/15 in US which is the size I am using. It has similar grip if not better than Nitto's NT-05.

If you are are willing to spend on R compound for more grip, then 595RSR won't be the tire you want. If you want cheap track worthy tire to develop driving skills, then it will be a good choice.