Zak77

My Hankook V12's are approaching the end if their usable life. They were on my C5 when I bought it, and I've put about 10K miles on with 4 HPDE events on them. Help up pretty well and have and decent grip.

I'm looking for a good dual purpose but one that comes in good sizes for C5 Z06 rims. Everyone seems to love the PS2's but they are out of my budget. I'd like to stay under $1200 if possible.

Looking at:
PSS (little narrow front/rear)
Hankook RS3 (again narrow front/rear)
NT05

and?????

I've put 10K on my C5 in the past 16 months and I plan on doing about that that in the next year. So 8K a year on the road, with 4-5 hpde events a year. Looking for a tire that will last hopefully a year.

Soloontario

The 285 -18 Hankook is pretty big without being overly tall and will last quite a while although it is a bit noisy on the road and no good in the wet.

Interesting that Tirerack claims the same treadwidth for the 275 and 285 and only a different diameter in the 18" sizes. They are wrong. The 275 is at least 10 mm more narrow than the 285 on the same rim.

sheshnwoody

I just posted this another thread, but I have had pretty good luck with the NT-05 street tire. 295 Rear and 275 front, after 1.5 yrs and 9 track days at sebring raceway, they are still kicken. They are pretty worn on rears and front sides (triangles), but will still make it another day for sure. Not great in standing water, but damp they are ok. I want to say I paid <= $1k for the tires installed at Discount Tire locally.

racebum

nt05 seems like the obvious choice. keeps the tcs/asm system happy for the street and you have decent grip when warm

Soloontario

Unfortunately my experience with NT-05s is that they don't handle heat all that well i.e they get pretty slippery after a few laps. OTOH the Hankooks do the same. (Yes I am comparing to R comps like the NT-01 which handle a greater number of laps much better). OTOH it seem the BFG Rival handles heat better but they are more money.

SunnydayDILYSI

But be careful in the rain. Definitely do not go more aggressive than the NT-05 if you are ever in a situation where you will feel like you have to drive, even if it's raining.

FASTFATBOY

Drop your starting air pressure on the NT-05, I had this issue also until I dropped pressure.

My car is a Z28, too much pressure they slide around....which adds more pressure and its downhill from there.

I start the session with 31F/26R.

The NT-05 is an incredible tire IMO.

Gordy M

a good 2-way tire would be the Dunlap Direzza ZII get the 255/40x17 and 275/35x18 and it is plug and play. Nannies will work, good autocross/hpde tire, and very good in the wet/rain. For max handling then the BFG Rival or Hankook RS3 are the best.

hellrazr

I've used NT05, RS3, and PS2. Here are my experiences, of course, your experience may vary:

NT05s lost grip about half-way through tread life (don't remember number of heat cycles).

RS3s had good trip until about 1/3 tread life, but didn't drop off as far as NT05.

PS2s held it's grip until it corded, and were really great once once the tread was gone.

So, for track duty, I'd say the PS2s are the best value even though they have the highest initial cost.

Otherwise, the RS3s have great grip when new, and then as they fall off ya just will be slower. The NT05s were pretty much unusable once grip started falling off.


But, my favorite tires were the Firestone Wide Ovals. Not much grip to start with, but they lasted all the way to the cords and felt great once the tread was gone. Great pricing, too. Also, keep in mind that the less grip the tires have, the easier it is on the car's components.

neilvosko

why not PSS ?

wtb-z

255/285 RS3 should work great, and get you a year of life on that duty cycle without running out of tread or falling off too badly.

Timz06

You are looking for something that doesn't exist. Street tires suck on the track and track tires are not streetable.

Driving on track with street tires that have a few k miles and several de's is like driving on ice. I have tried several different types of street tires on track and after they heat cycle for two days they get hard as a rock. I could not drive my c6z anymore on the street with these tires, as the rear traction was so bad I thought that the alignment had moved, turned out it was just the tires.

Better to have track tires and street tires.

Zak77

After looking at prices again, Tirerack has the PSS's in the wides I can go with 17/18 at $958. Not to bad for US made tires. The RS3's would be $826, the BFG Rivals would be $1044 and the ZII's are $960.

Eventually (probably a year or two) I'll get a second set of tires for track only but I'd like to do another year of HPDE then I'll get a rear cage and track tires for time trials/hill climbs and HPDE.

wtb-z

On a regular car I would be less optimistic about dual use tires, but the Corvette is so easy on tires it is possible to get away with it. My last set of RS3s, used as street/track tires, were running the same times at full tread as they were a year later at 2/32nds.