History: We run two Integras in Chumpcar, and have accidentally ended up running Hankooks for three years, basically because that's what PMC tire has left by the time we get around to ordering. We have no horsepower, so our speed comes in the corners. We had run Koni orange shocks, skunk 2 upper control arms on the front, cut and welded rear upper control arms, poly bushings, and a cheap set of Chinese coilovers that are about 400ppi. The 195 50 15 RS3's we ran were very nice and quick, good feel, very progressive breakaway, but we had a very hard time keeping the edges on the fronts. More camber would wear the inside edge more without really improving the outside wear. With careful rotation, we could barely make 24 hours on eight tires per car.
RS4- We updated things this year a bit, trying to control the tire wear. Bumped up to 500ppi springs in the front, and built rear anti sway bars from 5/8 cold rolled rod. We bought a dozen 195 50 15's, and, new this year, one set of 245/40 15's. Bought one set of Bassett 15 by 8 stock car wheels with 5" backspacing for the 245's, and !!cool!!, although an inch trim on the fenders was needed. Six inch backspace would be perfect. Anyway- The RS4 (195/50) was immediately around a second faster- Last year we struggled to find one or two 1:37's in Edmonton, this year that was pretty normal. Feel is similar, although I think the edge of traction is a bit more pronounced- they grip and grip, then a wee bit more requested and the steering goes light, no more turn. Very easy to find the edge. Tire wear, though, is far, far better. I'm sure the setup changes probably helped a bit, but we had no concerns about running out of tires like last year, and I really feel it was more tire carcass improvement than car changes. Hard to know for sure, of course, without some testing.
The 245's- besides looking absolutely ballin' they worked really well. We had a pretty good thunder storm roll through Saturday, six hours in. They red flagged the race for two hours because of lightning, and I went out with new 245's on the front, and six hour 195's on the rear. Rain was till pretty heavy for the first hour, and I was one of the fastet cars on track. Drying, not so good, but I think I should have put four new ones on. After my stint, we put the other two on the rear, and finished out the weekend in the dry. We finished out the weekend on them, 16 hours on the fronts, 14 on the rears, with a front to back rotation on the left side about ten hours in. I'm confident, with flipping the left front and right rear, we have a solid six hours left in that set. Full disclosure- I lost second gear in my stint, so we ran the second day in third and fourth. Relearn the throttle application, and we only lost less than a second off lap times, but it became much harder to pass. It probably made tire life a bit better, although I don't think it really would have affected the edge wear because we were rolling the tight corners quicker.
TL:DR- The new Hankook RS4 is faster, wears better, and looks really cool in a 245 on an Integra.
As a 56 year old, I'd call them perfect.
