We lost an axle four hours in on Sunday morning, which took the car out of contention for the win. I decided to run my stint on the super cheap Westlake tires on the front, and a set of last years RS3's rear. They are slow and slidey, but reasonably consistent. 1:38's easily on the RS4's, 1:40's were a fight on the Westlakes.
Having said that, I would not hesitate to buy a set for a team that was just interested in having fun, for a group of new guys that have no great expectation of success, or somebody on a real budget. I spent two hours winding in way more steering angle than I should have, trying to murder them. I knocked a couple of chunks out of the edge of the tread, but nothing too serious. Had I been cruising, they would have lasted quite well.
$Cdn, $82.50 each. RS4's were $160 or so. Semi good range of bigger sizes, too.
I'll throw in an impression of the Federal RS-RR's. 235/40/17 is about $110/each shipped to my door and I ran them on 8.5" wheels; 205/50/15's were $85 delivered and I ran them on 7" wheels. Car is about 3K# with soft suspension, open diff, mediocre brakes, and mediocre driver.
They do not stick like NT01's or RE-71s. Sorry.
Using Harry's to measure G's of grip. It's not accurate in absolute terms, but it's consistent so it gives me a basis of comparison. RE-71's will hold in the corners until it reads 1.3g, the Federals will hold until it reads 1.1g. (Same car/tracks/suspension/track temps.)
Probably cost me about 2-2.5 seconds/lap on Summit Main.
They don't squeal before they let go, but I can easily feel the line between traction and breakaway.
I can't tell how long they last yet because I only have 3 hours of lapping on them. I flogged them hard and they still have a ton of tread left.
For you guys on a budget that are using multiple sets a season, I'd say you might want to test out a set a try and see how they work for your car and your track. I haven't settled on them as "the answer" yet, but they're the go-to budget angle so far. Sounds like they're better than the Westlakes.
If I was only eating one set of tires a season at HPDEs or whatever, I would probably pay up for NT01s at $175 a corner or so.
Now that Streetwiseguy has clued me in to the RS-4s, which I can get in 235/45/17 shipped for about $140, I may squeeze the budget to test a set of those next time and see if they rock my world.
