Just received a set of the brand new compound from BF Goodrich, the R1-S autocross compound! I decided to order the 245/40/17 since it is a WIDE and SHORT tire based off of the 235/40/17 mold(only difference is spacer was added to the 245 to make it wider while keeping the short height).

Below are pics of the comparison between the Hoosier A6 in 225/40/17 and the brand new BFG R1-S......

http://www.facebook.com/craig.wilcox...=share_comment

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

I'll be testing these out in the coming weeks and will post results as they unfold........

 

 

 

anxiously awaiting your findings

 

That's a LOT of meat. No rubbing issues?

 

Just back from a LONG 4 day weekend in Lincoln. Well, the tires performed wonderfully, the Mini however, did not. We had some issues with lack of power coming out of sweepers when the front tire spun slightly with the car being tossed around(with the rear wheel off the ground). Basically, coming out of the sweepers, it would feel like we were only getting 30% throttle, and, this would last for THE ENTIRE RUN! I have called one of the big time Mini racers, Brad Davis at Mini of Charleston, and he said it is probably one of three things. If I remember correctly, those things were either a bad wheel speed sensor, a bad steering angle sensor or a bad pop off valve on the turbo(causing lack of boost). So, my Mini will be going in to the dealership for diagnostics, which, should show what is going on and should be something that can be fixed easy enough.

Even with the acceleration issues, I still ended up winning D-Stock by 0.9 seconds over the reigning 2011 DS National Champion in his Audi TT Quattro!

OK, back to the tire.... IT IS AMAZING!!!! We found that the R1-S has more grip than the Hoosiers and it was quicker on the practice course by several tenths of a second on a 40+ second course. During competition, the performance of the tire was fantastic, we ended up running 44 PSI up front and 58 PSI in the rear(so high due to the extreme grip level).

As far as rubbing, once we got on course and started really loading up the suspension, there was definitely a good amount of rubbing on the front strut and the rear trailing arm. Smoke was actually coming out when at full load due to the tire rubbing, and, it actually melted/shaved off the inside edge on front and rear. With that said, I think we need to go down to a 235/40/17 to avoid getting melted messy rubber all over the place. The good news is the 235 is only 0.3-0.4 skinnier and its the same height, so, its still going to be ultra wide. With that said though, if the 245 proves to be quicker, I'll deal with the rubbing, and, would likely run a 235/40/17 in the rear regardless since the rear tires do not do much anyway.

One more thing to note, BFG pays contingency for National Tours. 1st place with 3 entrants gets 2 Tires! 2nd place with 5 entrants gets 1 Tire! That is fantastic, and, the best contingency plan available for National Tours!

 

nice results at both the Pro and Tour, you are on fire! Congrats!

Where did you end up with your rear swaybar?

 

Prices?

 

See TireRack.com.

 

I ended up running on full stiff at Lincoln on my Solid race bar. Update on issue with Mini, my dealer found a crack in one of the plastic boost tubes, so, hopefully my issues will be resolved for Blytheville. I don't think I can stand another event with limited throttle. I cannot tell you how excited I was when they told me they found an issue. Crossing fingers....

 

That's good news! Glad it wasn't one of those phantom problems that they couldn't track down!

 

Great news Craig, glad they found the problem with the car. Also great to hear there "may" be an alternative to the Purple Crack. I know a few HS guys that have been buzzing about your results on this tire and are anxious to order. How do the tires look at this point? Any chunking or serious wear on the shoulders?

I know after 8-10 runs on H, needed a flip..

Hope this works out (fingers crossed)

Jeff

 

Unfortunately, I am still having the 30% throttle issue. It definitely happens with wheelspin while the inside rear wheel is up in the air coming out of a sweeper.

Regarding the tires, the 245/40/17's are so freaking wide that they rubbed really bad on the strut/trailing arm while on course(smoke was actually coming out of the wheel wells). With the 235's, this shouldn't be a problem. The 235's are the same height but 0.3 inches skinnier. I have a set of those on the way....

Anyway, on the 245's, I did 37 runs and decided to flip them. That was 37 runs between Lincoln Air Park and Blytheville which are both hard on tires, so, this is excellent news.

After today's autocross I now have 45 runs and there is a ton of life left on the new outside tread line(probably 80%+). If these were the 235's, I am confident that I would be able to make 75-80 runs before they cord. Even with the throttle issues, we ended up 2nd and 4th in PAX today out of 100+ competitors with me coning away a top PAX on my 2nd run. We have 8-9 heat cycles on these as well.

 

I used to run the BFG R1 from years ago and it took some time to get heat into them but they would perform very well too, How quick did these come around for you compared to the Hoosiers, which is a great tire too, your findings are surprising that there is that much ET improvement over them, BFG did their homework...
Looks as though they are full tread and not shaved at all either? Very surprising to see the pressures you were running, would never have thought to go that high, gosh I have been away from racing far too long..

I will have to do some rule book reading since the last class I ran was E-street prepared.

Great write up!!!

 

Did the 235's work out without rubbing? Do they fit better under the wheelwells?

 

Any experience with the 235's yet? Any rubbing? Still think they are faster than hoosiers?

 

There was VERY VERY slight rubbing on the inside of the tire, I believe on the trailing arm, I think this may have happened under extreme load, basically the inside edge of the tire looks slightly scuffed. The very slight rubbage is nothing to worry about unless your a sissy, haha.... I also tried the 235/40/17 R1-S up front and the R1 in the rear. I really like this setup, but, during cooler temps, things could be a bit too loose in the rear. It would be nice to have this setup on a hot day with a high grip surface for sure. In Lincoln at Nationals in September though, I'm stilll not sure.

I have been battling this whole throttle cut off issue for far too long, and, Nats is 2 weeks away. I've gone and done something crazy since nothing else has worked....... I just went out and bought another 2008 MCS, this time with ASC, in Atlanta and arrived back here in Missouri at 2am this morning. We are currently swapping all the parts over to the new Mini and will be done with the transfer tomorrow. I will just need to get a quick alignment tomorrow afternoon and then get the graphics installed on Wednesday. If this one has throttle cut-off, I'm running it off a bridge into the Missouri river.

We have an event this weekend and I'll be taking 8 runs with 245's up front and 235's in the rear to see how that works out with fresh rubber on this new Mini. I liked that setup at the Lincoln T&T a couple weekends ago. I'm thinking that might end up being my nationals setup. I'm just not for sure if I will have the R1 or R1-S in the rear. Either way, yeah, these are quicker than the Hoosiers IMHO.

 

very very very little rubbing, actually, rubbing probably isn't even the correct word, I'd call it scuffing, and, only under extreme load. The scuffing did nothing to the tire other than dull a very small area of the inside edge. This would allow flipping the tire with no adverse effects, unlike the 245's which get trashed on the inside edge.... These tire are good for 20 or so runs up front then need flipped and can run another 20 runs or so(depending on surface). If moved from front to rear, 75-80 runs are possible with flipping.

As far as fitting under the wheel wells, I'll take some pics, I don't remember to be honest, but, neither the 245 or 235 were an issue in regards to rubbing on the wheel well with the JCW suspension and my Koni's. I'm not sure about any other suspension