Experiences to share?, This tires work for my daily driving (less than 700 mile per month) or just for track?. I'm from SoCal, good dry weather almost all the year, stock suspension on stock R112, looking fwd for 215/45/17.

 

From what I hear, good tire. Supposedly better than the RS-3's that I'm currently on. They will be great except in the wet, so be sure to swap them out when some of that rain comes in.

 

TireRack shows them pulling .78 g's and stopping in 101 ft. from 50 mph in the wet.

What tire are you recommending to swap to before the first rain?

 

Just go with some all season tires like Falken 912's. That's what I put on when it rains, but any other time I'm always on my RS-3's. I thrashed them this past weekend, so I should be picking up a set of the g-Force Rivals myself

 

There's no reason to put on all seasons when it rains, if you have reasonable tires. Summer tires don't like cold, they have no particular problem with wet. Some particular summer tires have problems with rain, but the good ones don't. (The wet tire of choice for a lot of autocrossers is the Conti DW, a summer tire.)

In So-Cal it never gets cold enough to worry about the temperature, it barely gets that cold up here.

 

True, but if Rivals are anything like RS-3's in the rain, I highly recommend not running them in the wet. I'd rather go all-season over summer performance only because of the longer treadwear. I'm not against running other summer performance tires such as DW or PS2's though.

 

I just switched from the 215/45/17 size Hankook RS-3s to the same size BFG Rivals on my Mini. The Rivals are superior performers in pretty much every way, including in the cold and in the wet. The only place the RS3 might still have an edge is if both tires were REALLY hot. They both get greasy when they overheat, but the Rivals get slightly more greasy in my experience.

Don't be scared off by the unsual tread pattern. The Rivals are amazing in the wet. And even in standing water, they are at least average at evacuating water and hydroplane resistance. I have been running Rivals on my other car since they came out in the spring. I have driven on the street in the rain on them many times without drama. And they deliver incredible wet grip for cornering and braking at autoX in the rain.

 

Just don't drive like an A$$hat when it's raining and you won't have any issues with the Rivals. They're superior to pretty much every other performance summer tire out there. Except for maybe the Z2 and this new RE-11a thingy coming out. But they will wear pretty quickly. Are you doing auto-x or track days with them? If not it's kind of a waste for a daily. Just going to wear quickly and you can't really push them to their limits on the street anyways.

 

I don't really see the need to swap these in the rain for daily driving duties. He's not racing on the track.

 

From my experience with tires I have owned, The Falken 912's were horrible. It did absolutely nothing well. If I had to do all season (won't ever again) then I would do Continental Extreme Contacts, however even those felt flimsy but at least had okay traction in most conditions. But since you have some RS-3's I guess the crappy Falken performance does not matter.

Currently running Michelin PSS for the street and Dunlop ZII's for autocross. The Michelins are fantastic, almost as good as the ZII's but that judgement is almost impossible to make because I would never push the car on the street like I do in autocross.

 

Thanks for all the help and feedbacks. I just ordered my set last Saturday on tirerack, they had a nice deal with $50 of cashback but it's already over.

 

Anyone use the rival on the track yet? Impressions? I am also curious how they hold up... Chunking.. Ect..

Currently finishing up a set of the RE-11's and have been very happy but am intrigued about the Rival's as I have only heard great things...

 

I think RE-11a's would be your next best choice as an upgrade to your RE-11's because you know it's capabilities.

 

I'm leaning towards Star Spec ZII's.

Love them on my Miata and would like to keep the ability to reverse mount unlike Rivals and RE11

 

Nothing wrong with RS3's in the wet, unless the tread is down to the wear bars ;-).
I've been using my set of RS3's for autoX and daily driving, including in the rain, and ZERO undue excitement to report to date (still have tread left).

a

P.S.: Going all-season when it rains is just plain chicken#$%^, unless you other set of tires are Hoosiers.

 

I am on the wear bars and even with full tread it's wet traction blows. So I'm not being chicken ****, I'm being mindful that some people can't handle the wet better than others and it's best to go all-season than hit a pool of water, hydroplane, and find yourself nailed to the sidewall on the 101

 

im on the lower end of my G-forces KDW 2 in tread life, and i have been through torrential rain, 2+ in an hour, still motoring at 60 and had to issues. they still hook in the 40 deg weather and still keep me on the road, i would say they are fantastic tires i cant imagine how they would be with full tread, i bought them used.

not even squirrley on wet roads and pushing it

 

^nice!

 

Well, friend, _any_ tire worn down to 2/32 or 3/32 (aka wear bars) will suck in the rain. That is no reflection on the quality of the tire or it's rain abilities. Rather, it is all about the nearly non-existent water evacuation channels due to the tread wear.

For comparison, I've put ~8K miles on my RS3's since spring, including 6 autoXs. The fronts were well past 1/2 worn before I moved them to the back, to allow the newer ex-rears with deeper tread to evacuate the standing water in car's path and leave a clearer trail for the worn ex-fronts. The other day we had a heavy downpour requiring wipers on max speed. Rock solid with zero hydroplaning on the highway at 70mph. Closer to 75mph the front was getting wobbly over deeper puddles, so I backed off to 70mph.

When brand new, RS3's were unstoppable in the rain through (allegedly) low triple-digit speeds.

YMMV,
a

P.S.: Friends don't let friends drive on all-season tires.