well someone had to try them.Nankang ns-2r + 520hp car =???

well someone had to try them.Nankang ns-2r + 520hp car =???

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Discussion

Dan Friel

3,627 posts

278 months

Tuesday 23rd September 2014
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I've used the 180 variety on my daily drive since April.. Slightly less power than being discussed here (a Panda 100HP!) but not had any issues with them so far. It hasn't been a wet summer, so no dodgy moments. Have done about 6k miles, and plenty of tread left.

Have been used for hillclimbing / sprinting, and it's clear that they don't heat up quick enough for that sort of use (0.1 sec quicker than my road tyres from last year). But used on a track day and they were excellent, took a lap to warm up and then no drop off at all, plus little wear.

McSam

6,753 posts

175 months

Thursday 25th September 2014
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I've been following this with interest, as I'm trying to decide what tyres to go for on my E36 328i..

The problem I have is that I need a slightly unusual size, 225/50R16. It seems very few types are available in this size - only Toyo R1R, Hankook Z212 and the ubiquitous AD08 that I can't afford hehe

I could use 205/55R16 instead, but it seems somewhat counterproductive to go to a narrower, higher-profile tyre in order to get gripper compounds. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and buy myself a set of 17s so I can use 225/45R17, or am I missing a good offering in my current size?

It's a bugger to search for the NS-2Rs, always seems to throw up loads of rubbish about the NS-2s, but Nankang's website seems to indicate the only 16" size is 205/55. Shame!

Edited by McSam on Thursday 25th September 11:12

jon-

16,505 posts

216 months

Thursday 25th September 2014
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225/45 R16 and use the Kumho V70a?

If it's a track slag the increased acceleration due to gearing down and shorter, stiffer sidewalls will probably be welcome.

Dakkon

7,826 posts

253 months

Thursday 25th September 2014
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DottyMR2 said:
Dakkon said:
DottyMR2 said:
Not much to contribute to the thread in terms of experience, however I will be watching with interest. Want to find some good track day rubber for the MR2 that doesn't cost the world but gives good performance. Next year it'll be running around 350bhp after the winters work so sticky rubber is a must but we don't have an endless budget to run premium rubber all the time. It will make a real difference to costs with changing tyres a few times compared to say the cost of the Toyos.

I have however been to a track day with a mate in a supercharged MX5 with the Federal RSR fitted running 200bhp+. They were good, really good. Was a little taken a back the first corner he threw the car into at silly speeds and it just bit, turned in and made no fuss. Getting the power down on the exit didn't unsettle the car and they didn't drop off during the session. He was able to get in a lot of laps, over 60, with good wear and meat left on them. Certainly opened my eyes to them for how much they cost/performance.
I am running the Kumho V70 on my MR2 Turbo in the hard compound, four trackdays this year, 5th this coming Saturday at Bedford and I think they are pretty decent tyres, wear well, grip well and are not too bad in standing water. £500 for a set of four.
Interesting, 4 days on 1 set? That's pretty good wear!

The sizes aren't bang on what I'd want, ideally I'd have 205/50/R16 front and 235/45/R16 rears, but for the Kumho I'd have to run 205/45 on the front and 245/45 on the rear. I suppose it won't make too much of a diference, just a slightly larger stagger ratio than on the 15s. Do you reckon it would affect the balance greatly or are these the sizes you run?

The price certainly makes them more appealing and having another '2 with good experience isn't such a leap of faith on a new set of tyres too.
I still run the original 15" rims so they don't do a 195/55, so I use 205/50 fronts and a 225/50 rears. i'm at Bedford on the 11th October which I suspect will be my last trackday this year and depending how they are at the end of that will look at a new set for next years trackdays.

McSam

6,753 posts

175 months

Thursday 25th September 2014
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jon- said:
225/45 R16 and use the Kumho V70a?

If it's a track slag the increased acceleration due to gearing down and shorter, stiffer sidewalls will probably be welcome.
Hmm, I hadn't thought of that size, thanks - it seems to be quite rare though, I can only find V70a, R888 and AD048s on Camskill and none under £125 a corner! Quite severe..

Perhaps I'm missing a good source? Other places I tend to look are demontweeks (because it's nice to compare prices in different sizes so easily) and Tyreleader, the latter having 205/55R16 NS-2Rs for a rather attractive £60 smile

eldavo

543 posts

170 months

Friday 26th September 2014
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McSam said:
I've been following this with interest, as I'm trying to decide what tyres to go for on my E36 328i..

The problem I have is that I need a slightly unusual size, 225/50R16. It seems very few types are available in this size - only Toyo R1R, Hankook Z212 and the ubiquitous AD08 that I can't afford hehe

I could use 205/55R16 instead, but it seems somewhat counterproductive to go to a narrower, higher-profile tyre in order to get gripper compounds. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and buy myself a set of 17s so I can use 225/45R17, or am I missing a good offering in my current size?

It's a bugger to search for the NS-2Rs, always seems to throw up loads of rubbish about the NS-2s, but Nankang's website seems to indicate the only 16" size is 205/55. Shame!

Edited by McSam on Thursday 25th September 11:12
I know they're hardly "budget" but pretty sure they do A048s in 225/50/16 - I think that's what I have on my 944 CS rims. You can often get new old stock PS Cups in that size on eBay for about £60-70 per tyre too.

I'm running the 595 RS-Rs all round now on 17" rims though.

QBee

20,957 posts

144 months

Friday 26th September 2014
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eldavo said:
.....

I'm running the 595 RS-Rs all round now on 17" rims though.
Ditto, on 17 inch rims on my TVR. The "feel" is great, confidence inspiring and wallet-sparing

mgv8dave

826 posts

213 months

Friday 26th September 2014
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Federal FZ201's get my vote for a good track tyre.
195 and 205 X15 cost about £75 to £85 a corner they grip fantastic in the dry but not so "great in the wet" and as far as milage goes
on my car that is just sub 500Kg they have covered almost 2000 track miles this year.
Great value for money .

QBee

20,957 posts

144 months

Friday 26th September 2014
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mgv8dave said:
Federal FZ201's get my vote for a good track tyre.
195 and 205 X15 cost about £75 to £85 a corner they grip fantastic in the dry but not so "great in the wet" and as far as milage goes
on my car that is just sub 500Kg they have covered almost 2000 track miles this year.
Great value for money .
How long do they take to warm up? I know two TVR owners who have them and think they are great, but did mention that they take longer to warm up than the usual suspects.

nixon1

216 posts

160 months

Tuesday 7th October 2014
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I tried out the NS2Rs (120 wear rate) yesterday at Snetterton. They were brilliant.

The wear rate was fairly normal, which was impressive considering the weight of an Audi S4. Dry grip was manageable- i.e. lots of it with good feedback to the steering wheel. After a few laps of the 300 circuit I wanted to see what heavy braking was like. I'm using MTEC discs with Hawk HPS pads and these had previously been performing well with my road tyres. With the NS2Rs this changed to far better braking, to the point where the amount of stopping grip was allowing me to perform progressive braking from 125mph down to about 35 much closer to the corner apex than I'd ever managed before. After some laps I think the brake fluid was close to expiring... showing that with these tyres the weakest link was now the fluid. I could now brake that hard into each corner, that the pads and slotted discs were now giving a nice firework show to the marshalls. The Hankook V12s that I had on previously wouldn't allow this kind of braking.

At around 10:35 it started to rain biggrin I was nervous since I have so far not had a wet trackday and this was a venture into the unknown. Add on a particularly "on/off" throttle response since a remap and an instructor session at 11:30, there was all to play for.

I was genuinely blown away with the grip that was still available. Partly due to the Snetterton track surface but also due to NS2Rs ability to clear enough water. The rain got heavier, to the point when on the main straight the traction control ESP was kicking in 3rd gear! Conditions were tricky yet somehow the tyres were still eager to grip (more so than I was), although understandably under hard acceleration through standing water the ESP was lighting up.

I left the day with a massive grin on my face - mainly attributed to these tyres.


StreetDragster

1,518 posts

218 months

Tuesday 7th October 2014
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Good news, I have a set of these on the way for my RX8 track car. 225 40 18 120wr

Matt

macca49

1 posts

114 months

Monday 27th October 2014
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i used this site as a guide when buying some track day tyres so thought that i would help people out and add my review to the topic.

had my first outing on these at Anglesey on the 25/10/14 the day was 16c and overcast most of it with a cool wind.

I Drive a focus ST225 with around the 280bhp and a few mods the help the grip on track.

They stood up well and when you had got a bit of heat into them you could feel the grip get better. they didn't go as soft as the r888 that i have used in the past but that was not on the ST.

in the fast corners grip was good i felt confident to carry good speed. in the slow the car would still have a small understeer you got on the power to much but this was good as you didn't have an all or nothing scenario and ending up off the tarmac. i could also get a little lift off over in one corner which was fully in control.

i drove to the track in them so i could get them scrubbed in with out looking like a fool on the first lap on track. when first on the car they had very little grip until they started to rough up and the release agent wore off. it was we when i was driving there and they where as good as a road tyre as long as there was not a lot of rain i think they would be ok on a damp road but i would leave the traction control on if it was me.


hope this helps some others who are thinking about getting a set for track use i had the 120's


one of the fronts

dontdobends

485 posts

214 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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Northern Chap said:
I'm still over here at Spa having done 2 full days with RMA. My Evo 6 rs weighs just 1240kgs with a 2.2 strokered engine giving 580bhp/603ft lb torque. I dressed a set of 18" track rims up with a new set of NSR's & in the dry, very impressed....

Grip came in within the first lap & progressively improved over the next 2-4 laps (4.2 mile lap).

Tyres only started to "move" after circa 6 quick laps but easy to feel.

Car was pushing healthy GT3 RS's as well as some very tasty out and out race machinery, most on full slicks...

Times (mainly due to traffic) were 2min 52's - 2min 58's

Only concern was yesterday we had a light sprinkling of rain and the tyres really did catch me out with virtually no grip...

How they fair in full wet from the off Ive no idea but Im certainly not disapointed with them, very little wear also...



Ran 27psi all round and only increased by circa 4psi max.

Will be using them at Cadwell 1st October :-)
Which compound did you buy? And was that the hot pressure?

Beedub

Original Poster:

1,954 posts

226 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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These are absolutely imo the best budget option semi slicks thats offer premium level performance, I'm still on the road compound units, and for their dual use abilities, they are incredible, as i wasn't able to run them off as quickly as i hoped i cut a deal with my supplier who wrongly sent me the 180 TWR version or road version and now have a full set of the track compound units sat in my garage ready to go on, even with the road versions i have been top of my class in our local sprint track day scene pretty much all summer until recently, with the track versions on, i REALL expected to get that time down significantly. These tyres are absolutely incredible for the price point and with what I've experienced with the road version, i can't wait to try out the track versions.

sydown

63 posts

209 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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I agree in the dry they are awesome on my track m3 but in the wet i struggled to catch a 2.0 astra around oulton park! But as a dry semi slick for the money they are awesome and don't overheat and drop off like the federal rsr's!

mike vt1

48 posts

202 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Did about 150 laps of Oulton in a Mazda xedos 6 with a new set on a few weeks ago & they held up amazingly well considering the amount of punishment they had dropped about 8psi out during the day. edged up nicely ready for another outing on the 20th.

chrisgtx

1,196 posts

210 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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I have a sticky set on my Mazda 323 gtx sprint car, it took a while for them to bed in,but they are very food once you get the pressures to suit, I even broke a class record in Wigan with them!.

e7sti

13 posts

114 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
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Just ordered a set of the 225/45/17s for my impreza due to this thread in the 120 format, had 888s before looking forward to seeing how they compare, what is the best starting psi from cold? ill obv reduce once hot, been dealing with kart tyre psi's for the last few years, normally between 9-14 psi dependant on conditions.lol

Shaftish

1 posts

112 months

Saturday 27th December 2014
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Hi,
I think I will let Nankang have a go on my Integra type-r -98.
But I'm not shure wich compuond I shoulg go for, tw 120 or 180?
It is not my daily drive but it will be the only tires I have to that car.
The car is manly for fun, trackdays and a good drive when the weather is right.

What should I choose?

ATM

18,271 posts

219 months

Wednesday 13th May 2015
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I have a pair of these in the garage which I'm thinking of trying now. My question is will it say if they are 120 or 180 on the sidewall?