[Pete_vB]

I've had these tires on my stock 1M in the stock 19" sizes for nearly a week now, street use and one autocross yesterday. I took TTOD at that event, but so far things are decidedly mixed. I'm comparing primarily to the Pilot Super Sport, which I just took off, and the Hankook R-S3.

Grip vs temperature on the street: The SMRs do need some heat to work, similar to the R-S3s. At 60 degrees in the morning you'll be able to light them up all day long. Breakaway isn't as progressive as the Hankooks in these conditions, but they are catch-able. Simply driving on the highway at the speed limit does get a fair bit of heat into the tire, however (about 25-30 degrees) and grip improves quickly. If it's above ~70 degrees out and you get some heat into the tire grip exceeds the PSS or Hankook, and the difference grows significantly with temperature. When warmed and TC off the the SMRs don't spin up the rear even in 1st gear with significant steering lock dialed in- very impressive.

Street noise, vibration, harshness: I'm generally not sensitive to road noise or ride, but the Maxx Race ride better than I would have expected. They seem slightly harsher over cracks, etc than the PSS, but reasonably close when warm (not so much when they are cold). There is significant road noise transmitted on certain pavement, much more than a PSS, but on some roads they are quite.

So far, so good- all of the above was about as I'd expected. What I didn't expect, however:

The SMRs need significantly more camber to work than the car has (or is capable of) stock. My stock car clearly doesn't have enough camber to work them correctly, and this causes big problems.

At the autocross yesterday things started well- with temperatures in the 90s, first run was enough to bring the tires up to temp, and I was on the pace immediately. Unfortunately the car was under-steering somewhat almost immediately, very different to the PSS or Hankooks which I tend to drive very sideways. With more runs the understeer increased until it was very bad- tire temps showed the outside fronts badly overheating, and towards the end of the run (42 second course) the push was debilitating and costing major time. Over six runs in the morning is found less than a second regardless of what I tried, helpless against terminal under-steer.

In the afternoon I changed strategy- I jacked the tire pressure around and I borrowed some water and sprayed the fronts down between every run. This helped- it wasn't enough to eliminate the understeer, but it reduced it to the point that I was able to manage it and take TTOD.

Because the car setup was so compromised I'm not sure I can draw great conclusions yet. The tires seem less progressive than the Hankooks, doesn't like to be drifted as much, but significantly stickier. Soft sidewalls, turn-in is maybe similar to the PSS, so less sharp than a PS2. Narrower operating temperature range than I'd expected, and they get greasy when they overheat. Sticky as hell when temps are correct, but they need camber to work.

I was planning to keep the car as stock as I could, but I think I'm looking for an elegant way to increase front camber by ~1.5 degrees to give these tires a fair shake, maybe an adjustable swaybar too. If I do these I expect to drop over a second- the grip seems to be there, I'm just not set up to use it.

Bottom line, for guys that run modified cars this might be the fastest tire you can get currently that you can practically drive to the course, though I worry a little about overheating depending on conditions. It's clearly much stickier than the R-S3, no question, and while it doesn't feel quite like a hoosier, grip is still very impressive. For a stock car, however, I can't recommend it- it seems to need the car set up correctly to work.