Hankook Ventus RS4

The long wearing reputation of the Hankook RS4 does not disappoint. I got 9500 miles out of mine including 14 track days and a couple autocross events, with minimal change in dry grip all the way to the end. I likely could have done a couple more track days with this set of RS4 tires, but was ready to try something new. The RS4's endurance will most likely draw me back for my next track tire.

The consistency is the highlight of the RS4's performance. It takes 2 laps to warm up typically, but any variation in pace after that was always driver error. It is remarkably insensitive to rising pressures with heat and never feels greasy on the BRZ. The tire actually improves in steering feedback and progressiveness at the limit as it gets hotter. The stiff construction likely helped keep wear remarkably even for a BRZ running only -1.6 deg front camber.

The biggest performance weakness of the RS4 is relatively numb steering sub-limit. It is not a fun street tire since the steering effort is relatively flat and the response is not as linear when cold. It's also more easily disturbed by mid corner bumps when cold than some other 200TW tires, which contributes to lower confidence on road compared to its on track character.

Wet grip when is not competitive with the latest generation of 200TW tires, but still manageable for drives to the track. On a wet track day, I found the lack of steering feedback at lower lateral loads and when the tires is cold difficult to build confidence in. It takes conscious effort to warm up these tires in wet conditions and continuous evaluation of the condition available to use the grip. While this concept applies to all tires, I feel the RS4 is more sensitive to warm up and is more challenging in wet conditions than other 200TW tires. I feel this is a reasonable tradeoff for the long wear and heat tolerance, but ideally want to have another set of track tires ready for wet track days in the future.

Comfort is acceptable for the category but there are better options. I was surprised when changing to Bridgestone RE-71RS to find a significant improvement in comfort and less irritating noise quality. Most of the cyclic noises from the RS4 happen at 30-50 mph so for highway trip to a track they are not consistently annoying especially in the first half of their wear life.

Bought these because they're the cheapest good tyres I could find at the time. It was more than 50% cheaper than the michelin PS5 which was my first choice. My first impression was: it's quite harsh. I know it's to be expected given what kind of tyre it is, and I shouldn't expect comfort, but this is my first time with this category tyre, so it was a little surprising to me. Dry handling, as expected, is superb. Very, very stable at high speed. Grip in the dry is great. Not as good in the wet as the michelin PS4 I had before, but actually pretty good for a tyre of this category. I haven't encountered any aquaplaning yet (hopefully never). The sidewall on the RS4 seems to be boxier than the PS4, as I've been hearing some rubbing noise in the rear whenever I go over uneven pavement at high speed. My car is lowered but I never had any rubbing issue with the PS4. Overall, for the price, no complaint from me. And the bonus: the tread looks kinda sexy.

When I ran the Hankook RS4's, they were an expensive compromise tire for summer and HPDE events. You sacrifice some cost for excellent (but not the best grip) and the best wear in the class. I swapped to set of wheels/tires with RE71R's for Competitive AutoX. I wanted track tires that can last 2 seasons of HPDE or around 7 trackdays a season to save money while I learn and hone my skills. For Lucky Dog endurance racing in the States, this is the tire used because they wear like iron. I got 3 seasons of HPDE, and summer driving on them until they aged out and I gave them to a friend who still uses them on his ****box E36 318i. Because of how long they heat up, they are not the tire for AutoX unless it's a long course that is more than a minute and a half. When I took it out, even on a 80 degree day, it took 3 session to get to temp, and was sliding around until then. It takes 2 laps to get them to temp on a circuit. The grip is 80% of what RE71R's can be so you won't be getting the max potential out that you car without a faster (more wearing) tire, but they last once their heated up. You can turn lap after lap consistently, with little greasing which can be rectified with a cool down lap. They like heat and high pressures (compared to Falked RT660/ discontinued RE71R). Also a smaller width tire is better than a wider one if you want to enjoys nice progressive slip and lateral grip going in and out of corners. As with any 200tw tire, noise and comfort are tertiary. But they are a fun tire to drive on when you know its going to be dry and you want to canyon carve at 10/10ths. I would avoid rain at all costs in this car. On the track they are okay, but on the street if you run into any body of water you're going sideways. Compared to 200tw tires from Falken, Dunlop, and Yokohama, RS4 tires are the worst in the rain.

Alot of teams in the US runs these tires purely for wear resistence. Alot of teams will run these about 4-5 weekends whcih consists of fri. practice amongst 4 drivers, sat 8 hrs, sun 8 hrs of racing. These tires get abused !!! Ran these on 2002 BMW 330 and 1989 Porsche 944. On the 944 I would THRASH these tires I mean it. Just abuse them. When my 2 hours stint was done, id get out and look at the tires, very little to no wear. These tires will LAST !!! Although toa point. They heat cycle out after about the 4th race weekend. I will also say that they are not great in the ran. Ran a really older set in the rain at Watkins glen and I was super sketched. Also ran a newer set and they just were not that great. a GREAT endurance ran tire we use is the COnti extreme contact. TOOONS of corner grip which inspires confidence while dancing around competitiors. With all that said, Its a great tire, tons of grip, thrash the hell out of them and get half a dozen Race days. Would recommed, just get a dedicated rain tire for the wet days.