Hankook Ventus RS4

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.

They wear like iron. Best bang for the buck for track days. Mine lasts almost 20 days, which is four times longer than RE71R that I used to use. Not as grippy but quite consistent and take heat reasonably well.

I’m my use of these tyres, they are extremely grippy, handle amazingly, are a little noisy but nothing loud per say. I have put then through copious testing and can say they are the perfect tyre for FWD light cars (as my Honda Integra Type R only weighs 1006kg)

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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.

Rs4 gives amazing grip but only in the most ideal conditions. Getting temp into these tyres is quite difficult, but once warmed up they grip very well. The grip is predictable but certainly not the best. Works very well in sunny weather. Cooler weather or rain makes it more difficult. Speaking of rain, this is not an all season kind of tyre so can't expect the best traction from this set. The sidewall is stiff and gives great response and feedback, but high road noise as an unfortunate compromise. The stiffness does compound if you run a higher spring rate or high dampening but can be OK as an all season however not recommended. Wear on the tyre is very good, long lasting with this harder compound. Don't expect comfort but this is a good track or weekend mountain carving tyre.

I swear by these tyres having used for very aggressive driving on street and rough tarmac, has saved my life from kangaroos on more than one occasion at over 100kmh with rapid response, very good tyre for someone looking to get into spirited driving or tracking, it trains you well to receive feedback and get handling ability on-top of being great in the wet once you to temperature. Be aware of cold wet surfaces before warning tyres up as they are very slippy . Other than that I love these adj the price is very good considering it performs up with some of the more expensive tyres. Also it has had tonnes of skids and lasted alot longer than any of my economy tyrs

Good bang for the buck. Not the best peak grip but all-around reliable on track. Takes a while to heat up for autocross. Steering isnt as crisp as Super 200's or 100TW track tires.

Lasted about 7 track days, plus about 7k daily miles

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.

Been through a few sets of these and love them. Have also used Yokohama AD08R, Pilot Sport Cup 2 and a couple of others but I recon the Hankooks are the best bang for buck road / track tyre. Not as much outright grip as a semi slick (e.g. Nankang AR1) but not far off - and perfectly acceptable as a road tyre as long as you don't try anything silly in the wet.

Been through a few sets of these and love them. Have also used Yokohama AD08R, Pilot Sport Cup 2 and a couple of others but I recon the Hankooks are the best bang for buck road / track tyre. Not as much outright grip as a semi slick (e.g. Nankang AR1) but not far off - and perfectly acceptable as a road tyre as long as you don't try anything silly in the wet.

I used rs4 on my turbocharged e46 m3 for road use as daily driver and for hill climb racing and in my opinion it’s the best performance tyre for wet and dry conditions for the money

These tyres are the Swiss army knife of UHP summer tyres. The small deficit in grip they give up to tyres like the RE71R and Direzza ZIII in the dry, they more than make up for in treadlife and cost. Locally to me these tyres are roughly half the cost of the RE71R, but they wear like rocks. I have approx. 8000 hard AWD kilometers on these tyres including track days and fast road driving and they still look as good as new with zero reduction in grip. They're very easy to get up to pace on, with plenty of grip from the word go even when stone cold, and they don't tend to fall on their face after a few hard laps either, maintaining a steady level of grip throughout a session. Even in the wet they're very confidence inspiring, showing surprising resistance to hydroplaning and being very progressive and communicative in their transition from grip to slip.

Using the RS4 at first was sceptical, as I've previously used ad08r and rs3 which were both great tyres too back then. To my surprise, the RS4 has really outperform many others in its class in almost every way possible. Driving on Karak highway at 210+kmh with these gives you confidence and superb steering feedback. Definitely addicted to it and will 💯 buy again