The Hankook Ventus RS4 earns consistent owner praise for tread life, dry grip and sustained track use, with 17 of 19 reviews positive overall. Mid-life and end-of-life accounts support the durability claims, often describing repeated track days with steady performance. Heat resistance is generally liked, though peak grip is not always rated as highly as endurance. Wet grip receives more praise than criticism, but around one in five reviews raise reservations. Noise is criticised in around a quarter, and a similar share describe needing time to build temperature. The sole repeat owner posted essentially the same account, so this adds no separate ageing trend.
What owners mention most counted across 19 reviews
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.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tyres perform against premium summer and winter tyres!
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
Which tyres do you drive?
Researching the Hankook Ventus RS4? Rate the tyres you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
I initially purchased a set of these tyres years ago when I just started HPDE. Soon afterwards I decided to try other tyres to see how they compared, including the Yokohoma Advan AD08R, Federal RS-RR, Hankook RS3, and Sailun R01.
From experience the Hankook RS4s outperform all of them. Turn in response is very fast, but also very sensitive so it can be slightly difficult for new inexperienced drivers to place the car. Once gotten used to however it becomes very predictable and this no longer becomes and issue. The tyres have high lateral grip and the car remains very composed when on the limit, especially during high speed corners. The edge of grip is also quite easy to find and allows you to easily push it without any issues.
Wet grip is surprisingly amazing for an Extreme performance 200TW tyre. Dont expect it to grip like PS4s but they exceed the wet grip levels of the other tyres in this catagory.
Theres one thing that cannot be argued and its that these tyres wear like iron. They are far better than the old Hankook RS3s, which were already great. They havent show any signs of overheating during spirited drives or track driving and grip does not fall off as they wear, so they make for an amazing HPDE/Endurance racing tyre where you would be doing several sessions. Reviews by other users support this claim and rave about their wear characteristics.
Unless theres another tyre out there that has the same handling characteristics, along with extremely low wear, I will be staying with these tyres. This tyre dominated the Time Attack event here in NSW Australia, with the majority using them over the Federal RSRR and AD08R. The winner, also using RS4s was only half a second off his best time, which was done on Advan A050 Semislicks (60TW)
Member
Mitsubishi
265/35 R18
60 miles
Spirited
1 star because compared to the RS3 they are too narrow for a 9.5" rim. They fit like a 255. I dont have any rim protection now. Waste of money.
92%
Member
Peugeot
205/45 R16
5,000 miles
Mostly Motorways
I used it on my satria neo cps r3, it was extremely good in the wet and even better in the dry. Gives good feedback on corners, definitely confident on turns. Low treadwear, I didn't get to test them out for more than a year since I sold off the car.
Overall impression
I've used them for 2 autocross/gymkhana sessions and 1 race day. In terms of outright performance, it is up there with the likes of RE71R. It is nearly 40% off the price of RE71R where I live, you can surely guess my future purchase decision.
Dry grip
Like many extreme performance tires, you do need to know an optimal cold pressure and put enough heat into it in order to feel the grip. RS4s are quite resistant to heat, and lateral grip is one of a kind as it does have a thick sidewall. Grip was consistent over two hours of moderately paced race day.
Wet grip
Wet grip is phenomenal and will save you from 100km/h+ to dead stop in a very short distance without locking up the tyres. It quickly regains grip from an oversteer in 3rd gear as long as you sensibly modulate throttle. Just make sure you have enough tire pressure as tires will not heat up to an optimal temperature on a cold wet surface.
Wear
What impressed me most was the tire wear as I've done enough donuts during the autocross sections and race day was essentially a 2-hour endurance race. Tyres still show over 90% of life left. However, it should be noted that ambient temperature was around 10~20.
Comfort
It will have road noise (like your hub bearing is gone) but it isn't as bad as RS-RR I've briefly used. Moderate to loud music volume will hide them.
