Tires FEDERAL or NANKANG
I've gone through at least 5 sets of 651's over the past 4-5 years of daily driving and autox (07 scion tC & now a 17 BRZ). as a budget tire, really can't complain for learning without breaking the bank.
I really like the federal command tires, they were an amazing price (around 60$ for 2). They also have a very pronounced grind protection lip on the side wall. On a super hot supper day they have amazing grip and wonderful feedback.
My only complaint is because they are a slick tire, you get amazing rolling, but the second there is a dusting of sand on a hard surface you can slip out pretty easy.
Approaching 15.000 km with them, (225 50 r15), thought that may be interesting to refer my impressions. They are perfect off road and on road at 200km/h +, never detecting slippage under rain or in sharp turns. EDL and ABS rarely engaged, (both working perfectly). There are no signs of premature wear, neither they are loosing pressure.
The CRS tires hold there grip very well thru out the life of the tire. They can come to heat cycled from the shop but these do work better if you heat cycle them per their instructions before your track day.
I've been on CRS V1's all year and commute to the track about 130 miles in one direction. I'm getting 20 lapping sessions out of these tires before they start to degrade.
Unless these were going to be specific track tires, I would not go with the Federal RS-RR's. I use them as my track tires and they're great for that, but they're a very loud tire. I got a flat on my daily set and waiting on the shipment and to mount and balance so I've been using the Federal's for my day to day driving and after 30mph, it's so loud in my car. Every passenger I've had always ask what the humming sound is and now I just joke it's my exhaust drone
I have a set of Nankangs on my Ghia. They are a decent tire, but don't expect tons of grip from them, and they're pretty hard.
I ran a set of NS2's years ago, they came on my B5.5 Passat. Grip wise they were acceptable in the dry, and pretty poor in the rain. Alot of my customers also ran them back then. I've never seen anything akward happen to one, no sidewall bubbles, blowouts, or failures. They aren't unsafe or bad tires, they were just always at the bottom of their category in terms of performance, refinement, grip, so I never considered buying a set. If my hands were tied in terms of availability, I would feel perfectly comfortable running Nankangs, especially on an application like a Figaro. I would go for it.
Generally the folks I 4x4 with tend to avoid cheap small company tires like Radar, Atturo, and Nankang because some of em have had bad luck balancing them, even after spinning it on the rim. The quality control of the small companies isn't up to par with someone like Nitto or BFG so you get what you pay for.
As a competitive tire ? No. As a cheap learning/fun tire? yep. He complained about how soft the sidewalls where, even when over inflated at 45ish psi.
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