Tires NANKANG or RIKEN
Nankang NS-2R. Semislick tyre made for endurance.
With one set of this I made more than 1.000km on track.
And they are cheap.
I had a set of Nankang NS-25 UHP tires on my mazda 3 turbo sedan. They were great tires and handled really well. Got about 30k miles out of them. I was pretty pleased, they even did alright in snow.
So to create some perspective, my AR1’s on a small light car (Miata), lasted for 5 track days. Assuming an average of 20 mins per session, and around four sessions in morning and four in afternoon, we can assume I’m doing around 160 minutes or driving per day. So in theory I put 13 hours on those tyres!
I’ve used Nankang plenty of times on my older cars, they were fine. Drove fine in wet, drove fine in dry, no louder than any other tires.
I think it really depends on the car. A fresh set of 13” AR-1 will last 2000-3000km on track on my dad’s Caterham.
I swapped out the primacy's with nankang ns-20s and I feel like the car is less responsive. For instance, when quickly changing lanes on the freeway I feel like the ride is more spongy. They're way better for traction, but I feel less agile.
I have Nakang NS2 in the front of my Alfa Romeo Brera. The Brera demands a lof of from front tires, they wear pretty well and have pretty decent grip (not great).
The thing is, you may like or not like, they have a soft construction. So you are more on the confortable side, but roll a bit more on corners and give you less steering feedback than a better tire like Michelin PSS.
My buddy has them on the rears of his FBO 335i right now. They're not terrible for basic to spirited street driving. They can't handle any power at all though.
Those tires are death traps in snow and ice. No sipes, no studs, hard compound... You're going to be on hockey pucks.
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.
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