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Any feedback on the Nankang CR-S yet?

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PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I'm just looking ahead to next season and trying to decide what tire I want to run. Wondering if anyone had experience with the Nankang CR-S. Tire Rack testing looks promising up against the A052's and RT660's.
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189
290
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
75024
I have been using these since July on my gt500. Big sizes, 305/325 20's. Early sessions were with mild alignment and stock, soft springs, later ones with springs and bars to lower and flatten the car and 2.8/2.5deg camber. Previous experience was RT660's on gt350 315 square , same suspension mods.

The CRS is a very good tire, feels just a tenth of a G or so down on peak grip from the RT660, but wears well, drives very smoothly and quietly on the street. For max speed, I would pick RT660 if they have your size. Yok's are the fastest, but not as heat tolerant. These are faster than SC3 and the Conti ECF.

On track, it slides a little quicker when overloaded, but is still driveable. They do make some noise for feedback. The RT660 has a softer breakaway and recovery for me. CRS handles the heat ok, the rear starts giving up and times slow down around the 3rd or 4th hot lap, RT660 was the same for me. They also come in fast, are good for speed in just 1-2 laps.

I took the fronts off at 17 heat cycles, due to outer shoulder wear. They were still grippy, and probably had 2-3HC left.
Rears have 18HC, much more even wear, down to around 2/32 on the main grooves. Just set PBs with them last weekend.
 
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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,422
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Blair, Nebraska
Patient, if you are still going to be doing primarily autocross, I would stick with the other two. If you want to do HPDEs at Topeka, Hastings, Ozark, etc. the Nankang might be a decent choice, since the A052s go away pretty quickly on road courses. The RT660s will take longer than the Yokes to get greasy, but the Nankangs may be a decent choice per Mr. Whitney's example above and one gentleman I know who seems to be experiencing similar wear.

The one key I always tell folks when getting tires is availability and it is someone concerning that you only have one source to get Nankangs and they are new to the track/autocross market. Something else to think about.
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Excellent feedback @Stan Whitney, thank you!

@Bill Pemberton I have a second set of wheels now. I put Kumho V730's on them for track and street driving. Now I'm trying to decide on autocross tires. I think Yok's are still the answer because I WANT to win at Nationals. I don't know if the car and myself are at that level yet especially against @AutoxEmery but I'm trying to do everything possible to put me in position. That $2000 price tag is hard to swallow though.
 
I pretty much agree with Stan. They are a good tire, not quite top tier and a little hard to drive at the limit when hot.

For an autocross only setting, on my car and with my driving style, I did not like the Nankangs very much at all. They were even more heat sensitive than the Yokohama's, basically on a 90 degree day if I slid either end of the car just a bit, that end was done/lost all feel for the next several corners. And even when you keep them cool, they are off pace of the Falkens and especially Yokohama's.

I ran them for a weekend in Rantoul on abrasive concrete and again for day 2 of the CAM challenge and the challenges. To demonstrate the heat management issue, on Saturday, morning runs were finished off in a drizzling rain where I ran my fastest time. (which was fastest raw and index for the whole day) In the afternoon, it dried up and I never beat those AM *wet* times. I got within a tenth and I have possibly never worked harder at not overdriving :) That site, with the wet pavement (but not nearly running water wet)kept them cool enough that I could drive them like I do the Hoosiers, with a slight slip angle. I can't even drive the Yoks like that.:)

I used them day 2 at CAM as my Falkens apparently heat cycled out and I didn't want to use my last set of Yoks. We sprayed the heck out of them and they were tolerable, but really hard to extract a great time out of and just a bit off pace.

If you want to try them, I have a set of 315/30-18 with 24 runs on them for sale, cheap :)

DaveW
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,422
8,346
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20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
This is real World, as many of us who autocross know DaveW ( you can't miss his Solo Performance Specialties trailer at National Tour Events ) are aware he tests plenty of tires , though like Blacksheep 1 Hoosiers are his favorites. Keep his info in mind and if you are mainly running road courses do your due diligence and find out how tires wear on various road courses surfaces. My small contribution is to alert new drivers to ask questions, often, because where a tire may last 3-4 weekends at some tracks , it may only last a weekend at others. So ask your friends, and as DaveW noted, as an example, he found the Nankangs pretty good on cool days, but on hot days, with the specific surface he mentioned , things were sketchy.

This is something to consider at a road course , since a concrete surface or old technique asphalt may be a tire chomper and some new surfaces can be super friendly.
 
39
68
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
North Iowa
I’ve heard that the Nankangs have overheating problems. But if you spray alot you would probably be fine. I have never run them on my car but have driven them on a Cam C Mustang. They feel fast but like you said Yoko is definitely the answer still.
 
I’ve heard that the Nankangs have overheating problems. But if you spray alot you would probably be fine. I have never run them on my car but have driven them on a Cam C Mustang. They feel fast but like you said Yoko is definitely the answer still.
The problem I had with them was they fell off/changed feel *during* the run when they got hot. Hard to spray for that.

I was talking to someone about tire heat on Yoks in Georgia and they brought up an interesting point and it might apply to the Kang. We tend to set the car up for the feel of a cold Yok (Or Nankang) and then the setup is off when the tire gets hot and changes feel. It kind of makes sense, when I set my car up for Hoosiers, it is horrible the first half run or whole run when they are cold then comes to life as they heat up.

Next time I run Yoks, I might try some shock changes in this direction. But I might be a Bridgestone fanboi now, they seemed pretty good :)

I still think that the Kang is good, not quite top tier. THe issues I had with them may not phase talented drivers like the Seatons, etc. A lot of this stuff is driver preference over anything else.

DaveW
 
189
290
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
75024
......Rears have 18HC, much more even wear, down to around 2/32 on the main grooves. Just set PBs with them last weekend.
And on HC 20 the rears finally cycled out. Was running some hot laps, and pulled into the pit lane to get some spacing. Never came to a stop, rolled back out, and the next 2 corners the rear got greasy. 111 laps from Jul-Nov. 245 track mi. getting kicked around by 760hp.
 
19
38
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
KC
I ran Nankangs all last year in 275 40 18 on an 18x10. As far as how good they are compared to other brands I would defer to Dave W. From a wear standpoint they are pretty amazing. Also, I read several reports that state that these tires don't seem to heat cycle out before wearing out. All these things matter to me because I needed a set of tires I could drive to local events all season and then run at Divisionals and Nationals. For me the Nankangs were just as good at the end of year as they were when brand new. Still lots of life left for next year too.

From an availability standpoint, I never had an issue getting tires. In fact, the Nankangs were available when other brands were sold out. There are several dealers out there and I used three of them. I ordered my initial set of 4 from https://philstireservice.com. Late in Sept I picked up a screw in the sidewall and decided to get 2 more tires so that I would have a spare. So I ordered one tire from https://g2perf.com/ and one from https://phdracing.store/ just to try out some other dealers. No issues with any of these dealers but Phils Tire charges extra for a single tire order so keep that in mind. As an aside, G2Perforance is owned by Lou Gigliotti and he took my order!

From a cost perspective, the Nankangs are slightly cheaper than other brands. However, since the Tirerack offers free shipping on the brands they carry and do not carry Nankangs; any per-tire cost savings are negated.
 

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