I haven’t found a review of these tires on here yet, so I thought I’d start one. I took my car to Waterloo, IA for the SCCA Iowa region test and tune last Sunday. There is only one word to sum up what I think of these tires: WOW. I couldn’t believe how much difference these tires made vs the cheap Nitto’s I had on my car last season. Grip is VERY good even on a colder track surface, and they seem to respond quite well at around 38psi front and 32 psi rear. There were a couple of others running these tires, as well, including a fellow who I met last season who is running a WRX in STX class. He used to run Kumho MX’s and told me that the RS-2’s are a FAR superior tire in grip to what Kumho had to offer in a street tire. He was as amazed as I was by the RS-2, so I guess that I’ve made a wise choice in my tire selection. If you don’t have the money to spend on the 615, I would STRONGLY suggest these tires over anything else. I’ve not heard how they compare to the Falken’s as of yet, but I would like some feedback from those who have had experience on both sets of rubber.
I like the Hankook RS-2 Z212’s also. Have them on both my Toyota Tacoma (245/50-16) and the '90 integra RS(205/50-15). Yes they are a far superior tire to the Kumho Ecsta MX - more grip, better ride quality, better responsiveness, and better in the wet (they are VERY good wet tire in fact!). You might want to try 35psi front/ 36psi rear with dampers set nearly full rebound rear and a little bit less up front…
Grassroots motorsports did a tire test comparison a while back which included the Hankook RS-2 Z212 and Falken Azenis RT-615…the Azenis RT-615 was the better performing tire of the two.
The RS-2’s are actually good in the rain? I’m amazed…I haven’t had a chance to get mine out in nasty weather as of yet. I figured they’d be horrible with no rain channels to the outside of the tread.
Falken RT615 > Hankook RS2 > Kumho MX
Now that Falken has the 215/45/16 size again, you shouldn’t buy anything else. The Falken is a better tire unless you’re in a region where you typically overheat tires.
Region 14 was pretty bad last summer. We had a day with lot temperatures at 116 degrees F (in the sun)…too damn hot for just about anything.