Going from street tires to my first set of R-comps was an unnerving experience. Put the new tires on Saturday night to be ready for Sunday morning, even knowing that temps would drop into the mid-high 30s. First session out we took it easy, really easy. By the 3rd lap though we were really pushing it through a lot of turns. Here's the thing I first noticed about the RC1s: Until the first 2 or 3 heat cycles, they are a little unpredictable. Going up the climbing Esses at VIR it was squirrelly to say the least; there would be tons of initial grip and then it would let go for a second and then return...very scary at 110mph. I dialed it back again, but by the 3rd heat cycle the consistency was there. There was no more understeer, the car just kept rotating, and not in an uncontrolled manner. The push I used to get with the RS3s was completely gone, and even while, at least on the VIR surface, the RC1s would talk to you, the car had a tremendous amount of lateral grip that I was certainly unaccustomed to. On the RS3s, I was able to pull 1.2 lateral G, on the Maxxis I managed 1.9G. I'm sure there's a lot more room for both sets of tires, but this is with me [poorly] driving. Braking was a tremendous improvement as well, as the RS3s came in at another 1.2G rating with XP20 pads up front and hawk blues in rear (stock rotors and calipers). The RC1s on the other hand clocked in a 1.4G decel.

I'm scheduled for another round at VIR with NASA at the end of March, and am hoping to see if my 2:18.184 lap time on full course can improve, as I only ran grand course on the RC1s. That said, I am a happy customer, and for $185 a tire they really are a track weekend guy's friend. Hey...order 4 and you get a free shirt too. That said, I think I might order a set of RS4s for rain tires. The RS3s were just that good and my hopes for the RS4 are even greater. I beat the absolute shit out of the RS3s for an entire season, a dragon trip and into a 2nd season and there's still some life in these old things. I do hope the RC1s have the longevity that the Hankooks have proven to possess.



You can see what tread is left on 3 of the 4 RS3s in this pic...lots in the center and the edges are warn. Typical of a soft sidewall. Both the RS3s and RC1s were run at 38PSI hot. Camber is -3.0 all around. 0.0 toe front and .20 toe rear.



Fastest lap around Grand on the RC1s: 3:07.914

 

Great Review! I should have done one as in depth as yours when I switched from NT05s to the RC1s.

 

What were your impressions? I'm really looking at putting either RS4s or NT01s on my spare set of wheels, but need a treaded tire in case of rain.

 

I liked the Maxxis RC1's a lot. Full disclosure, coming from NT05s also made the RC1s shine. Those tires are simply trash in my opinion. When I made the switch I was able to drop 50-100 Feet in braking while adding 170whp.
I still had the same brake compound but i did have refined aero on the car. I'll be looking to test RC1s to Zestino Circuit 01s next.

 

Wanting try rc1 forever but never got around. Always just took the NT01.

 

I also need to get another set of these on the S. I had them on the 240 but never on the S.

 

If you want to stick with Maxxis, try the VR-1. It has about the same performance as the RS3, but lasts much longer, and handles heat much better too. In my experience, it's better in the rain as well.