Around 9 years ago, i tracked a B-swapped civic hatch on RA1s. Grip level was amazing!!! At the time, the A032R was also another popular R-comp but with less grip. When my set of RA1s burned out, i just stopped tracking. Since then, i have been dorment from tracking or any kind of hard driving for at least 6 years. Now that i am back in a S, i will be doing some spirited driving and maybe even some track time. My question is, can the elite of street tires available today, Dunlop SS, RE11, RS3 etc be compared to the grip levels that RA1 or even the A032 from 10 years ago? Has street tire technology improved significantly in the past 6 years? I have read mixed reports online so i am a little confused.

Thanks.

 

The newer crop of ultra high performance street tires (star spec, Re-11, RS3 etc) are NOT as sticky as an RA-1. Pretty close but still not as good, maybe 90% of the way there.

 

I saw an analysis a while ago, the original KD vs. new tires, great peak g for the KD of course, but virtually the same static corner g vs. much better bump compliance and temperature range. The RA1 was picky about pressure 2-3 lbs made a world of difference, and not great cool, new tires are super wide in both areas for less cost.

 

For only 2-3 laps... After that, I'd say it's more like 60%.

 

Thanks for the repsonses. So it's safe to conclude that new tires are comparable, but still less grip, and gets greasy with heat.

 

It all depends on the car, the driver, alignment and the track. There are way too many variables. When you talk about older tires we also don't know how old? If we are talking about the R comps from 15 years ago I would say that the new tires are actually better if they were shaved.