Chibo

Yes, very much so. I started out in the 35-36 area cold, but we have massive temperature shifts within a few hours here so consistent hot pressures don't happen until the afternoon -- I guess what I'm saying is I'm not a good person to give a cold temperature. They do not really get the overly greasy feeling that most street tires get if you overdrive them or the pressures get a little too high late in a session.
Have fun out there

ZDan

The Hankook quoted 40psi hot is likely to be on the conservatively high side. You're probably going to be fine running ~36-38psi hot all around. To get there I usually start at ~30psi front and 28psi rear cold, and see where it goes after first hot session, then bleed down to ~37psi hot.

Kenny_Stang

So just a quick update, ran the tires for two days with NASA Texas (4 sessions each day), and they held up great. One item of note, they take a little longer to "warm up" compared to my previous tires (Dunlop Direzza Z2 StarSpecs) so I typically didn't start pushing on them until my 2nd lap, the one time I got a little over aggressive on my out lap, and they let go pretty spectacularly. Also higher starting pressures really did help, I started off 32 psi front/30 psi rear, and the tires performed much better. Overall still very satisfied with the tires, expect them to work even better as the weather starts to warm up.

usafstud

How do these tires perform in the rain, on the track and on highway to the track?

usafstud

So I just had my first weekend with them. Here are my thoughts. I am not as fast as others. I think they are ok tires to run for fun if you don't want to push too hard. I had a frustrating Saturday to learn these tires.

Manufactor date of wk 23 yr 13
Drove in HPDE 2 and 3
330 miles on track (14-16 sessions)
Roebling Road Raceway

Sat: ~50 in the morning and rain in the afternoon. Started with 31 PSI cold. Not much grip in the cold. Zero grip in the rain. PSI stayed at 31 PSI when coming in from the wet. Spun 4x in the morning and 2x in the rain. Zero front and rear grip in the rain.
Sunday: Low ~40F in the morning and low ~60 in the afternoon. Started with 33 PSI. First session in the morning with back to back HPDE 2 then 3. Tires felt better after 4 laps. Once up to temp, felt OK. The tires did feel "hard." I never got super aggressive with throttle, but didn't seem to get over heated. The tires did feel best when at/above 39 PSI hot. I did 3x back-to-back sessions on Sunday between HPDE 2 and 3.

I will run them for track night in Road Atlanta but not push until lap 4-5 in the end of Apr and run them again at CMP in May before moving on to NT-01.

Kenny_Stang

I think as the weather warms up, the tires will feel better, the definitely like higher tire pressures and warmer/hot track temps.

Physioben

I'll chime in also.

Just ran the TD's 255/40/17 C30 a few days ago, date stamp is sometime in 2013, can't remember it off the top of my head. It was a SCCA track night event held at the Ridge Motorsports Park, that's in Washington state for those of you who don't know. Weather was pretty awful, around 50 degrees with constant on/off rain.

I ran in the intermediate group and have a handful of track days at this track. When the track is wet, these tires don't offer much grip, it's not awful but not great either. As someone stated above, the tires still felt cold after each session and tire pressure stayed around the same. During last session, the track started to dry up a bit and that's when it felt better, giving me more confidence to push it. I'm sure with warmer weather or even a c50 or c70 compound, they'll be much better. Can't wait for the next event to try them out again.

usafstud

Kenny_Stang

So just another update to this thread, I just ran my fifth event on these tires (4 track days, 1 AutoX) and for the first time, was very happy with their performance. I will say that these tires need heat to perform at their optimum, in the cold and wet they are not happy and will not give you great grip. My recent event the day started in the upper 50's, the first session right out of the pit lane exit they were squirming and grip was limited, but they soon warmed up and was able to establish a decent time (within a second of my personal best). The second session we had some rain that became heavier as the session continued, there was zero grip in the corners, braking grip was acceptable, but with the lack of corner grip I just took it easy and didn't push at all. The third and fourth sessions of the day the track was drying out, and as the track warmed up, the grip came back and the tires were happy. I managed to improve my previous best by 1.5 seconds on the last session of the day, and the tires really felt like they had come into their own. Ambient temps were in the upper 60's and tire pressures were 38 lb/ft. I expect that as the weather continues to warm up, these tires will perform even better. I plan on doing two events next month, and another in June, so I'll come back and update with more feedback.

Chibo

I would agree, they are hard compound, they need heat to stick and they are more difficult to warm up since you're not getting as much carcass flex. I'll be running my 4th event on them in a couple weeks, it should be >100*f ambient and I expect them to work fine.

As far as tread reading....... it doesn't so much work like motorcycle tire reading does (which is still looking to tune wear, as perfect wear does not also equal perfect grip levels).