Falken RT660 Report

bobzilla said:

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

This is really funny because the OP has -2.5 degrees of camber and I have -0.05 degrees.

you're not driving a front heavy FWD car.

 

plus 1. Nose heavy fwd cars wear tires faster and harder. I got less wear with -3 in the forte but the straightline acceleration grip was too compromised so I went back to -2.5 and just flipped the tires more often. 

Good point, the Boxster scales at 2950 and most of the weight is in the back.

So mine are just normal? That's messed up that I can get an entire season (100+ runs plus an NT and a NP) out of Bridgestones and can't make 1 event on Falkens.

In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :

I don't understand your "can't make 1 event on falkens" comment.

So can you expand on what you mean by that comment?



 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Did you see the picture he posted?

In reply to Patientzero :

I did... they have a ton of life left in them.. which is why i'm curious why he's bemoaning them.

they have center rib wear..... it happens..

like i said on the previous page about Pinchvalve, i wonder if these tires got scrubbed and properly heat cycled before they got driven hard.

 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Driven over 50 miles on three occasions before the event including my practice road where I set up a five cone slalom. 

Center rib failure in one event is not acceptable.

In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :

it's just the way they wear.. photos of this started popping up late may and into June showing exactly this... just seems to be the way they wear.

continue to drive on them and just remember to be mindful of how much you're scrubbing in corners. 

these tires have a soft sidewall.. and driving habits that the RE71R puts up with may not directly translate to this tire.

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Center rib failure in one event is not acceptable.

No it's not. Good thing that didn't happen to your tires. Our first set of rear rivals on the gt3 tapered the center rib down to the wear bars in their first event and went on to do 80+ useful runs. That's how these tires wear if there's any amount of slip angle involved. This isn't new.

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Patientzero :

I did... they have a ton of life left in them.. which is why i'm curious why he's bemoaning them.

they have center rib wear..... it happens..

like i said on the previous page about Pinchvalve, i wonder if these tires got scrubbed and properly heat cycled before they got driven hard.

 

They look identical to the RS3 V2's after 2 events on Grissom Concrete. Flipped them to the back and did the same to them. I learned less slip angle was the key to longevity (and was faster with that tire). 

UPDATE:

After fighting with Tire Rack a bit, they agreed to take them back and agreed that it was a failure and gave me a refund. They were not heat-cycled or shaved by Tire Rack, and they only had about 30 min of highway time before their 3 runs. I agree that some more conditioning before autocrossing may have helped, but not much.

I picked up two more Falkens and ran higher pressures and it seemed to help a bit. Then I went to Toledo for the Challenge. With two drivers and test and tune on concrete, they corded on the outside shoulder.  That's one of the new ones, and one of the old ones, both on the right side of the car. Dah fuh? It was cold and we ran lower pressures which contributed for sure, but I would expect to see this on both fronts, or both new or both old, but not on one side and a mix of old and new. I was not happy with the 40-series sidewall and wanted a taller tire anyway, so I decided to go back to my trusty RE71s.

I can't say that the RT660 doesn't hold up well, this is just one data point from a ham-fisted driver who tends to overdrive his Fiesta, but they did not wear as well as the BFG and definitely not as well as the 'stones on the same car with the same driver. YMMV.

 

Disappointing to see for sure.  I got 4000 miles with several auto-x's and a hard track day out of the Falken 615k+ rear tires on my 996 Turbo.  I'm replacing them with 615k+ again, when the front tires are done I'll have to decide what to replace them with

The Falken 615k has been the spec tire for Miata's at our local track for quite some time.  Due to lack of availibility a bunch of us have switched to the RT660.  In our experience the RT660 is significantly faster and wears the same or better.

Sandia speedway has a worn surface with a lot of exposed aggregate.  At the pointy end of the field we get about 100 laps out of both models.  Lab times range around the mid 1:30s (depending on weather conditions) and the RT660s are about 2 seconds a lap faster.  Different drivers like different pressures but hot temps are being set anywhere from 29 to 34 PSI.

Follow up. 

I did one event by myself in the dry (colder temps) and one in the wet with two co-drivers with lower pressure (34). The center graining is still present but the delamination has stopped getting any bigger. 

Basically these tires do not like tire heat at all and are very pressure sensitive.

Didn't read through every comment in the thread, but I've been running RT660's on my E36. 245/40/17 on a 17x9 wheel with plenty of camber (checked with a pyrometer) and wear has been great. 10 track sessions and 40+ autocross runs without any delamination issues.

I believe they handle heat better than RE-71R's as they don't get greasy after 20 minutes of lapping. They do like getting sprayed down at autox, though. I treat them like RE-71R's and have run pressures the exact same.

Anecdotally, I've seen two independent people post on FB about RT660 delamination at the track in the last few days.  I think if I were using these tires I'd be very careful about inspecting them between sessions.

I've been on the fence about these for my ES Miata. I've been on the Rival 1.5 for the last couple of sets, but there's a big difference in the price. 
 

Heat is a big factor here, may bite the bullet and pay for the rivals again. 

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

I only sprayed my RT660s only once, and that was because someone offered their sprayer to me.