| Hankook Ventus S1 Evo K107 And R-S2 Z212 Tires - Analyze This
When you think of high performance tires, which companies pop into your head? If we narrowed it down to Korean manufacturers, would that help you make up your mind? How about the tire company known as Hankook? You probably haven't heard much about them in the past, but rest assured that you will be hearing plenty about them in the future. The latest in Hankook's line are the Ventus S1 evo ultra high performance K107 and R-S2 Z212 maximum performance summer tires.
Hankook had six cars and a coned autocross course waiting for us in the Great America parking lot. Three were Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyders and the other three were BMW Z4s. Unfortunately, all six were fitted with automatic transmissions.
Having 16 some-odd editors swordfight over cars is always tough. We were broken up into three groups. One got put on cone duty while the other got to compare the Hankook tires to other name brand top of the line rubbers. The last group hid under the EZ Ups away from the scorching sun. In the limited amount of time we were actually driving on the track, the Hankook tires did seem to provide more grip. The R-S2 Z212 rubbers come in sizes ranging from 14 to 18 inches and widths of up to 245. Slightly larger sizes are available for the S1 evo K107, from 17 to 22 inches and up to 295 in width. Both new tires are Z-rated for speed.